Movie Review: Deadpool 2

Certificate 15, 119 minutes

Director: David Leitch

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin

Deadpool 2 opens with Deadpool/Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds, Life) smoking as he winds up a music box. The music box is entitled Logan and has a Wolverine impaled on a branch on the top. Which looks suspiciously like a scene from Logan. Deadpool appears to be in his own apartment, but he also seems less like his normal cheerful self. Especially when he turns on the gas in the over, goes and lies down on a bunch of barrels of something then throws his cigarette into an open barrel. Literally blowing himself to pieces. Making a comment on dying in this one at the same time.

It then goes back six weeks to explain why Deadpool thought blowing himself up was a good idea. In Hong Kong, Sicily, Tokyo and Biloxi, Deadpool takes down a number of bad guys – the film starts out pretty violent and continues that way, with ample sliced body parts – before finally going back home. Deadpool’s final target, Sergei Valishnikov (Thayr Harris) manages to get into a panic room before Deadpool can kill him, and the latter has an appointment – it’s his anniversary. So Deadpool leaves, with a bunch of armed men following him, and jumps into Dopinder’s (Karan Soni) taxi. Dopinder wants to change profession to become a contract killer; he doesn’t seem to really have a killer instinct.

Pool. Dead Pool

Deadpool’s appointment is with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and it’s their anniversary. This anniversary does not go to plan and is followed by the opening credits. Which are shot in a manner reminiscent of a James Bond film, only instead of female silhouettes in the credits, it’s Deadpool. Perhaps not the same effect. As with the first film, the credit list is not genuine; instead it’s quotes from (presumably) the audience on the events of the previous scene. Which essentially boil down to “WTH just happened?” (Well most of the credits; the director is credited as “One of the guys who killed the dog in John Wick.”)

Joining The X-Men

Afterwards, Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) comes in to Deadpool’s rather damaged apartment and collects the various bits o’Deadpool, hauling them off to the X-Men mansion in a body bag. With Deadpool still talking. Colossus wants Deadpool to join the X-Men, and the first rule is “No killing.” Deadpool is not exactly brilliant at (a) following rules or (b) not killing people. This could be a problem. Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) is also there, with her girlfriend Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna) who likes Deadpool.

Cyborg Super-Soldier

In what looks like a less than wonderful future, a part-cyborg man, Cable (Josh Brolin, Avengers: Infinity War – Deadpool actually calls him by the character he plays in Infinity War at one point) – as promised in the post-credits scene of Deadpool – enters a burned out apartment and goes over to the charred bodies of presumably a woman and a girl, picking up a damaged teddy bear. He then uses a device to travel through time.

Deadpool’s first mission as an X-Men trainee (notably he considers the X-Men term sexist; something he remarks on several times) is to a place called Essex House (a reference to Mister Sinister perhaps? If so it’s the second one, the first being in the post-credits scene of X-Men: Apocalypse). This is an orphanage for mutants, and one of the mutants, Russell Collins – Firefist (Julian Dennison) – is outside, causing a bit of a mess. He’s also pretty angry. When Wade realises that Russell has been abused, he also gets a bit angry and promptly fails to follow Colossus’ rule one. So Deadpool and Firefist are shipped off to a mutant prison called the Ice Box, a prison where inmates wear collars that negate their powers. Without his powers, Deadpool is simply a man dying of cancer.

Russell is pretty angry and, when he gets out, wants to burn the headmaster (Eddie Marsan) of Essex House to death. Which might be justified, but Russell is certainly not acting like a young boy and Wade is not exactly helping. Enter Cable – through the Ice Box’s wall. Wade assumes that Cable is after him – even if he doesn’t know who he is – but Cable actually wants to kill Firefist. It seems Russell turns into a rather nasty piece of work.

Clashing Cable and Deadpool

In the ensuing battle, Deadpool regains his healing powers and is blasted out the side of the prison. Afterwards, he decides that he has failed Russell and needs to help him. So recruits a team, X-Force (less sexist) – Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Vanisher (a mostly unseen Brad Pitt), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård), Domino (Zazie Beetz) and Peter (Rob Delaney). Even though Peter has absolutely no powers. Domino says she’s lucky, which Deadpool repeatedly insists is not a super power (it really is; the universe work on probabilities, and they work in her favour), including during a scene where Domino is showing just how it works whilst Deadpool is being dismissive over the radio. The plan to rescue Russell does not go to plan – but, as Wade admits, it was written in crayon.

Reviewing Deadpool 2

The film at some points seems darker – and Deadpool himself comments that Cable is pretty dark, asking him if he isn’t from the DC Universe. Not the only reference to DC either; Wade indirectly refers to Batman v Superman and at one point, when asked who he is, replies “I’m Batman.” There are more than a few other references to other superhero films – including Green Lantern (again) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (again), both of which Ryan Reynolds starred in, and it doesn’t really end there.

Deadpool 2 is a violent film, and the 15 certificate should be taken seriously. Even though Deadpool says that it is a family film (but, it turns out, not in the way it might be thought) and that the babysitter for the kids the viewers left at home is probably doing drugs. As usual, Deadpool breaks (or perhaps shatters) the fourth wall on a number of occasions and, once he gets his act back together again, uses a lot of, sometimes violent, humour. In contrast, Cable (who, it should be remembered, isn’t actually a supervillain, even though he and Deadpool are fighting each other) seems almost completely humourless. So, they clash more than a little, and not just with violence – in a manner that has been contrasted to a buddy cop relationship. Ryan Reynolds once again proves that, at this point, he pretty much IS Deadpool.

The film is visually spectacular, with a lot of special effects – including two entire characters. There are explosions, people dying in a variety of gruesome ways and manifestations of superpowers. Cable has future technology to help him, and Deadpool is really fond of the former’s main gun. Which, at one point, Cable dials up to eleven. There is also A LOT of humour, even with a fairly dark start to the film. Including a bizarrely hilarious death scene.

There are a few cameos, both of actors (such as the aforementioned Brad Pitt) and of characters. At one point, Deadpool, after riding around the X-Men mansion in Professor X’s wheelchair, comments to Colossus – again – that he never sees anyone else in the mansion. Not looking in the open door behind him before it is closed, where there are just a few familiar faces to be seen.

Deadpool 2 isn’t just Deadpool with a slightly different story. The story is different to the first, and much of the tone of the film is as well. Wade Wilson grows as a character (in a way that was commented on, given the sparking factor), and in a different way to the first film. Deadpool is desperate to save Russell, even if Russell frequently appears as if he isn’t actually worth saving. There is a mid-credits scene that needs watching, as that in itself is funny. Deadpool 2 is a funny, violent and really not family-friendly film.