Deadpool 2: Does It Give Maximum Effort?

The first Deadpool holds a special place in my heart. I remember going to see it with some friends, and we didn't buy tickets in advance. My reasoning was that it's a lesser known character and the movie was rated R. To my surprise it was sold out. The next showing was at 9:30. We ended up waiting to watch it for three hours. Some of my other friends showed up, only to find out that the 9:30 showing was sold-out too. When we finally saw the film, I fell in love. The characters, humor, and action were great. I couldn't wait to see more. Deadpool was the first movie that I saw three times in the theater. It was worth it. Does it's sequel live up to its predecessor, or is it just another forgettable follow-up? That's what I'm here to tell you.

Deadpool 2 is directed by David Leitch and stars Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Zazie Beetz, Julian Dennison, Morena Baccarin, and T.J. Miller (ugh). Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool has spent the last few years fighting bad guys and spending time with his wife, Vanessa (Baccarin). Things change when Cable (Brolin), a time-travelling mutant, shows up on a mission to kill a kid named Russell (Dennison). It's now up to Deadpool to protect him and learn some new things about family. With that out of the way, let's dive into the review.

Very few actors are born to play certain roles. That list is mainly comprised of Robert Downey Jr., Hugh Jackman, and Heath Ledger. When the first Deadpool came out in 2016, Ryan Reynolds was added to that list. He is Wade Wilson. This movie proves that even more. He has such a great sense of humor. What makes Deadpool so unique is that he knows he's a comic-book character. He takes shots at other comic-book properties, too. Deadpool does this a lot in this movie. There are no prisoners, either. One second he's ripping on the utterly ridiculous Martha scene from Batman v. Superman and the next he's making fun Hawkeye. It's hysterical. There were so many little things that I didn't catch on my first viewing. There are references and cameos that are hysterical. Several times I was thinking, "Oh, they're going there." I'm not gonna give too much away because I don't want to spoil it. You could tell Reynolds really cares for this character (he even has a writing credit). This movie doesn't just belong to the Merc With a Mouth, though. Domino (Beetz), a mutant whose gift is being extremely lucky, steals every scene she's in. Beetz has great chemistry with Reynolds. The scenes when her mutant abilities are on display are very cool visually. Another stand-out is Cable. This seems to be the summer of Josh Brolin, who just came out of playing Thanos in Infinity War. He's so great in this role. Cable does not put up with any of Deadpool's crap. I'll admit, it was a little hard to hear anything but Thanos for the first few minutes Cable is on screen, but I got over it. One thing that was extremely important for this movie was the relationship between Russell and Deadpool. If that didn't work, the whole movie would fall apart. It was done very well and in an unexpected way too (no spoilers). Dennison does a great job as Russell. He's rude and foul-mouthed, much like Deadpool. Like every sequel Deadpool 2 tries to outdo the first. What this sequel really excels at is the fight sequences. Watch some of the trailers and you'll understand. They are very raw and they don't pull any punches. Once the movie hits the second half, things really start to pick up and the fun begins. I'm not saying that the first act is terrible. It isn't. That being said, this leads me to the negative.

The first half of this movie is kind of clunky. What was cool about the first Deadpool, was that the movie would cut from his origin story to the main plot several times until everything was caught up. This movie doesn't really do that. It takes a little while for things to get going. What happens a lot in comedy sequels is that a joke that was really funny in the first one is taken and they try to do it again. For one of these jokes, it works spectacularly. Others not so much. For example, there's a scene where T.J. Miller is describing what Wade's head looks like. In the first movie this joke worked really well. Here, it just feels tacked on and unfunny. There's also several jokes about dub-step, which appeared out of the blue. The ending does drag on a bit, but this is done on purpose. At first, it was pretty funny, but after a while it was overstaying its welcome. One thing I was disappointed with was that Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), a sassy mutant from the first movie, didn't have much to do here. Again, I'm being really broad because I don't want to spoil anything. Sometimes the CG is pretty noticeable, but it wasn't too bad.

To sum everything up, Deadpool 2 has great characters (both old and new), humor, and action. Sadly, the first half is kind of clunky, there are several attempts to try and repeat jokes from the first one, not all of the humor lands, I was hoping for more of Negasonic, and the CG was noticeable at times. It isn't as great as the first one, but it is still a really good film. I really hope that if the Disney-Fox merger deal goes through, Deadpool won't be affected. He's a character the world needs right now. I eagerly await to see his next adventures. Another thing, don't take your kids to see this movie, please. There's a reason it's rated R. If I were to rate it, I'd give Deadpool 2 a 7.5-8/10. P.S. Stay for most of the credits. There are two hysterical scenes.