Deadpool 2

It’s a little bit refreshing watching a movie that doesn’t try to be part of a larger universe or connect to future films. Not that that can’t be done well, but I feel like a lot of movies these days focus more on the bigger universe instead of developing existing characters into the most interesting and fleshed out character they can be. Deadpool 2 belongs to the 20^th Century Fox family of superhero films to include movies like the X-men and the Fantastic Four, but at no point during this movie like I was supposed to be paying attention to certain details that would perhaps show up in a future movie like I was studying for a test. Again, I’m not saying that isn’t bad, but Deadpool is in fact the purest form of that and I love it.

Deadpool 2 centered on the merc with the mouth from the first movie, Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds). The first movie centered on Deadpool, or Wade Wilson, as he develops super healing powers after pursuing a cure for his aggressive cancer. It ends with him beating the bad guy and getting the girl (played by Morena Bacarrin).

Deadpool 2 is a continuation of that story with Deadpool continuing his job as an “antihero” and more just a hero with no problem gunning down bad guys. The really interesting thing about this movie was that it defined Deadpool as a straight up hero who will shoot first ask questions later, especially if he knows something bad is happening. I think one of the strengths of this movie right off the bat was that it took a character like Wade Wilson, someone who was already a sympathetic character despite his raunchy and morally grey actions, and delved more into making him a character you really care about. Yeah he is the funniest character in the movie by far, but he’s written in a way that for every 10 jokes, there are at least 2 or 3 really great emotional moments that make you really care about him as a person.

The movie mainly centers on Deadpool coming across a kid by the name of Russell (played by Julian Dennison). The introduction of Russell also comes with the eventual introduction of the time traveler Cable (played by Josh Brolin). Cable arrives from the future with a mission to kill Russell in order to prevent future tragedies. Deadpool begrudgingly must work to protect Russell and prevent the dangerous Cable from killing a kid, all the while breaking the fourth wall, delivering hilarious quips, and being super meta the entire time.

There’s a lot I left out because a lot happens in this movie. I’m thinking about potentially doing a spoiler review but I really only do those when they movie will affect a larger universe. While the plot points from Deadpool 2 are important and impactful, nothing about this movie seems like it’s going to make an impact on the X-men movies or any Fox Marvel superhero movies to come out in the future. And that’s a good thing. Like I said in the beginning, it is refreshing to see a superhero movie that is just on it’s own. It makes mention of other superhero movies in hilarious fashion, but at no point do I feel like this movie will affect the Dark Phoenix movie that may or may not ever come out. Deadpool’s actions are not going to have ripple effects on any future Fantastic Four movie and that’s good.

But a lot happens in this movie that is really impactful and it does really shape the narrative and the characters in a really cool way. Again, as much as this is a comedy, it is a solid film with a lot of heart too.

Now, one thing that I will say with this movie is that there are a lot of notes, plot points, and comedic factors that were reused from the first movie. A lot of them are running gags and serve more as a call back to the time you laughed at that joke in the first movie, but there are elements of this film that feel like they are rehashed from the first one instead of making new jokes and situations. While this isn’t a huge deal for this film, I’m worried that these films will start to get formulaic and by the time we get to the third film, that I almost have no doubt will actually happen, it’s going to start to feel lazy. I compare it to The Hangover. I saw The Hangover 2 and the reality is, it’s very much the same movie as The Hangover 1. I feel like if I had been a bigger fan of the first Hangover film I would have really enjoyed the second one but still been pretty bored when the third one did the same exact thing again. Now I don’t think Deadpool is Hangover-style retreading, but there are a lot of familiar beats and jokes that if I see them in a third movie I’m going to get bored.

Some performances that were note worth are of course started off by Ryan Reynolds returning as Wade Wilson. This is the role that Reynolds was destined for and he continues to just crush it. Like I said, not only does he give a really funny performance, but you care about his character and a lot of that is due to the fact that Reynolds plays that balancing game very well. The movie knows when to be serious and it knows when to be funny. There were a couple of serious moments that I thought they were going to pull off a really obvious or low hanging joke and instead they opted not to and I have to respect that.

I do think we are in the Brolin-ssance because Josh Brolin is just in everything and seems to be giving a great performance everywhere he goes. He of course just recently was in Infinity War and gave a solid surprisingly touching performance as Thanos in Infinity War, but one of the trailers for this movie was Sicario 2 and I remembered that Brolin is in that too and he did a great job in the first one and will probably do that same great job in the second one. This movie does a great job at creating a character that needed to both be ruthless and sympathetic. Cable is not traditionally a total bad guy but he’s also not a straight good guy and this movie nails that dynamic really well.

Some of the other performances to note are Morena Baccarin returning as Vanessa, Stefan Kapicic and Brianna Hildebrand return in their roles as Collassus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead respectively, and Leslie Uggams and Karan Soni return as Al and Dopinder from the first movie as well. TJ Miller also returns as Weasel. It’s been reported that if there is a Deadpool 3 Miller won’t be returning due to allegations of assault that have been going around about him. Honestly, Miller is a funny guy and he’s entertaining in this movie, but Deadpool will be just fine without him.

Probably one of funnier parts of the movie is when Deadpool assembles the X-Force (it’s in the trailer so it’s not a spoiler). Deadpool needs help taking on Cable so he recruits a team of mutants with lots of intriguing powers including Terry Crews as Bedlam, Bill Skarsgard as Zeitgeist, Zazie Beetz as Domino, and of course Rob Delaney as Peter, a guy with a mustache, no powers, who was a joke this movie could have definitely used more of.

Domino has a pretty big role in this movie and she’s definitely worth noting. She has the power of luck and yes, they do mention how silly an idea that is, but surprisingly there are a lot of really cool moments with her that make her a welcome part of the universe.

I don’t want to get too much into spoilers because the truth is, you should really go see this movie. There are fun cameos in this movie, really funny inside jokes if you’re a fan of other superhero films or just pop culture in general, and overall you get a really great comedy that has a lot more heart in it than you think there’s going to be.

I think this movie is going to have to be given some time and a couple of extra viewings for me to decide definitively if I like it more than the first one. My initial thoughts are that they were able to take what the first movie set down and build on it to make it better. But at the same time I look at all the notes that they hit that are pretty much direct copies of the first movie and I can’t help but feel like this movie really just met the expectations of the first one. Don’t get me wrong, those were high expectations in the first place, but it will take some more time and comparisons for me to really decide if this one is better than the first.

Either way, that doesn’t really say anything bad about this movie. Ryan Reynolds and the team that work with him on this movie really are doing a great job with this character and if there continues to be Deadpool movies, I don’t want him integrated with other superhero characters, at least not fully.

There are rumors that Marvel might be working out a deal to try and get the film rights of their superheroes they sold off to 20^th Century Fox back and eventually the X-men and the characters of that universe might end up in the Marvel cinematic universe. This is a larger topic that I have some opinions on. In short, while I’m excited for the prospect of seeing X-men characters interact with Iron Man or the characters from the Avengers in the same movie, I haven’t minded keeping those worlds separate. I think spreading out the rights to different studios allow us to see more types of movies and more movies in general. Disney has a slate for these Marvel movies where they can really only get 3 out in a year, which is a huge accomplishment in itself. I could see Marvel getting four out if they wanted to, but even if they did, we’d still get the same old Marvel style of films that work but I personally think are more formulaic and not exactly original. Sure, 20^th Century Fox has made some X-men movies that weren’t very good (X-men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men Apocalypse, etc), but regardless of whether or not those movies are good or not, they have provided a different style of film than the MCU. I want that variety.

But even if the X-men don’t go back to Marvel, keeping Deadpool in its own pocket universe where you get cameos and nods to the larger universe but never real interaction seems to be working really well. It allows the character of Wade Wilson to be developed and someone we really care about. He interacts with new people like The X-Force but he’s always center stage. Furthermore, we can take our time and come out with sequels to Deadpool at the necessary pace it takes to create a good movie. We’re not bound by larger franchise rules, they just come out when they feel like we need a good time with a superhero who knows he’s in a movie.

I could definitely see people getting tired of Deadpool, but let’s work to avoid that and just continuing to make heartfelt movies that use the character and his humor well.

But those are my thoughts on Deadpool 2. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, see you next time.