Couple of late reviews heading towards you, Deadpool 2 today and Solo: A Star Wars Story coming in a few days (hopefully). Sorry for the delay with these ones, the likelihood is many of you have seen them already but I've been busy, for one I just got engaged! I think that's a good enough excuse... Now please enjoy my review of the Deadpool 2.
I enjoyed the first Deadpool
film but I did not love it. It was comedic and I enjoyed the adult take on
the superhero genre. However, as much as it tried to be subversive it fell flat
on the execution, since its own story followed the basic superhero tropes and
rarely diverted from the tired template. I didn’t have high hopes for Deadpool 2, the trailers looked
interesting but I just wasn’t completely hooked or invested in seeing another
outing from the character. Maybe that’s why I was surprised by how much I
enjoyed the sequel when I saw it the other evening.
Deadpool 2 follows
the titular character as he brings together a team of mutant rogues to protect
a young boy with supernatural abilities from the brutal, time travelling
cyborg, Cable. There’s a lot more story in this one than the last and -
although it doesn’t break any tropes - it is definitely a lot more interesting
to watch play out. Deadpool himself points this out within the film and although
that’s not as smart as actually breaking away from those tropes; it is quite
funny to see him literally try and force an arc for his loud mouthed and
annoying character throughout the film. New cast members, Josh Brolin, Zazie
Beetz and Julian Denninso as Cable, Domino and Firefist are also very welcome
additions to the sequel, all killing it in their roles and practically stealing
the show.
Comedy is subjective so it’s difficult to talk about the
comedy in Deadpool 2 as if my opinion
of it is the only one that matters. There were many times throughout where the
audience were in hysterics and I was sat their stony-faced and vice versa. I
personally thought the hit rates of jokes were quite high in this film, I found
it a lot funnier than the first. For me, this seemed to be because they scaled
back on the amount of ‘dick’ jokes, making way for some smarter and more
thought out writing. There’s still a lot of misses but there’s always going to
be with the high amount of jokes in the film to begin with. I did find that the
so called ‘subversive’ jokes or meta commentary to be the weakest ones though,
with the jokes that play out as part of the story being stronger overall.
When it comes to the comic-book-y-ness of the film, there’s
a lot to love. I particularly love how this franchise just completely
disregards the X-Men universe it’s supposed to be a part of and just has fun in
the sandbox of the world. There’s some great characters in here and some
surprising ones as well that, if you can look past the dodgy CGI for, then you
can have a lot of fun with.
It’s difficult to really talk about Deadpool 2; firstly, because what plays out should be left to be
discovered by the audience but also secondly because I just enjoyed it, nothing
more, nothing less. It hasn’t left a lasting impression on me but I had fun in
the cinema. I enjoyed the action scenes which were done so much better this
time round; possibly due to half of the John
Wick directors, David Leitch taking the helm. You’re not going to have the
same experience you might have had with Infinity
War earlier this year but you are going to get a couple hours of escapism
and some laughs along the way. I like what Ryan Reynolds is doing with
character and I actually left this film looking forward to seeing what he gets
up to next; whether that be a threequel or as a supporting character in another
film.
This film made its audience in the first instalment and if
you liked that one then you’ll probably like this one (possibly even more like
me). But if you hated it then this is definitely more of the same; slightly
better done but it’s not going to change your mind. Now we’ve got this sequel
out of the way I’d like to see Deadpool go
in a different direction and actually make a subversive film with a story to
match instead of the smug wink and knowing nod that these two films like to
delve into. I enjoyed you Deadpool 2, I
laughed quite a lot and it made me want to see more, but next time deliver on what you’re fighting for; something
different. I’m rating the film a 3.5/5.
What did you think of The Merc With a Mouth’s second (kind
of third) outing? Loved it or hated it, let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
