I estimate that approximately 80% of modern life is just lying about how much you’re laughing out loud. But do you remember the last time that something made you legitimately laugh? Not a fake, texting lol, but legitimately made you laugh out loud? And maybe you heard that same joke again months or maybe even years later and your uproarious laughter was replaced with just a knowing smirk? That’s the best way that I can summarize Deadpool 2.
I’m going to spoil the first 5 minutes of this, but it’s nothing that you will really care about. After a solid opening montage of Deadpool’s antics around the world since the last film, his girlfriend is abruptly killed by some guys breaking into his house. Oddly, he doesn’t really look into the motivation behind this (I find it strange that random guys would just break into Deadpool’s house armed to the teeth for no particular reason, but Deadpool just kinda lets it go). The majority of the plot then revolves around the time-traveler Cable, who has travelled from the future to kill a mutant kid that grows up to become a homicidal monster.
As a superhero movie, this doesn’t really work because the main plot is both uninteresting and a bit out of place for these characters. Frankly, I don’t give a shit about this kid and killing him seems like a pretty good idea considering Cable’s knowledge of the future. It’s completely out of character for Deadpool to spend the whole film trying to protect this kid from Cable just because of some vague advice that he gets from his dead girlfriend in a vision. I don’t buy it. The Deadpool that I know would have put a bullet in the kid’s head as soon as Cable explained the situation. The first film just had a basic revenge plot, sure, but it was something that I could get behind and understand. Here, the main conflict is just an unconvincing excuse to give these characters something to do and fight each other. It also all seems a bit trivial and lacks the impact of Cable’s time-travelling origins in the comics and cartoon. Yes, the kid grows up to be a murderous asshole, but this completely lacks the stakes of the source material (my memory is vague, but I believe that Cable time-travelled in the comics to save all of mutant-kind and stop the rise of Apocalypse). I realize that Cable’s actual origin would be difficult to do with the continuity errors that it would present with the X-Men films, but they could have given him something more compelling than this.
The characters also aren’t particularly interesting. I was ecstatic when Josh Brolin was cast as Cable and still think that he’s perfect for the part, but he’s pretty damn dull here. We don’t find out much about him (probably because of the continuity complications) and he doesn’t say or do much that’s particularly interesting. He’s just kinda there. And a lot of characters are just kinda there. Negasonic Teenage Warhead is back from the first film, but I honestly don’t remember if she even has a line in the film. She’s also now openly a lesbian (always thought she looked like a butch Ally Sheedy anyway) and hangs out with her Asian girlfriend. I don’t mind that they are lesbians. In fact, I have been a strong supporter of lesbian cinema since I first discovered it on the internet in middle school. But there is no fucking reason for them to even be in this movie other than to check boxes on a character list. Neither of them do anything other than stand around occasionally. Colossus is also back, but his banter with Deadpool is less interesting this time around. The film tries to introduce X-Force, but the only character that gets any attention is Domino. Never thought that I would say this, but Domino is probably the most interesting part of this movie. That shouldn’t happen in a film with Deadpool and Cable.
The jokes also fell flat for me. I laughed quite a bit when I saw the first film, but much of the humor in this (especially the 4th wall stuff) is just lazy and forced. Many of the jokes are just callbacks to the first film or references without a punchline (merely referencing something doesn’t qualify as a joke; that’s the difference between something like Airplane and something like Disaster Movie). Humor is highly subjective, so I won’t dwell on it, but this largely just felt like a far less clever version of the original to me. I grinned a lot, but I never actually laughed. The best joke is actually kept for during the end credits and serves as a microcosm of a better plot for the entire movie. There isn’t a post-credit scene, though, so don’t be like me and wait the whole time while the theater staff cleans up around you, only to feel like a jackass when nothing happens.
It’s still entertaining, though. The performances are all solid and Reynolds and Brolin have enough charisma to carry the film even if the characters are thin. There is also a secret villain that appears in the last act that is well-done and I was very happy to see. Even then, though, that character is dispensed with slapstick that is beneath him. But it’s fun and you certainly won’t be bored by it.
If I sound overly negative, its because I had high hopes and left disappointed. It’s not a bad movie. If you go see it, you will be entertained and you won’t be upset that you spent your money on it. But it feels almost like its trying too hard to capture the spirit of the original and a copy is never as good as the real thing.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadpool_2#/media/File:Deadpool_2_poster.jpg
