Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 59 minutes
Director: David Leitch
Quick Impressions:
The relentless, crude jokes come fast in the original Deadpool, but Deadpool 2 is more about delayed gratification. This surprisingly satisfying sequel takes a more Tantric approach to its sexual shock humor. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of crude humor. (Was anybody worried?) But instead of an onslaught of non-stop vulgarity, Deadpool 2 gives us fewer jokes of higher quality. And because the movie doesn’t numb us with a barrage of dirty-but-dumb jokes, we laugh (or gasp) harder at the outrageous moments when they do occur. To be honest, though, I’m not sure if all of this is by deliberate strategy, or if so many of the intended jokes fail that I just didn’t recognize them as jokes. (And, full disclosure, it is also true that I sometimes fail to be properly horrified by “shocking” material.)
But whether by design or happy accident, Deadpool 2 is not as funny as the original Deadpool…right away. Then when the humor does come, it really explodes. When the movie hit its stride, our whole audience laughed far more heartily than we could probably have managed if suffering from dirty joke fatigue.
The plot is also surprisingly engaging. We get a lot of meta, fourth-wall-breaking banter early on about Wade’s exasperation that more tragic super hero movies have overshadowed his, but jokes aside, Deadpool 2 does, in fact, deliver genuine emotional lows and highs in a story that consistently intrigues and touches us (in a good way).
One moment in the opening act legitimately upset me. (I went into a protective trance, playing a highlight reel of Firefly clips in my mind.) And I’m not even all that invested in these characters. I’ve only seen the first Deadpool once, and I’ve never read the comics. But I think the humor must deliberately be pulled back a bit to make this crucial story beat work.
Don’t get me wrong, though. Nobody is going to be whispering uncertainly, “Is this Deadpool, or did I accidentally walk into that Mr. Rogers documentary?” (I’m dying to see that, by the way.) This movie still features the same glib, R-rated, irreverent “Merc with a Mouth” fans love. It’s just not quite as incessantly dirty nor as desperate to be constantly funny as its predecessor. And, in the end, this works in the movie’s favor.
The Good:
I love Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. I mean, who doesn’t? Well, I’m sure some people don’t, but this is the role that cemented his stardom, that made him iconic. Like Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow or Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Ryan Reynolds was a star before Deadpool, but now he’s come into his own in a whole new way.
I’m going to be too honest here and admit that before Deadpool, I always thought Ryan Reynolds was kind of…dumb. (Isn’t that mean? But this was more of a passive impression that seldom entered my conscious thoughts.) I didn’t wish him ill or anything, but he always struck me as bland and probably not too bright, certainly not interesting in any way.
Now I’m like, “Wow! Ryan Reynolds is so funny!” He’s amazing as Deadpool, so likable, so charming. You don’t even have to watch the movies to find him charming. His social media presence as the character is almost unparalleled in excellence. Perhaps this makes me sound cruel and judgmental, but I’ve just never been terribly interested in guys who can have a face and vaguely smile. But funny? I love funny.
(I would feel worse about this except that I’m quite sure Ryan Reynolds has never found me attractive or interesting, either.)
Recently, I’ve noticed this phenomenon again and again. Some leading man comes across as a boring, cardboard face until he gets more control over his career and starts choosing and developing roles he actually wants. And just like that, he’s amazing. So who is holding everybody back? Is there some unspoken rule for leading men in Hollywood? Contractually, you must appear boring for x number of films? Is this some clause they make you agree to when you join the Illuminati?
Anyway, Reynolds is so thoroughly charming as Deadpool that it’s surprisingly easy to get genuinely emotionally invested in the story, and even when his jokes fall flat, you totally forgive him. I would probably watch a hundred movies staring Reynolds as Deadpool. He’s just so great in the role. He’s constantly reaching out to the audience, and it’s clear he really loves playing the character. His infectious energy carries the film.
I’m also a huge fan of metadrama, and this movie is absolutely full of fourth-wall-breaking, wink-at-the-audience jokes, plus a non-stop Easter egg hunt for trivia buffs and comic fans. Really, my favorite bit comes when Deadpool signs a cereal box, such a silly joke, but so funny. I also loved two of the on-the-nose names Deadpool uses to insult Cable. There were several moments, too, when the English major/conspiracy theorist in me was working overtime, spotting stuff and thinking, “Is that an allusion/reference/joke about x/y/z, or am I now just being crazy and reaching? Did he choose Yentl because of Josh Brolin? Wait, was that just a joke I don’t have the comic background to get?” Sometimes you feel like you get material you actually don’t understand because you know Deadpool is winking at you. Reynolds does that so well.
The rest of the cast is really good, too. I loved Zazie Beets as Domino, my favorite new character. One sentence doesn’t do justice to how much I loved her, so I’m adding these two filler sentences. She deserves a whole paragraph, but I don’t want to spoil the best parts of the movie.
I thought young Julian Dennison was quite good. And I’ve always like Morena Baccarin. I wish she’d been in it a bit more. Leslie Uggams could have used a bigger part, too. (She has plenty of screentime but doesn’t get to do very much that matters.) Josh Brolin is a lot more fun as Cable than he is as Thanos (which is odd because Cable is not very fun, but Thanos is even less fun). For some reason, I spent the entire movie trying to recognize Eddie Marsan. It was so exasperating. I thought, “That face looks so familiar to me that this man could be my own brother! Who is he??????” The instant I saw his name, his entire film and television career flashed before my eyes. He gives a very good performance, particularly near the end.
Best Scene:
About halfway through the movie, Deadpool 2 goes from occasionally funny to increasingly hilarious.
The bit where Deadpool recruits his team is zany and silly and wonderful. The joke with Dopinder at the end is particularly funny. For one thing, Karan Soni’s timing and intensity really sell it. Also, the more you think about that joke, the funnier and sadder it becomes because there’s a whole bunch of salient social commentary packed in there. I truly began enjoying the movie at this point. (I was engaged from the beginning, but the amount of genuine tension surprised me a little and made it hard for me to laugh for a while.)
I think I could watch this portion of the movie again and again. In fact, I need to watch it again to catch all the humor. I love meta jokes, and there are so many in this film, but there’s one brief cameo in this sequence that can’t be fully appreciated until after it happens.
Best Action Sequence:
Honestly the best part of the movie is the long and evolving action sequence as X Force goes on its first disastrous mission (elements of which seem like a parody of X-Men: First Class).
Domino is my favorite new character in the movie, and I absolutely love watching the way her powers work.
Best Scene Visually:
Even though the jokes weren’t as fast and furious as I expected early on, I still laughed a lot at the beginning of the movie. I loved the use of “9 to 5” very early on, and I absolutely loved the scene of Deadpool traveling around his friends’ house on a borrowed set of wheels. That image delighted me.
Best Cameo:
There are tons of celebrity cameos in this film. Some are very brief. And in some, the actors are disguised. But the best cameo (and honestly, the most hilarious and rewarding part of the entire movie) comes after the film in an amazing scene during the credits.
The Negatives:
A lot of T.J. Miller’s jokes fell flat for me. I’ve found him funny sometimes in the past, so I don’t know what the problem is here. He’s pretty good in the threat of torture scene, but otherwise, he’s just annoying. For me, at least, most of his jokes didn’t land. I just kept thinking, “Try harder.” If any of that is ad-libbed, maybe more of his lines should be scripted next time around.
I also found the “new legs” scene more creepy and uncomfortable than funny (although I did like the Basic Instinct joke, but that’s just because my trivia-oriented brain likes random references to things).
Also, the first act of the movie confused me emotionally. Deadpool’s glib humor is there but complicated for us by a genuinely traumatic event. It’s hard to laugh because the drama feels a bit too compelling. I’m not sure it’s a bad thing. (In the long run, a compelling, character-driven plot beats a lot of shallow jokes any day.) But it’s really hard to know how to react during some of the early scenes. Obviously Deadpool is a character who uses humor to cope with adversity. The fact that his jokes begin to seem hollow is a good thing from a character development/story progression perspective. But how is the audience supposed to react to all this? As we watch, it’s hard to be sure.
Overall:
Actually, I think I liked this follow up better than the first Deadpool, but take that with a grain of salt because I didn’t see that film in the theater, and trying to sneak in R-rated movies at home is always stressful.
Early word of mouth is making me cautiously excited to see the Solo movie with our kids this weekend, but I’m glad we found time to sneak in this not-family-friendly fare, too. Deadpool 2 was definitely good enough to make me eager to watch future installments of his adventures.