The Super Powered Fancast

Deadpool 2

20th Century Fox

Written by Ryan Reynolds, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese

Directed by David Leitch

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Josh Brolin, TJ Miller, Zazie Beets, Brianna Hildebrand, Julian Dennison, Stefan Kapicic, Karan Soni, Terry Crews, Bill Skarsgard, Leslie Uggams, Rob Delaney and Lewis Tan

The Merc with a Mouth is Back on the Big Screen and this time, he has help.

The original Deadpool, when it was released, was the little movie that could and the odyssey to get it made was legendary especially since it triumphed with an amazingly funny, game changing film that audiences enjoyed. It was the film the studio didn’t want to make and because they wrote it off and stayed out of the picture, it was allowed to flourish without restrictions. The biggest fear that fans of the first film had knowing that there would be a sequel would be that the popularity of the first would dilute the impact of the character and his adventures going forward and, in some ways, it does.

I make it a point of going into any movie with as few expectations as possible. It’s impossible to not have any, so I try to limit them as much as I can. Going into Deadpool 2, I wanted a funny movie that didn’t take itself too seriously and leaned into everything that made the first one special. I got that, for the most part.

Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) aka Deadpool is “living the life” according to his friend from the first movie Dopinder (Karan Soni). He continues to work as a mercenary, taking out the bad guys in a montage set to Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 and gets to go home to his lady-love Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) at the end of a job. I loved the chemistry the two of them had in the first film and it was good to see their relationship mature in the second film, but they did lose some of the edge that made them cute.

An unforseen incident brings Wade to the X-Mansion where he stays to work out some personal issues and finds himself signed up as a trainee X-Man working alongside Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). There are some really funny moments in the X-Mansion including a call back to a joke from the first film regarding the lack of other characters and a funny moment that follows. That scene made me laugh out loud at how well-timed it was. Deadpool’s first mission is to help bring in a young boy named Russell (Julian Dennison) who is manifesting his powers and an attitude to match. It doesn’t go well and both Wade and Russell find themselves on their way to a mutant prison.

In the future, Cable (Josh Brolin) finds his home destroyed and his family dead, prompting him to go back in time and seek out the person responsible, Russell. This of course, leads him into conflict with Deadpool and the two clash with Wade trying to save the kid and Cable trying to end the threat the kid becomes in the future. Brolin is great as Cable, but he doesn’t really stand out as a character until the third act. Most of the film he just grunts and scowls. It would have been more effective to centralize some of the plot elements on him in order to round out his presence more.

The plot is bigger in this movie and because of that, the cast gets bigger as well. We are introduced to new characters including Domino (Zazie Beets) who clashes with Wade about how cinematic her powers are and the production decides to show us that every chance they get, which works. When the movie is being bombastic and fun, it’s evident on the screen. When it tries to get serious, it grinds on a little too long. When Deadpool decides to put together a new team, we get some great call backs to characters from the comics and Wade’s team up goes about as well as could be expected.

There are some great new elements added to this movie and I found myself laughing a lot at the fourth wall breaks and Wade’s digs at everyone from the DC universe to the MCU, but there are some plot issues that slowed down the pacing and emotional moments that didn’t really hit the tone the director was looking for. The banter between characters worked, but the villain of the film was almost an afterthought, which took away any possible menace from the plot.

Still, Deadpool 2 is a fun movie to see and I enjoyed everything comedic on the screen. Everything else was pretty hit or miss.