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It’s a fascinating time to see how Fox deals with Marvel superheroes in the shadow of all the Avenging that Infinity War did in the box office. Whilst so many superhero franchises cogs are still hustling about, 20th Century Fox should be counting their lucky stars for acquiring the most ridiculous, fourth-wall-breaking, uncensored anti-hero into this movie season that is a refreshing contrast to both DC and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Deadpool 2 like many sequels, is a film that doubles down on what made the first one great. More action, more pop culture references, more jokes and more of….a plot?
Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 sees the self-regenerating merc-with-a-mouth (played by Ryan Reynolds) enjoying his kill-all-the-bad-guys lifestyle until everything goes terribly wrong. This leads the weary Deadpool to go on a quest of finding his humility with his pals as well as coming across a mutant boy named Russel. Russel is played by Julian Dennison, the kiwi boy wonder from Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Paper Planes. His character in this film serves as a central tenant of this film’s attempt to tell a human story which is in conjunction to a lot of other more explosive moving parts. One of them being Deadpool’s new antagonist named Cable! A well-feared and formidable character from the Marvel comic books (played by Josh Brolin) who awkwardly also plays Thanos in Infinity War. Aside from Brolin walking all the way to the bank for 2018, his fascinating portrayal of a time-travellling Winter Soldier knockoff (as referenced by Deadpool in the move) fights for screen time and character development against the relationship between Deadpool and Russel making for a movie that wants to tell a lot of stories.
But stories is only a small part of the big picture. As far as this movie is concerned. You got to chuck in the jokes man! This film’s bread and butter is its comedy. With the amazing arsenal of wit and material that this ‘superhero’ offers, you’ll be having your own laughter Olympics with your mates by the time this movie is over. From Deadpool hiring an everyday joe with no powers into his mercenary team just for the sake of funzies, to the other sassy recruit that has the superpower of ‘luck’, there’s plenty of hilarious scenarios that Deadpool finds himself in not to mention his amazing fourth-wall-breaking, pop-culture referencing dialogue that really dwarfs Deadpool 1. Deadpool’s jokes are also not afraid to reference the current political and entertainment sphere as well. You’ll get him mentioning about older executive men touching him in private places and all the diverse cast of this movie being made as token diversity hires. It’s kind of nice to see comedy like that in the immensely politically correct climate we find ourselves in.
Deadpool 2’s pacing is something that feels apparent. Reynolds jumps through a lot of arcs, plot twists, and character developments throughout the 119 minutes running time and it can feel just a bit disconnecting at times, not to mention a bit too fast and bland. The movie’s action scenes whilst in splendor, weren’t always the most amazing things to behold especially in the CGI ones. The budget for this movie must have really came short to the VFX as some of the CGI especially the soviet X-men Collosus’s facial animation, looks very poor and artificial considering how much close up shots and screentime that dude gets with Deadpool.
The film’s colour profile also feels a bit dull. The Marvel Cinematic Universe certainly meets this criticism at times especially in Civil War but this is a whole new level of visual blandness that are a bit too tonally dark and dreary for a film that is suppose to be filled with comedy and action. This kind of colour correction makes the image seem just that bit more abhorrently flat which is a shame because the film being shot on an ARRI tends to make the image more film-like and in depth as opposed to its counterparts in the RED family. The film also has a lot of dutch shots. Like, a lot of them.
All in all, Deadpool 2 still delivers. Incredibly. It’s ambition makes for many surprising and fun moments that will make a cinema come alive in joy. There are many wonderful cameos, references, not to mention some scenes at the end credits that will make a lot of fans go bananas in delight. Deadpool 2 isn’t a polished gem. But in this day and age, let alone any, does that even matter when you have a film this unique?
