Our take on... Deadpool 2
It seems like no length since “Infinity War” came out and here we are with yet another Marvel property hitting the small screen in the form of 20th Century Fox’s “Deadpool 2”, the sequel to the surprising smash hit from 2016. This time, Ryan Reynolds returns in the red suit, and a budget that’s more than double that of the original, and it shows. The action is bigger, the fights are better, but it still retains the crude sense of humour from the original. Most impressively, the film has a surprising amount of emotional moments among the violence and quips.
The film starts at a cracking pace and doesn’t really let up from very early on where a tragedy causes Deadpool (AKA Wade Wilson) to have a serious personal crisis, which results in him becoming an X-Men trainee. This goes about as well as you’d expect! While all this is going on, Cable (Josh Brolin) a time travelling man on a mission with an arm like the Winter Soldier and the tech of Iron Man has arrived from the future hell bent on hunting a mutant who has committed a terrible act against his family. While we’ve already seen Brolin in “Infinity War”, Cable is a completely different character. While Thanos’ motivation is a twisted vision of saving the universe, Cable is almost Terminator like; a seemingly unstoppable killing machine with only one, selfish, goal in mind.
Along with a returning Vanessa (Wade’s girlfriend), Weasel (Wade’s buddy), and Dopinder (Wade’s taxi driver) from the first film, we also have returning X-Men in the form of the ever optimistic Colossus and the ever cynical Negasonic Teenage Warhead. New characters (as well as Cable) include Firefist, a troubled teen played by the excellent Julian Dennison (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”) and my personal favourite of the new characters, Domino (Zazie Beetz). Along with some new mutants, Deadpool takes the time to put together his own team, X-Force which has been teased for a while. While it may seem like there’s a danger of overcrowding, the extra twenty minutes this film has on the original means that each interaction is well spaced out, and every character both new and old gets enough screen time and action beats to make a lasting impression.
Each of the action scenes are really well put together from the hand to hand fights to the massive car chase in the middle, and it’s not surprising given the background of director David Leitch who also directed “John Wick” and did stunt work on the “Bourne” films. The special effects are pretty flawless as well, and the increased budget means that Colossus looks even more impressive than before, and Cable’s accessories look incredible.
The writers, of which Reynolds was one, also don’t miss an opportunity to take a pop at the competition like the other X-Men movies, and the Avengers and D.C films. For example, instead of worrying about Cable’s mechanical arm being too similar to the Winter Soldier, they make a joke about it. With this film, its predecessor, and “Logan”, 20th Century Fox seem to have figured out that the real value of the X-Men characters lies in making smaller budget films that offer an alternative to what the Avengers movies have to offer, namely wild action, bad language, and adult situations. “Deadpool 2” delivers on all these fronts, and is a massive amount of fun but also has some real heart as well. Plus, keep your eyes peeled for some blink and you’ll miss them A-list cameos!
Oh, and as always, stick around during the end credits.
Theses are the learned thoughts of our man Kevin Dillon @kevinwritestuff.
Deadpool 2 is available on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD in all Golden Discs stores nationwide and here at goldendiscs.ie.
