DEADPOOL 2

“You’re not a hero. You’re just a clown dressed as a sex toy.”

Here’s my unpopular opinion for the day: I don’t think the first Deadpool movie is as good as people think it is. It’s a fine comedy, but for me, the novelty of the Merc with a mouth wore off pretty quickly, especially as literally all of the jokes were used in the trailers, leaving nothing new for the actual viewing of the film. I don’t think it’s bad, but there are definitely better films out there that I’d rather watch. But anywho, back to the point of this. Deadpool 2 is out, so here’s my review, and I have to say, the second instalment is a vast improvement on the first.

It was teased in the post-credits scene of the first movie that Cable would be showing up in the sequel, and sure enough here he is. The son of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from the future is in the modern day hunting down the future’s most tyrannical mutant, who in the modern day is nothing more than a teenager struggling to survive. Against Cable stands Deadpool and his newly assembled X-Force, a team of mutants with varying powers and abilities.

While the plot is pretty good and a lot of fun once it gets going, it’s the amount of time that it takes to get going that serves as my biggest problem with the film. The first act is taken up by the film’s major sub-plot, and while it’s not means boring or taking away from the film in any way, it does take a long time to even see Cable for the first time, and it probably wouldn’t have been the worst thing ever to shave a few minutes off the sub-plot. The being said, for a Deadpool film, things do get surprisingly deep.

On the subject of Cable, Josh Brolin gives by far the film’s best performance as the partly cybernetic mutant bounty hunter from the future.

As said, it does take quite a while for the Cable section of the plot to kick in, but once it does, the film doesn’t really slow down, and the action scenes Brolin delivers are pretty damn good. He also brings a nice contrast to Deadpool and the, for lack of a better word, chemistry the two have throughout the film is one of its best components. One of the things I love best about the character is that, even though the trailers portrayed him as the villain of the film, he really isn’t. Very much like Deadpool, Cable is an anti-hero, and the film gives both sides of their argument surprising well, and it’s easy to change sides throughout the film. Not only are Cable’s motivations clear, but they’re sympathetic as well.

As for the rest of the cast, they all do pretty well in the film too. The X-Force-ers in particular bring a lot of both heroism and comedy to the film, even if some are in it more than others.

The X-Force appears in a couple of different forms in the film, and both are nice additions to the Deadpool franchise's growing roster of characters.

On a few minor notes, there are also little things that really help this film. The James Bond-esque opening credits are surprisingly good, as is the accompanying song by Celine Dion, of all people. There are also a few surprise appearances by X-Men characters, some famous and some less so, but all of them are well used and done for the right reasons. The film also has a weirdly good soundtrack, one which is far, far better than the first film’s and it uses this soundtrack in the usual Deadpool-ish ways, but it works every time. One particular scene uses AC/DC’s Thunderstruck better than most films would do.

All in all, Deadpool 2 is both a pretty damn good film on its own but also, at least for me, a lot better than the first film. The jokes are still present and funny throughout, but they don’t take away or lessen the plot in any way and it’s nice to have a character like Cable to ground the film’s more serious moments, of which there is no small amount. There’s references for both casual cinema go-ers and more serious comic book fans, and the thankfully un-spoiled characters are a nice addition to the film. My major gripe with the first film is that Deadpool works best when there’s other characters along for the ride, and in that film its pretty much just him. Here though, the story is different and the addition of the X-Force, among others, helps the film shine. The post-credits scene(s) are also a highlight, even if it really doesn’t help the X-Men franchise's timeline problem very much, but I guess that’s the point. So yeah...go watch it, it's a lot of fun and one of the better recent X-Men related films.