Ryan Reynolds and ‘Deadpool 2' Just Want Your Love
Deadpool 2 is a lot like a surly teenager. It wants you to think it doesn’t give a shit, but deep down, it just wants to be loved.
When I saw Deadpool in 2016, my adult self felt mildly guilty for enjoying a film filled to the brim with foul language, horrendous violence, and gratuitous nudity with nothing much beneath it.
Of course, my inner 17-year-old loved everything about it.
Deadpool 2 is more of the same, but I think this variation is just slightly better, even if it’s not quite as fresh as the original.
Deadpool 2 mirrors the original’s plot, starting with the opening flashback explaining why Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is in his current predicament. In this movie, however, the person Deadpool seeks revenge on is Wade Wilson (i.e. himself). Riddled with guilt over the death of Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Wilson has decided to blow himself up. Because of his modified mutant body, suicide by kerosene bomb proves to be ineffective.
Author’s Note: With all the pop culture references frequently popping up in the Deadpool franchise, I still can’t figure out how this movie misses a great chance to riff on Groundhog Day.
In the aftermath, Deadpool is recruited by “backup” X-Man Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapicic) to become an X-Man in training. The first assignment for Deadpool and Colossus: helping a troubled teenage mutant named Russell (Julian Dennison). Needless to say, it goes horribly wrong, landing Wade and Russell in a prison for mutants called “the Ice Box.” Their sentence is reduced when a cybernetic-human hybrid soldier from the future named Cable (Josh Brolin) breaks into the prison to kill Russell — a plotline which will turn out a LOT like Rian Johnson’s terrific Looper.
Now, Deadpool 2 really isn’t about the plot. It’s mostly a stage for jokes, pop-culture references, and breaking the fourth wall.
For instance, we get an opening credits sequence which recalls the Bond series, featuring a Celine Dion power ballad called “Ashes”. It’s the best joke in the film — it feels lifted from a Brosnan-era Bond film of superficial excess — and yet it’s as tired a joke as an action comedy could make, considering how many times the Bond opening credits have been parodied.
The second-best joke in the film happens during the after credits scenes and takes dead aim at the unkillability of popular characters in a comic-book film series, which feels especially relevant in the wake of Avengers: Infinity War. There’s a funny riff on the infamous interrogation scene from Basic Instinct, and nods to Say Anything, The Goonies, DC, Top Gun, The Terminator, Face/Off, among other stabs at music and even some politics.
Just as in Deadpool, everything is fair game. Therefore, none of it is a surprise.
The action sequences, while diverting, are not as good as I’d hoped for. David Leitch is a strong director when it comes to staging action (his credits include John Wick and Atomic Blonde), but outside of one strong sequence in the middle of the film, most of the action feels choppy and perfunctory.
Now, about that sequence — it begins with Deadpool’s new crew (the X-Force) attempting to stop a prison convoy from the air and ends with Deadpool being torn in half. In the middle of it, we get everyone in Deadpool’s team killed in amusingly gory ways except for Domino, whose superpower is luck. Leitch stages this sequence with clarity, building tension and laughs off the characters, their abilities, their weaknesses, and their interactions throughout the chase.
The sequence, in a roundabout way, leads into the biggest surprise with Deadpool 2, as much as it tries to convince you otherwise.
It actually cares.
Deadpool 2 is about the families we make for ourselves when our original families are destroyed, or when our innocence has been shattered by people we trust. This adds a resonant layer to the non-stop in jokes and references. When you’re coming from a broken family, you first reach out to others using these kinds of references precisely because they are safe and can be laughed off, but they can also lead to stronger and deeper connections with those who understand the subtext of those references. In Deadpool, Reynolds and Baccarin had great chemistry built off exactly that kind of shared connection of horrendous abuse and the ways they’ve learned to mask it.
Deadpool 2 takes full advantage of that chemistry when it comes to Vanessa’s death — you feel both her absence and Wade’s feeling of complicity. Morena Baccarin is a lovely, fiery presence, and her reduction to guardian angel is frustrating; the movie really misses the energy she brings to the role. Ryan Reynolds, of course, is perfect as Deadpool. Rarely does an actor find such a perfect match of character and acting strengths — Deadpool is perfect for Reynolds’ odd blend of sarcasm, physical comedy and awkward sincerity.
Josh Brolin adds emotional and physical heft to Cable; he’s a perfect foil for Deadpool and by turns he’s imposing, ruthless, and surprisingly tender when the moment calls for. Julian Dennison is really good as Russell, the betrayed, confused, and righteously angry teenage boy who has the capacity to wreak terrible damage whenever he lashes out, and he generates no small amount of empathy when the pain and suffering he endured is made clear.
Performance-wise, the film also gets an enormous kick from Zazie Beetz’ turn as Domino. Beetz’ seems to perfectly grasp the split between irreverent fun and emotionally serious — watching her miraculously survive ridiculous odds is just as entertaining as when she’s given a perfunctory reason to care late in the film. She sells both elements equally well.
Ultimately, I found myself more moved than I thought I’d be by Deadpool 2. Despite all the graphic violence, bad language, and general irreverence, I came out thinking that it’s just like a surly teenager reaching out to the world for sincerity and hope (in a confused, insecure way), hiding behind a veneer of gore, flippant attitude, and salty language.
My Rating: 3 1/2 Deadpools out of 5
