Deadpool 2

• Directed by David Leitch
• May 10, 2018 (Leicester Square) / May 18, 2018 (US)
• Based on the character Deadpool created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld

Deadpool tries to protect a young mutant from the time-traveler Cable.

Deadpool 2 continues the meta-humor of the last one. Perhaps more so with the addressing of the audience feeling of greater significance than in the first one. We even famously get a few jokes referencing the fumbling DC film universe. The opening ‘credits’ are a bit of homage not just to the classic James Bond openings but also to the occasional movie.

The whole thrust of the story is built around the Baby Hitler question: would you go back in time and kill Baby Hitler before he became Adult Hitler? Would you kill a great evil before it ever became that evil? That’s what the character of Cable (Josh Brolin) seeks to do. And that’s what Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) wants to prevent.

I wish they had been a little more direct in the whole idea, but I don’t think they really brought it into focus. It’s a very heavy-duty philosophical question. The reflexive answer is to kill Hitler but as a baby or even as a small child he’s not Adult Evil Hitler. Here the Hitler stand-in is Russell “Rusty” Collins (Julian Dennison) aka Firefist.

At some point in the future he will kill Cable’s family in an act of retribution. This is in addition to a long list of OTHER deaths for which Cable has been pursuing him. Rusty along with a CGI Juggernaut go to the facility where Rusty was being abused and Rusty kills the headmaster (Eddie Marsan) giving him a taste for murder. That would imply deeper issues stemming from or even beyond the abuse. In other words the kid might not be salvageable when you give it a passing thought. Anywho…

I personally think Josh Brolin has perfect casting as Cable. It’s a really bad name, but he is such a great character. And Brolin has the voice and the physique to the point that it’s almost as if Cable was inspired by him. I had really hoped visually they would do a comics accurate Domino (Zazie Beetz). I think it could’ve worked. But still Zazie Beetz was just fantastic in the part. sometimes a little too generically cocky but she channeled the Domino attitude that I remember from my youth.

Colossus (Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus/Andre Tricoteux as the on set body-double) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) both make a return with Warhead getting a recast Yukio (here played by Shioli Kutsuna) who first appeared in The Wolverine playing her girlfriend. While important for continuity I am not sure how much they actually contributed here. Warhead helps with humor and Colossus helps with a few elements that would take longer without him, but Yukio. Not much at all.

Does the death of Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) matter at all? I know this is not a movie that takes time travel and everything else seriously, but her accidental killing was the act that started the whole story. Yet in an end credits scene it gets undone completely. Heck, a bunch gets undone with some of it being humorous wish fulfillment on the part of Reynolds. These instances being one-off end credits jokes that do not usually harm the main film yet the Vanessa issue lingers for me.

This was clearly given a bit more of a budget than Deadpool. While still minimal on special effects, it is much bigger on general action with those scenes being absolutely epic. They play into the superhero genre, but mercifully they don’t linger so long you begin to question the possibility of the whole scene like in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. By doing so it becomes more of a stylized action movie.

Clearly they were aiming to make fun of the movie with heart, but I think there was a little too much heart in the story. Cable sacrifices a trip home to save Wade. Wade is dealing with guilt over Vanessa. He has real moments of trying to do the right thing. Serious stuff they treat, well, seriously. Identifiable conflicts help you to connect to characters. You get why John Matrix did what he did in Commando. But they never got too weighty for the material. I think Deadpool 2 does.

Having said that, this is a fun movie. It entertains and excites. As a film even if you think about it too deeply like I did you will still enjoy yourself. Deadpool 2 may not be a perfect movie, but it is a good sequel to the first film. Great follow up to the first film and definitely a fun ride.