Back in 2016, the gleefully R-rated sensibility and
meta-commentary of the first “Deadpool” felt like a
breath of anarchic fresh air in a genre that was starting to suffer from a
certain sense of cookie cutter sameness.
The
practically unkillable, fourth wall-breaking mutant
mercenary Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is a superhero
who’s aware that he’s in a superhero movie. This attribute allowed the film
around him the chance opportunity to poke fun at the clichés that have built up
over decades of comic book movies, while still functioning as exactly the thing
it’s attempting to parody. With a scrappy charm and a stellar performance from
Reynolds, the first film was an unexpectedly massive hit.
Now comes “Deadpool 2,” a frustratingly by-the-numbers sequel that
squanders its potential and does little to build off the first film. Without
the original’s freshness, the foul-mouthed humor feels strained, and its
incessantly snarky tone and splattery mayhem quickly
wears thin.
The new
film’s plot (as much as there is one) begins with the murder of Deadpool’s fiancée, Vanessa (Morena
Baccarin) at the hands of one of his foes, and already we’re off on the wrong
foot. The death of a wife or girlfriend to further a male character’s story is
a trope so overused in comics that a term was even invented for it: “fridging.” The name references a 1994 “Green Lantern” comic
in which the hero’s girlfriend was murdered, her body stuffed into his
refrigerator for him to discover.
After the
tragedy Deadpool has to lay low, and decides to crash
at the X-Men’s mansion. There, he’s left to mope in existential agony until
being roped into the team’s latest mission: battling Cable (a gruff Josh
Brolin), a heavily-armed, time-traveling warrior on a mission to murder a
troubled mutant youth named Russell (Julian Dennison, “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”).
His
vendetta, we learn, originates in some action the adult Russell takes on his
future path toward villainy. But there’s still hope for the boy, and Deadpool, Colossus (Stefan Kapicic),
and a fleet of new recruits must stop Cable before he succeeds in murdering the
still-innocent child.
The script has
some earnest moments and finds a bit of heart in Deadpool’s
attempts to become something of a mentor to Russell, as a theme about the power
of makeshift families gradually begins to emerge.
Reynolds
still makes for an appealing lead, channeling his goofy, deadpan charm to solid
effect. And the film does get some additional pep thanks to some appealing new
co-stars, though the highlight is Zazie Beetz as Domino, a superhero with the power of luck.
Director
David Leitch lends the film some of the action chops he brought as co-director
of the first “John Wick” and “Atomic Blonde,” but the access of CGI imagery and
overly enthusiastic editing makes it difficult to appreciate.
With ho-hum
action and recycled jokes, it all starts to grow tedious. A bigger budget is no
match for a script (written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick,
along with Reynolds) that’s content to rehash what worked for the previous
film. By the time Deadpool starts yelling, “That’s
just lazy writing!” during some of the plot’s later
contrivances, it just feels like an easy way for the film to excuse exactly
what it is. In the end, “Deadpool 2” can’t help
feeling like a huge missed opportunity.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 5, 2018.
