New Release Review: Deadpool 2

Deadpool 2

(2018. Director: David Leitch. Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Zazie Beetz, Julian Dennison)

SYNOPSIS:

Loudmouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool is enjoying life as a near unstoppable assassin for hire but after a shocking tragedy he finds himself lost and seeking new meaning to his insane life.

"We're going to form a super-duper fucking group," says Deadpool around the midpoint of his new movie. "We need them tough, morally flexible and young enough to carry a franchise for 10-12 years." This is fairly typical of the sort of meta-commentary we have come to expect from the titular motormouthed assassin who mixes the knowing winks to the audience of a modern day Groucho Marx with the genre-savviness of Abed from Community. However for once, as it also implies, the egotistical trickster god of Fox's X-Men Universe is finally willing to let other characters share some of his screentime.

Deadpool's self titled debut in 2016 (ignoring, of course, his terrible in-name-only appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009) was pretty much a one man show. Although he had able support from those playing both friends and enemies, the entire enterprise was staked on a loud, screen-hugging performance from Ryan Reynolds in the title role. (There was even a joke about the bizarre lack of recognisable faces seen in the X Men mansion. That joke returns again here but with a witty and far more expensive punchline). However, what a performance it was. Reynolds had been involved with the production from the very beginning; campaigning to get the film greenlit, financed and given the freedom it needed to work. The actor created and subsumed the role to the degree that it is now hard to delineate where Ryan Reynolds the actor ends and Wade Wilson the character starts. (There's even a popular silly fan theory that Deadpool is real and merely created the fake persona 'Ryan Reynolds' in order to produce his biography.) The film was puerile and sardonic but smart in its subversions and although all this attitude was unfortunately tacked onto what was otherwise a fairly formulaic 'origin story' it had a rough, scrappy underdog charm which carried it comfortably over the finish line.

Two years on Deadpool 2 has very different challenges to overcome. Gone is the novelty of such an unpredictable, off-brand character as is the sense of being a low budget outsider fighting against the system. Deadpool was a massive critical and financial success making its title character a household name in the process. Deadpool 2 therefore has an uphill struggle to get anywhere near the rebellious spirit of its predecessor.

The obvious reaction to this would be to make everything bigger and bolder than before: more action, bigger stakes, riskier jokes and even more meta referencing. And yes, that is exactly what they do. Thankfully, however, there is also an attempt to improve the qualities as well as the quantities of the original. The original director, Tim Miller, has been replaced by David Leitch (hilariously credited here as 'One of the guys who killed the dog in John Wick') who, both with that film and last years Atomic Blonde, has previous with making films known for their inventive action and strong atmosphere despite being hung on fairly generic and overly convoluted plot-lines. Here he stages some similarly ridiculous action sequences which make full use of the slapstick potential of a hero who can be battered and maimed repeatedly and survive.

The first third of the film seems to be built around an attempt to create an emotional core for the story going forward. This is done somewhat awkwardly with some scenes of mawkish self-seriousness that feel exactly the kind of thing that our protagonist would mercilessly mock if they appeared in another movie. Save for a ridiculous Bond movie style opening credit sequence (cut to a Celine Dion song written for the film no less!) this first act feels fairly muddled and unsure of its tone. The plot is too dark and somber to be as funny as it strives to be but the drama of it is completely undersold by its inability to take itself seriously for too long. Thankfully things quickly pick up in the films second act with the arrival of some new characters to challenge the 'Merc With a Mouth's' grip on the narrative.

Firstly, Josh Brolin's much hyped Cable is as gruff and humourless as expected, making for an enjoyably contrasting foil to our hero. His backstory is nothing more than a reworking of the plot of Rian Johnson's Looper filtered through the aesthetics of James Cameron's Terminator films but it is divorced enough from the films central silliness, and delivered with surprising pathos by Brolin, that it lands pretty effectively. Even more effective is the introduction of The Hunt For The Wilderpeople's Julian Dennison as Russell, a young and angry mutant going by the unfortunate codename 'Firefist.' He plays the part as pretty much a superpowered Ricky Baker, full of angst and bravado that eclipses his actual abilities. Deadpool himself is an incredibly immature lead so making him responsible for a precocious ward is a good way to challenge the character and hone his potentially grating smugness into something more human and sympathetic. Unfortunately Dennison and Reynolds don't get an awful lot of screen time together but there is enough there to build an interesting relationship which grounds much of what follows. Instead Deadpool is forced to go looking for a team of allies with who can help him in his mission to save the boy.

This is the X Force, Deadpool's own more open (and nominally genderneutral) version of the X Men. As expected, they are a bizarre mix of peculiar characters who are both in-universe (and likely in the writer's room) rejects from that more successful and mainstream superhero team. This includes such exciting champions as Vanisher (the most low-budget hero ever as he is permanently invisible making it near impossible to tell if he is onscreen or not) and Peter (a middle-aged man with no powers or skills who simply replied to the advert because it 'looked like fun.') Most importantly this is where the film introduces Domino (Zazie Beetz) a fiercely independent young woman full of confidence and sass and who goes on to steal all her scenes with star making charisma as a mutant whose power seems to be solely that she is incredibly, implausibly lucky.

Ultimately Wade Wilson is exactly the kind of hero we need right now. At a time when fascists and their pathetic ilk are somehow successfully convincing a surprising number of rebellious youths that cleaning their rooms, censoring differing opinions, sucking up to authority and generally acting like racist and pervy old men is somehow new, empowering and revolutionary, it is refreshing to see an anarchic potential role model that maintains the air of punk-like unpredictability and complete disregard for the rules while also being completely lacking in petty hatred or prejudice. Even though Deadpool himself would never ascribe to any ideology, (he openly mocks the goody-two-shoes X Men as 'a dated metaphor for racism in the Sixties') the movie itself is quietly progressive. Not only are Deadpool's allies a more diverse mix than most superhero team-ups but this film features the first openly gay couple in Marvel movie history (a revelation which is treated with the exact shrug of unexciting acceptance that such an everyday relationship would actually have in a world where psychic powers and time travel are common occurrences.) It's this strange sense of oddball acceptance which powers the film through its final act and keeps the film feeling light and warmly charming even as the title character's adolescent humour slowly begins to become exhausting.

In the earlier X Force auditions scene we are also introduced to a mutant played by popular, up-and-coming star Bill Skarsgard who introduces himself as 'Zeitgeist.' Deadpool asks if that means that his power is to have his finger of the button of modern culture. Nope. He just vomits toxic acid. This one joke feels like a good metaphor for Deadpool 2 as a whole. In equal parts it's an intelligent satire of an exact place and time in pop culture history and also simply an explosion of grotesque toilet humour. For fans of the the first Deadpool, and comic book movies in general, Deadpool 2 will feel like a drunken night out with a hilarious old friend. For the uninitiated however, it may feel more like being trapped in a lift with that one guy in the office who won't stop trying to crack jokes about everything and driving you slowly insane. Still, despite its clunkiness, Deadpool 2 is faster, funnier and more action packed than its predecessor and, much like it's near immortal namesake, it's pretty damn hard to put down.

Review by The Mogul.