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When Deadpool became a smash hit at the box-office in 2016 the question wasn’t or there would be a sequel, but rather when. A sequel is often released approximately three years after the previous movie. Deadpool 2 does it a lot quicker by almost a third as it is released a little over two years after the release of Deadpool. The only sequels released with a shorter interval are horror franchises like Saw or the occasional comedy like Bad Moms. They push out a follow up often within a year.
The first Deadpool movie, made on a relatively low budget, caught everyone by surprise. The movie milked its R-rating to the fullest giving us a movie with explicit violence, raunchy language and even sex and nudity. Not something you see in most superhero movies which usually strive for a PG-13 rating. After the dreadful first appearance of the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine it redeemed the character of Deadpool entirely. It is also one of the funniest superhero movies ever made. Those are some shoes to fill for Deadpool 2. It’s not the first time shoes this size have to be filled, and most of the time sequels fail to live up to their predecessors. You always hope for a Dark Knight, but most of the time we get an Iron Man 2.
Deadpool 2 is sadly no Dark Knight, but luckily it’s no Iron Man 2 either. It lives up to my expectations and it even has some nice surprises up its sleeve. We live in the age where movie trailers give away major plot twists (I am looking at you Terminator Salvation and Genisys). Therefor I was pleasantly surprised when certain iconic characters, who have been left out of the marketing campaign entirely, popped up. If the first movie redeemed the character of Deadpool, this movie redeems another character who has received the short end of the stick in a previous X-Men movie.
It finally seems as if movie studios understand we don’t want the whole movie cramped into a trailer. They now even put in fake or edited scenes on purpose in order to avoid people seeing major spoilers. The recent Avengers: Infinity War trailer had all sorts of edited shots to mislead the fanboys/girls/people who inspect every frame of a trailer.
While Deadpool 2 does not use the marketing techniques of the Terminator movies, it does shamelessly copy the plot from Terminator 2. A guy from the future goes back in time in order to kill a kid. Not a resistance leader, but a kid who will grow up as a vicious murderer, responsible for killing said guy’s family. The guy in question is Cable. A highly trained soldier with a mechanical prosthetic arm as well as several other prosthetics. Feeling somewhat responsible for the kid, Deadpool/Wade Wilson will do anything to stop Cable from achieving his mission. Even forming his own gender neutral team he calls X-Force.
Where Deadpool was a spoof of superhero movies, Deadpool 2 could have been a funny commentary on sequels. But while Deadpool still often breaks the fourth wall, he hardly refers to this movie as being a sequel. The movie does follow certain standard sequel tropes, like being a bigger movie. But bigger isn’t always better. Luckily Deadpool 2 makes great use of its larger budget and gives us more elaborate action scenes this time around. I also loved how they went to great lengths to introduce us to the X-Force and then disposing of them quite quickly.
While most of the gratuitous violence and raunchy language is still very much present, Deadpool 2 loses its sharp edges by ditching the sexual angle largely. Save for a rather disturbing “Basic Instinct” scene in the middle of the movie. There is however no scene like “International Women’s Day” in this movie. While there are some sexual references, mostly from Deadpool to Colossus, the movie is much tamer in that area compared to its predecessor. The movie also has lighter tone in both the script as well as visually. It feels a bit like Spider-man: Homecoming with F-Bombs in it. This makes Deadpool 2 feel much more like an actual mainstream superhero movie, rather than a spoof.
The funniest parts of Deadpool 2 are actually the end credits. These scenes are truly original and actually have an impact on the previous 100 minutes. This is something you don’t often see. Most of the time they are just some nice bonus scenes for the fans. Sometimes they provide a slight chuckle like the Avengers eating shawarma. In Deadpool they are truly hilarious, so be sure to stick around.
Deadpool 2 is a fun and entertaining movie. It’s filled with so many references it’s impossible to catch them all. Like the Naked Gun movies, the quips and jokes are constantly thrown at the audience. But they don’t always seem to be written with the target audience in mind. Nobody in the audience got a reference to the infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech by George Bush.
I do feel that the character of Deadpool is suffering some fatigue and I’m wondering if they can keep him fresh enough for an eventual third movie. Despite that, I still had a blast watching this movie. It’s not a masterpiece and certainly not a “The Empire Strikes Back” to “A New Hope”. But it’s a decent sequel which might be bigger, but certainly not bolder.
