20th Century Fox. 2018. Action Comedy. 119 minutes.
Superhero films have become such an essential part of our movie-going diet that between the 2016 release of the original Deadpool and the 2018 release of Deadpool 2, no less than 13 other Marvel and DC superhero films clogged our theaters and our cultural bandwidth. Those films, though, had real responsibilities: advance characters and storylines (Avengers: Infinity Wars), launch vital socio-political conversations (Black Panther), make us contemplate suicide (Justice League) or, in the case of Logan, kill off its main character with a solemn dignity worthy of a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination.
Deadpool 2, bless its profane, bloody, fourth wall-breaking heart, is interested in none of those things. Its job, like the first Deadpool, is to kick those other films in the nuts and torch their creative and corporate pretentions. To that end, credit returning screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick for taking full advantage of a target rich environment consisting of Marvel hits and DC disappointments. The prodigious amount of jokes feels simultaneously freewheeling and obsessively worked over, yet they hit so fast and so consistently that the misses don’t hurt. So even though the surprise factor of the original is gone, number two is funnier and more viciously pointed, allowing the series to avoid an early case of franchise fatigue.
Taking some of the air out of an overinflated genre balloon wouldn’t be such nasty fun if not for Ryan Reynolds’ return engagement as Deadpool. Superhero handsome, he shoots from the lip and can sell any line by drawing from his bottomless reservoir of funnier-than-thou snark. For a time, he was also one of the only acknowledged causalities of the superhero era, having played the title character in 2011’s lamentable Green Lantern. This not only provides Deadpool 2 with its best gag but also suggests that Reynolds is extracting gleeful revenge on the genre responsible for his highest-profile career failure. And since Deadpool is under the control of Fox, as opposed to Disney, the character operates at a remove that frees it to fully embrace the role of reckless, R-rated, bomb-throwing commentator.
Even Deadpool 2’s distended and obnoxiously boisterous climatic fight, de rigueur for too many superhero films, becomes just another genre element that gets crushed under its comedic hammer. But first, a James Bond-style opening credit sequence gives way to some thematic pipe-laying as Deadpool returns home to find that girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) wants to start a family. When she’s dispatched by a single bullet, he tries to connect with the X-Men, only to be told by returning sidekick Colossus (voiced by Stefan Kapicic) that they want nothing to do with insolent outsider who zips around Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in the Professor’s wheelchair and calls out Patrick Stewart by name.
These early goings are a bit shaky and feel repetitive of the first film. Director David Leitch (the neon-burnished, nonsensical Atomic Blonde) relies on vintage tunes from the likes of Air Supply and Dolly Parton for easy laughs (a trick Guardians of the Galaxy also uses) and, sorry, but dismissively tossing objects off-screen is a tired way to convey badassitude. Things get moving when Colossus and Deadpool, wearing a yellow, “X-Men Trainee” t-shirt over his costume, confront an angry, overweight teenage mutant named Russell (Julian Dennison from 2016’s terrific Hunt for the Wilderpeople) whose superpowers are shooting energy bolts from his hands and pointing out the dearth of fat superheroes. Deadpool takes it upon himself to protect Russell from the evil warden (Eddie Marsan) who runs the Center for Mutant Rehabilitation, as well as the time-traveling bad guy Cable who has come from the future to kill the pudgy, mutant teen. Cable is played by Josh Brolin with a sneering intensity that’s even scarier when you realize how easily sneering intensity seems to come to him. Although he did star in an Oscar-winning Best Picture (2007’s No Country for Old Men), he’s long been underappreciated and underemployed. So thank you Marvel for casting him as, not one, but two MCU villains in 2018. And for those who chafe at Brolin playing two different heavies in two different Marvel movies that happen to be in theaters simultaneously, Deadpool’s got your back: he cheekily refers to Cable as Thanos, the villain he plays in Avengers: Infinity War.
Considering that everyone knows we’re here for the free flowing blood, genre-atypical profanity and fanboy in-jokes, it’s surprising Deadpool 2 has as much story as it does. Cable has a tragic family history and after he completes his turn from villain to kinda hero, we appreciate a bad guy with even the tiniest of arcs. For his part, Deadpool sees in Russell and the X-Men the family he can no longer have with Vanessa.
Otherwise, bring in the green screen and book plenty of wire removal time. Director Leitch has 11 times more stunt-related credits on his IMDB page than directing credits. So it’s no surprise that the fights are long, bone-crunching and, for the most part, played out in shots wide enough to allow us full view of every punch and body slam. Even though Deadpool can’t really die (at one point, he’s ripped in two and seen moments later in a Hawaiian shirt and sprouting baby legs) he recruits some help to fend off Cable and protect Russell. Best of the bunch is Domino (Zazie Beetz, crazy cool) who convinces Deadpool, and us, during a chase involving a mutant transport vehicle that even though her superpower is luck, it’s actually pretty effective.
There are moments when the film feels so alive that our interest in piqued to see how Leitch and company will handle the next been-there, seen-that superhero story beat. DC films are given a particularly harsh takedown (“his mom’s named Martha, too?”). There’s even a swipe at cable news (“…pump the hate brakes, Fox & Friends.”) and plenty of fourth wall shenanigans, like when Deadpool tells a crusty old regular at the local bar, “no more speaking lines for you” and helpfully points out that the original Deadpool did better at the box office than Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Indeed, the film is so adept at skewering our sacred superhero cows that we’re open to jokes about anything, even Martin Luther King Jr.
With its fast moving, anything-goes sense of humor, Deadpool 2 recalls the parody films of recent yore, those silly/funny spoofs now too risky and impudent in the era of Shareholder Cinema. Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs), the Zucker Brothers (Airplane!, The Naked Gun) and Keenan Ivory Wayans (Scary Movie, Scary Movie 2) enjoyed some of their biggest successes when they catalogued and spoofed the elements of various genres. The Austin Powers films did the same, as did a personal favorite, The Big Bus. With its thorough knowledge of the films it’s referencing and a willingness to use that knowledge to create a lovingly wicked takedown, the Deadpool films can legitimately be viewed as parodies of the superhero genre. Even if the parody involves a character who’s already a member of the club he’s ridiculing, sometimes the most successful crimes are inside jobs.