Movie Review: Deadpool 2

It's amazing how quickly the brain can forget past mistakes when something goes right. This strange hallmark of the human experience can be applied to Deadpool 2. The sequel to 2016's vulgar superhero megahit solves just about every one of the abundance of problems (anonymous villain, mediocre action, the fact that it was a wanna-be satire of superhero movies that played out exactly like a run-of-the-mill entry in the genre) that made its predecessor a huge disappointment while simultaneously maintaining and improving the elements (meta/strange pop culture humor, playful tone, Ryan Reynolds' fantastic performance as the titular smartass antihero) from the original that worked.

Deadpool was an instance where a perfectly-cast lead actor pretty much carried an otherwise average film on their shoulders. This time around, Reynolds receives some much-needed help from his friends. Cable (Josh Brolin) makes for a commanding yet sympathetic antagonist, director David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde) stages a number of strong fight scenes and Domino (Zazie Beetz) and Russell/Firefist (Julian Dennison) are ideal sidekicks/verbal sparring partners for The Merc with a Mouth. It might not sound like much in writing, but adding more comedically-gifted actors to the cast, having engaging action sequences that fully embrace the gory freedom that the R-rating allows and introducing a villain that doesn't evaporate from your brain once you leave the theater provides Deadpool 2 with the spark it needed to become a distinct no-holds-barred superhero flick.

While its story was still a little too sentimental for an irreverent film that aspires to rebel against the genre norm, Deadpool 2 is still a considerable improvement over the first installment. Delivering on the cliché "bigger and better" stigma that gets attached to sequels is a pretty rare phenomenon that deserves to be celebrated whenever it occurs. Whether Fox decides to make another solo Deadpool project or expand upon the X-Force introduction that was made in the final act of this film, I hope that Reynolds and the rest of the creative team continue to make use of the well-balanced comedy/action blueprint they trotted out here.  

Grade: B+