Deadpool 2

This review may contain spoilers!

It's got nothing on the original Deadpool but it sure is a fun outing. I would give Deadpool 2 a 7/10.

This film really excels when it spends time with the title character; which is great because that's most of the film. A lot of this feature stems from Deadpool struggling with loss and finding purpose after this, which is an interesting journey to watch this rather twisted role undertake. The humour lands fairly consistently and is still doing a lot of original jokes around the fourth wall that most American comedies can't even measure up to. The cinematography looks excellent, many scenes rely on intense slow-motion visuals and graphic action sequences. It's no surprise that great special effects go hand in hand with this; a lot of the various death scenes are enhanced by impressive effects and CGI characters such as Cyclops and Juggernaut look well designed. The fight choreography is insanely well done, everything is orchestrated to move fast and often look as creatively brutal as possible. The score really ramps up the feel of this action blockbuster, but the soundtrack perfectly captures the random and completely psychotic nature of Deadpool.

Josh Brolin, who played Cable, is such a gruff hardass that you feel like he's one of the toughest characters in the film; his dark, rough exterior is a nice contrast to the quickfire crass protagonist. Ryan Reynolds, who played Deadpool, is perfect as this role; his fast quips and lewd humour make the role entertaining but the rather natural way Reynolds plays loss and anger in this show his range as a performer. Morena Baccarin, who played Vanessa, has such great chemistry with Reynolds and the pair are a natural onscreen couple; Baccarin's way of portraying a distant, wise conscience to Reynolds' role in this was different but effective. Brad Pitt, Bill Skarsgard, Terry Crews, Rob Delaney and Lewis Tan, who played Vanisher, Zeitgeist, Bedlam, Peter and Shatterstar respectively, make for some very intense roles that really amp you up to see them in an outing as a team; Delaney, in particular, is a stand out for his very 'everyday guy' persona that makes the ridiculousness of his role all the more apparent. T.J. Miller, who played Weasel, still has a very sharp wit to him and can rattle off a number of jokes to the betterment of a scene; Miller's stern approach to being Soni's boss in this is rather amusing, especially compared to the scenes in which we see Weasel as a rather cowardly figure. Stefan Kapicic, who voiced Colossus, is such a kind patient role who really does his best by Deadpool; this film really has a strong focus on the friendship between Deadpool and Colossus and Kapicic does a great job showing that. Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, Evan Peters and Tye Sheridan, who played Beast, Charles Xavier, Quicksilver and Cyclops respectively, make for such a fun cameo; they aren't in here long but the effect of them not wanting to engage with Reynolds' character works brilliantly.

However, the best performance came from Zazie Beetz, who played Domino. This role has such a quiet ease and confidence about her that is nice to see; this is made even better when she engages in quickfire banter with Deadpool wit for wit. Beetz really sells Domino as a more casual yet earnest hero, we haven't really seen anything like her before yet immediately we want to see more. This is a character who you can certainly describe as grounded amongst the carnage that is the setting of Deadpool 2 and she fits in nicely.

The Deadpool films like to occasionally make jokes around lazy writing, but this film does it quite a bit almost as an excuse to get away with lazy writing - which makes for a good punchline but not a good narrative. Throughout there's an emphasis on sacrificing moments of good narrative in order to preserve the comedic integrity of the film, without much of an effort to find a balance. Moments in which an important future element of the story is given away in order to make a joke means that the film loses a bit of suspense and ultimately it's a fairly predictable film. The number of new characters and subplots makes this rather busy and there was a lot that could've been either cut out of the feature or shortened for the sake of pacing. A common issue with sequels is when the main character suddenly focuses upon a legacy of theirs, often a kid entering their lives and they don't know how to responsibly handle this; doing this in a Deadpool film was a risk that didn't really pay off.

Brianna Hildebrand and Shioli Kutsuna, who played Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio respectively, are often put in the background of this film as a couple but don't really do all that much; this is quite disappointing in Hildebrand's case as it would have been nice to see this role built upon from the last film. Julian Dennison, who played Russell, is one of the most annoying performances to watch in the film; banking so much on Dennison to deliver a character we can empathise with and care about throughout the narrative of the film was a clear mistake. Jack Kesy, who played Black Tom Cassidy, is a fairly generic henchman role that puts on a tough persona and does little else; Kesy's character is more here to be a punchline and not an actual role. Eddie Marsan, who played the Headmaster, is such an uninspired antagonist that you wonder why someone of his acting calibre was cast in the role; quite simply this could have been anyone because the role did next to nothing and faded into the setting. Leslie Uggams, who played Blind Al, was a nice enough gimmick role in the first film but doesn't have much to do this time around; Uggams really feels tacked on to this film and didn't really lend anything to the narrative besides another setting for dialogue to occur in. Karan Soni, who played Dopinder, was such a fun role in the first film but didn't do so well in a repeat performance; Soni's role scrambles to find his own subplot and it's not as entertaining or as subtle as the first film.