When Green Lantern meets Thanos: Deadpool 2 Review
Image Courtesy of Marvel Entertainment
The “Merc with a Mouth” is back. Just as he promised in the post-credit scene of his first movie, he’s brought along time-traveling X-Men -- including Cable, played by Josh Brolin who recently played Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Newcomers can jump right into this movie without having seen the first, as the films are self-contained stories that, for the most part, stand on their own.
Some might find the crass humor off-putting, but those who were fans of the first movie will definitely enjoy this one, as it retains the same sense of humor as the last one. Additionally, there are plenty of X-men and Deadpool comic book references to make hardcore comic book fans happy. True to the comic book character, Deadpool 2 continues the tradition of making fun of pop-culture. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) pokes fun at everything, from Dubstep to Frozen as well as Reynolds’ Green Lantern movie.
Deadpool 2 is fairly standard for a superhero movie, though it does try to inject a bit of heart by continuing to build on the relationship Wade has with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). The rest of the film revolves around Cable’s mission to hunt down a mutant boy from the past in order to prevent a future tragedy, while Deadpool attempts to save the boy. While Deadpool has, for the most part, done a good job of portraying its characters as comic-accurate as possible, don’t expect the same from Cable, whose laughably convoluted comic book origin is altered heavily for his big-screen debut.
Cable’s more serious demeanor serves as a good counterpoint to Deadpool’s joke-a-minute attitude and is the butt of a joke or two that stabs fun at the dark and grim tone of DC’s Extended Universe of films. It’s a difficult thing to balance the irreverent humor integral to a character like Deadpool with the more serious tone that the story is trying to tell, but the movie pulls it off for the most part.
Weasel (T.J. Miller), Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) and Dopinder (Karan Soni) also return as Deadpool’s gang of misfit friends, joined by the X-Men Colossus and Mega Sonic Teenage Warhead. Deadpool 2 also adds Zazie Beats as Domino, a mutant who has the power of being incredibly lucky, and several obscure X-Men characters that comprise this movie’s version of X-Force, including Rob Delaney as Peter, an otherwise normal guy who thought it would be fun to join. It also includes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo by a certain A-list celebrity.
This also marks the first time we see “X-Force,” which in the comics is usually portrayed as a more violent version of the X-Men. An X-Force movie has been rumored for years, but given that Disney is currently in the process of acquiring 21st Century Fox and that the next X-Men movie has dropped the “X-Men” part of the title, it remains to be seen whether the Deadpool franchise will survive the proposed acquisition.