Just yesterday I went and saw the highly anticipated Deadpool 2 in theaters, it was awesome! While not as good as the first one (sequels rarely are) it definitely captured the magic of the original and put its own twist on things to make it it’s own. The marketing team for this movie should be given awards themselves. For months the marketing has been amped up to 11 and taken no prisoners. A genius TV spot with David Beckham, a brilliant original single by the Canadian great Celine Dion, and a hilarious ad featuring Manchester United in a soccer match are just some of the brilliant ideas to come out of their marketing department. Originally I was going to do a post about Infinity War, but I felt that it would get lost among the many many theories circulating the internet as to what will happen in Avengers IV (Disassembled), so I opted for one of my favourite comic characters’ second film instead.
THE STORY SO FAR
Wade and Vanessa have reconciled their differences and Wade has been taking some freelance assassination work around the world. Colossus is still trying to get Wade to consider joining the X-Men full time to learn to be the hero he thinks he is. Dopinder is still driving his cab but he feels he wants to do more with his life than just drive DP around to his assassinations.
PLOT
So it’s no secret that this movie revolves around the formation of the X-Force, though it may not be the team you think it is. Wade takes it upon himself to protect a young mutant named Russell from the time travelling supersoldier/mutant Cable who thinks that Russell turns evil. Wade forms the X-Force from LinkedIn auditions to save the kid and stop Cable in the process. Blind Al, Dopinder, and Weasel make some great returns with notable new faces of Domino and Cable. Josh Brolin (of current Thanos fame) nails the gruff, angry, and vengeful Cable but also brings in a certain humanity as to why he is doing what he does.
The standout star for me in this film is a tough call. Between Ryan Reynolds BEING Deadpool/ Wade Wilson and Josh Brolin nailing his interpretation of Cable… Zazie Beets still takes the cake with her interpretation of Domino. While she doesn’t look 100% comic accurate, due to Zazie’s ethnicity, she definitely delivers a stellar performance as the luck based mercenary. Zazie delivers some of the best lines in the film and really steals the show every scene she’s in.
I don’t want to say anymore about the plot for fear of revealing something so let’s move onto the costumes.
COSTUMES
The costumes in this movie are perfect for each character. While Wade sports his typical red suit and Colossus and Negasonic sport their regular X-Men outfits, Cable and Domino’s costumes look like they were taken right out of the comic book.
Being part human/mutant and part cybernetic virus infected supersoldier, Cable’s costume looks pretty awesome. I was pleased that they streamlined Cable’s complicated origin story to just making him a sort of dangerous mutant hunter from the future and getting rid of the whole techno virus angle. In comic continuity he is the son of Cyclops (Scott Summers) and Madelyn Prior ( Jean Grey clone) who gets infected with a technovirus made by Apocalypse and is taken to the future where the technology could save him. As I said, it gets unnecessary complicated and I was happy that they got rid of this angle. That being said Cable’s costume definitely reflects this origin without directly stating it. His metal arm and cybernetic eye both dictate that he is from the future and has had some sort of body modifications done, whether voluntary or not. My favourite part of Cable’s entire ensemble though has to be his gun. He takes some state of the art tech and incorporates some awesome future tech into it to make a rifle that can fire bullets, lasers, concussive blasts, and grenades. When you see the gun you’ll know what I mean and probably want one yourself.
I will admit that I’m not that well versed in Domino’s comic history. Most of what I know I gleaned from her appearing in other works or from Variant Comics’ Youtube channel. That being said, while I might not know who she is I do know what she looks like and I can honestly say the costume department for this movie nailed it. While Domino’s trade mark outfit is skin tight leather with tactical gear attached, they definitely leaned more into the tactical aspect than the skin tight leather. Zazie Beets sports a very modern tactical looking ensemble while still maintaining one of Domino’s trademark properties, her silenced SMGs. Domino is known for using dual silenced SMGs with bayonets attached to them, which the prop and costume department perfectly replicated. Another trademark of Domino is of course the white patch around her left eye. Like I said I’m not 100% sure what this is from (historically speaking) but it is definitely an important aspect for her character.
CHARACTERS
The character list for this movie can be quite extensive, so I will highlight the most important characters and who plays them.
- Wade Wilson/ Deadpool – Ryan Reynolds
- Vanessa – Morena Baccarin
- Cable – Josh Brolin
- Domino – Zazie Beetz
- Russell Collins/ Firefist – Julian Dennison
- Weasel – T.J. Miller
Terry Crews, Bill Skarsgard, Lewis Tan, and Rob Delaney are all part of Deadpool’s X-Force team with a surprise cameo by Brad Pitt.
As I previously said Josh Brolin and Zazie Beetz were the standout stars in this movie for me. They perfectly captured the essence of their characters while still putting their own spin on them.
ACTION
This movie’s budget was doubled from the last movie and it’s very apparent in the opening scenes of the film. The choreography for the fight sequences were top notch and properly incorporated Deadpool’s improvisational fighting style into the choreography. While most movies will just focus on one type of choreography, this film very much made use of the environment and the tools therein to make some truly memorable fight sequences.
Again, there is a huge fight at the end that is truly spectacular, but I won’t say anything for fear of navigating too close to spoiler territory. Just know it involves Colossus in all his glory.
VILLAIN
So the marketing of the film has made Cable out to be the villain for the film and while that’s partially correct, it’s not entirely correct. While he is definitely the antagonist, I would hesitate to call him an actual villain. His motivations are pretty pure and most people would do the same thing he does if they were placed in his shoes. He slides back in time to stop a mutant from becoming evil and killing a lot of people. While he slides back far enough that the particular mutant is just a kid, his mission is not changed. This creates a very interesting dynamic between him and Wade. While Wade has no problems killing men and women he firmly draws a line at killing kids. Which is a huge point in an X-Force run that I’ve mentioned in previous posts. Just because someone is evil in the future doesn’t mean you can’t help them now as a kid to keep them from going evil. It really helps to establish Wade’s humanity as a person underneath all the sarcasm and dark humour. He does have a code, which is rare for someone in his line of work, but it is a code he sticks to.
All in all I think the movie was a really fun adventure into Deadpool’s story. I will be the first to admit that I think the first one is a better film, just for its sake of originality, but this was a solid follow up. It made it’s own path while still paying homage to the original one before it. I will say that I felt they added too many modern box office references for my liking. A few are hilarious, but about mid way through the movie they just feel forced. I would’ve like some more organic chemistry between the cast members because of how well they worked with each other.
Overall, I would rate this movie to be a solid 7.8/10. Like I said, it’s a solid film and a lot of fun to watch even with all their modern references and 4th wall breaking. If you were a fan of the first one I would highly recommend that you go see this one!
This spoiler free review was made with Barb Cottle in mind. May I never spoil anything for her ever again after the X-Men III: The Last Stand fiasco…
The Multiverse 
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