Here’s the thing. Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool, but I felt like this was a pretty big drop off from the first.
So you know when you go to a restaurant and you eat the absolute best meal of your life? Then you to back to that exact same restaurant eat the exact same meal, but it’s just not the same feeling? You’re shocked, you were ready to be blown away again, you’ve had this exact same dish before, but for some reason, things seem different. Well this is how I would sum up Deadpool 2.
I remember back in 2016, sitting down to watch Deadpool and from the very opening credits I was laughing so hard and I was hooked right in. Not only was it such a financial success, the move itself paved the way for future comic book movies for years to come (like Logan). It simply changed the game, so it’s no surprise that it only took 2 years for FOX to pump out the Deadpool sequel. So as I sat down, things were oddly familiar, the opening credits poke fun at the James Bond openings, but I just wasn’t laughing quite like I did 2 years prior. It just felt shoed in. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I get it, these are Deadpool traits and they are what made the first so unique and ground breaking. I just didn’t want a repeat performance the second time around.
This time it’s a family story, this movie is all about the family dynamic and what it means to be a family. I’m serious, the whole meaning of the movie is finding out what it takes and what it means to belong to some sort of family. Wade and Vanessa want to put a bun in the oven but when tragedy strikes, Wade must place his heart else where and learn to be part of a new family; the X-Men. Along the way he attempts to create his own team, X-Force, which obviously goes horribly wrong, but a sequence involving said X-Force was one of the highlights of the movie for me. Don’t get me wrong, I had some fun with Deadpool 2, but now waiting days to write my review, I view the whole movie as forgettable. It just seemed so jumbled and all over the place, it’s a movie excuse to set up the future instalments in this franchise. They even make jokes alluding to this very thing, but it just seems so poorly put together. Yes, they introduced Cable (Josh Brolin) who did a fine job. He’s a great character but he really didn’t add anything special to this movie or universe. I want to explore his character some more and him and Reynolds have terrific chemistry together, so that at least is a positive but overall, Cable was a serious meh for me. The person who steals the show and is by far the best part of this movie is Domino (Zazie Beetz) I dont even wanna imagine this movie without her in it. She steals every scene she’s in, the way the movie portrays her super power of being lucky on the big screen, was incredible. It’s without doubt the best part of the entire movie and the sequences when they are displaying her powers were just special in my mind. She has some serious potential in this universe and I can’t wait to see where they take her from here.
Yes, there are a ton of little Easter eggs and references, they allude to a ton of world building but it didn’t add much. You can only make the same joke so many times before it runs dry and stale. The villains are sub-par at most. I think that’s the weakest part of the movie, and why I think the third act falls flat on its face. I’m just kind of disappointed by the movie. I know the effort is there, I love all the people involved, just something seemed off this time around. I think it’s because we’ve already had the experience. So when you try pretty much do the same thing over again, it might not stick and land as well as the first time around. This is just my opinion. I know people are going to love this movie, I just really didn’t. I want to keep seeing Deadpool and exploring the new characters that were introduced. But I think they need to seriously consider the future of this franchise and make sure the next one is a fresh take on this material. You can’t possibly get away with doing the exact same thing three times in a row. Fans won’t stand for that. You can go in so many directions that you need a good writing team and idea for the third.
Overall I found Deadpool 2 to be kind of a mess. I just felt like they tried to hard to build a universe for Deadpool rather than just make a great second installment. There is so much potential here because of how brilliant Reynolds plays the character and they want this to succeed. But maybe they rushed into the sequel, remember it took over a decade to get the first, great things take time. I still think this universe and the future of Deadpool has an insanely bright future. This was just unfortunately a miss-step.
Check ya later.
Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Deadpool 2 = 76/100
