May 22nd in Bridgeton, MO. The sequel to the 2016 debut, which grossed over $700 million worldwide, is directed by action film veteran David Leitch and stars Ryan Reynolds in the title role. This time around Deadpool seeks redemption by saving a young mutant Firesfist (Julian Dennison) from going down the wrong path. You see Deadpool is depressed after he is unable to **SPOILER ALERT** save his love interest's (Morena Baccarin) life after he botches a mission.
Firefist is housed at a Mutant Reeducation Center and he reaches his boiling point. The X-Men arrive to help, Deadpool is shacking up with them, but Firesfist kills a guard and Deadpool does the same. Both are sent to prison. While in prison, Cable (Josh Brolin) comes back into to kill Firefist in the "go back in time to set the future right" cliche. Cable fails but Deadpool and Firefist are able to escape. This is where Firefist ditches Deadpool and enlists the aid of the Juggernaut. This is where Deadpool's redemption comes in, he wants to save Firefist from getting a taste for murder which will lead to him killing Cable's family.
Deadpool feels the need to recruit his own "super team" to combat Cable. The team that's assembled is mostly for laughs except for Domino (Zazie Beetz). Who's power is luck and we see why. Firefist and Juggernaut head back to the Mutant Reeducation Center to murder the director. Cable agrees to give Deadpool one last chance to alter Firefist's future or he'll kill him. Cable, Deadpool and the rest of the X-Men go to meet Firefist and Juggernaut for the final showdown.
The budget for the sequel got a bump up to $110 million from the $58 million in the original. Deadpool 2 took in over $125 million on it's opening weekend and has grossed over $665 million worldwide as of June 14th. The film received an 82% Rotten Tomatoes rating which is right where it should be. There are some laugh out loud moments and good chuckles throughout. However, it doesn't really expand on the first film. A lot of the same jokes from the first film still work. They expand on the "loss of limb" site gag as Deadpool gets ripped in half by Juggernaut and we get to see Deadpool grow is lower half back. It's a funny scene. There are some really good site gags in the film and a lot of fun 80's pop culture references.
I had moved on from comic books by the time Deadpool showed up. I remember Cable from a 90s X-Men cartoon so I do not know much about them or whether or not the franchise strays too far from the source material. However, I can spot a lack of originality in a plot. That's what we have here. I touched upon the "hero seeks redemption" aspect but earlier. The "traveling through time to set things right" aspect is taking right from the Terminator franchise and Looper. Time travel is always an interesting plot point but it seems to muddy things up more and there's always the "I've only got one time jump" cliche. It's here too. Deadpool's team assembly is taken directly from 1999's Mystery Men, right down to an invisible character. Then there's the whole "protagonist wants to die so he can join his true love in the afterlife" nonsense. The two films in this franchise were made for under $200 million and have grossed $1.5 billion so far. The title character is not going to die. This is a problem within the MCU, death usually doesn't mean a whole lot and no one kills off a golden goose.
I really liked Beetz as Domino. I thought she had a good rapport with Deadpool and had some good lines. The filmmakers took some heat about the character being nothing more than eye candy,
which may be true but I thought Beetz did a nice job and the character came off really well. I do feel that TJ Miller's character has run it's course. I guess the filmmakers feel he skewed well in the first film and gave him a larger role. It was too much. Dopinder (Karan Soni) got a little more screen time but his worked better. Quite frankly I thought that there wasn't enough of Blind Al (Leslie Uggams). Her character got cut while Miller got a larger role. Didn't seem right to me.
The filmmakers played it safe and they got another home run. Where they go from here is a concern. At some point, the jokes are going to get stale. Where can you take a character that cannot die? Will there be a point when the audience just says "enough already?" It's a fun film that is a good time. The post credit scenes were quite funny too.
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