Deadpool 2: A Coty J. Spalding Review
Updated: Jul 19, 2018
Written by: Coty J. Spalding
Plot Summary
Picking up after the events of the first Deadpool, Wade Wilson is now back to work as a paid mercenary taking out international crime bosses left and right when he’s not at home in New York with his fiancé, Vanessa. Unfortunately, Wade’s work follows him home when a gang of armed men break into his apartment and attempt to kill him but take Vanessa instead. *insert infamous commentary by Gail Simone* Depressed and lacking any will to live, Wade tries and fails to kill himself and is then taken in by Colossus who tries to give him a new purpose in life by becoming an X-Man. Wade reluctantly agrees and begins his first mission, stopping a Kiwi 16 year old boy named Russell with pyrokinetic abilities. Wade subdues the boy, but realizes that he’s been abused by the head of his foster home, the Essex Home for Troubled Youths. Seeing Russell as not being truly at fault for his actions, Wade murders one of the orderlies and attempts to do the same to Essex himself but is stopped by Colossus. Wade and Russell are then taken to a special mutant prison called The Icebox where both of their powers are nullified. Seeing as how he still has cancer without his healing factor, Wade discourages Russell from attempting to befriend him and instead suggests that he find the biggest guy in the yard and make friends with them. Wade changes his tune however when we’re introduced to Josh Brolin’s second Marvel character of the year, Cable, a cyborg policeman from the future who’s come back in time to kill Russell before he can become an adult and eventually murder his wife and daughter.
Wade and Cable’s fight eventually leads to them being blow outdoors with the Icebox prisoners being transferred to a new facility. Wade returns to New York and reaches out to a woman named Domino, a mutant with the ability to be perpetually lucky. Cable, Wade, and Domino all make their way to the convoy carrying Russell, but the truck turns over in the midst of all the chaos and we find out that Russell took Wade’s advice and made friends with Cain Marko AKA The unstoppable Juggernaut! Naturally, Cain makes short work of the three of them and escapes with Russell to the Essex Home where Russell plans to murder the head of the home, but Wade, Domino, and Cable return along with Colossus to try and stop Russell from doing something he might regret.
Wade tries to talk to Russell but Russell doesn’t trust him anymore, so Wade takes a drastic measure to talk sense into him by slapping on a power dampening collar from The Icebox, standing between Essex and Russell, and telling Russell that if he really wants to kill someone tonight he’ll have to kill him. Russell doesn’t relent however and tries to kill Essex anyway, so Cable opens fire on the boy, but Wade takes the shot for him which finally breaks through to Russell who gives up on killing Essex. Russell tries to remove the collar, but Wade insists that he wants to die so that he can be with Vanessa again. Everyone accepts his request, save for Cable who goes back fifteen minutes to when he, Wade, and Domino first arrived at the Essex Home and slips the arcade token he’d stolen from Wade into his costume, causing it to stop the bullet when Cable tries to shoot at Russell this time. – Huh. That’s the second time this year where Josh Brolin has used time travel to prevent someone’s death. How about that? – Anyway, after that Russell and Domino unlock Wade’s collar and everyone heads home to their happy ending.
PROS:
Ryan Reynolds is still hilarious as Wade. His comedic timing is spot on and he’s surprisingly good in the rare moments of drama.
Josh Brolin does not disappoint as Cable. What I like about him is that he’s clearly the straight man to Wade, but he’s not completely humorless and stiff. He has an actual personality. He’s not a machine, he’s an actual person. And he hates dubstep, so he’s automatically the best character in any Marvel movie ever.
Julian Dennison plays Russell and this kid is fantastic! Russell is no two ways about it, a little brat. He’s basically the little jerk who calls you homophobic remarks on Xbox Live, but he also brings an honest sensitivity to the role. He’s not a bad kid, he’s just alone and has been treated badly. If somebody were to actually stand by him and show him a better way to be. And I especially love how when he’s actually starting his killing spree he’s literally quoting what the head of the Essex home would always say when he tried to torture the mutant out of him, “Blessed are those who are healed by my hand.” He’s taken the words that were used to torment him and is turning them around on his tormentor, and when he keeps quoting whenever he kills as an adult, it’s almost like he’s taken all the pain that the world sent his way and is throwing it back out at everyone. And plus, the kid just plain has really good comedic delivery.
Zazie Beats plays Domino and she’s fantastic. While Ryan’s Deadpool is more wacky references and Meta jokes and Cable is dry insult humor, Zazie plays Domino as just a sassy bitch. She knows that no one that in the world can touch her, so she can say whatever she wants and get away with it. She doesn’t use it to be rude though, more she just uses it to assert herself. And I really like how we actually get to see how luck can be a super power. Someone tries to shoot her? The gun jams. She jumps out of a plane during high winds? Who cares? The Juggernaut tosses her out of a truck? No worries, she’ll just land on a big old inflatable mascot for a car dealership. More please!
Negasonic Teenage Warhead has a girlfriend! Yay for her! And yay for representation! Now if only the movies teens are actually allowed to see could get in on that.
Credit to Stefan… Uhh… Stefan K., and Andre… Uh… Andre T., for their combined work as Colossus. Andre’s voice is perfect for the giant tin man and Stefan’s motion capture is really good. It’s not Andy Serkis as Caesar or anything, but he does a good job.
Morena Baccarin while not here for long, does a pretty nice job as Vanessa. She’s still just as sweet and lovably crass, and the last scene with her and Wade is just so beautiful. Not the last, last scene, but the last scene before the credits.
The last scene of Wade and Vanessa in the film proper is just so wonderful and lovely. I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen the film yet, but it’ll put a tear in your eye.
The post credits scene is all you can ask for from a Deadpool movie with time travel. ‘Nuff said.
CONS:
I was okay with it at first, but on a repeat viewing view, it bugs me how many jokes are just repeated from the first movie. And honestly, there’s a bit midway through the film about Wade having a baby’s legs but an adult’s upper body, that’s just the most bizarre, slightly off putting joke in the film. A few callbacks are fine, but this feels more like just doing the same joke over again.
The action is fine, but honestly expected better from one of the directors of John Wick and the sole director of Atomic Blonde. Come on, David, you can do better than this.
I’m not against clichés honestly, tropes are tools, but if there is one trope I’ve never especially cared for, it’s when a character hears another character say something mean and takes it to heart even if the character didn’t actually mean it. Wade thinks Cable is after him at first, so in order to keep Russell out of harm’s way, Wade keeps saying he doesn’t care about him, and this is why Russell decides he can’t trust him anymore during the climax. I’m pretty sure Russell’s smart enough to know what Wade was trying to do. Ryan, Rhett, Paul, come on you guys are more clever than this.
Deadpool 2 is a bit of a disappointment compared to how good, both the first movie and the last R rated effort from Fox’s X-Men franchise were, but it’s far from a bad movie. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out. I’m gonna give Deadpool 2, a 3 out of 5.
5 - Deadpool 2 = 3!
Wade, please don’t.