First Take: Deadpool 2- a super duper (ahem) team

Spoiler free as usual. Because this one actually spoils the death of Wolverine.

SYNOPSIS: Foul mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (AKA: Deadpool), brings together a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy of supernatural abilities from the brutal, time-traveling mutant, Cable.

The first film from Ryan Reynolds and his band of quite twisted screenwriters gave us a self proclaimed love story. This week, the sequel opened, and it has the unique stance of being the first R rated family film - and surprisingly, it is archetypical Deadpool mixed with the more tried and tested conventions of the superhero franchise, and the results are absolutely brilliant and hilarious.

David Leitch is at the helm of the bigger, badder and ruder sequel, and with a track record which includes co-directing the John Wick films, as well as some outstanding work on Atomic Blonde, he has the skillset required to balance the action (which there is a lot of) and the humour very well, and as expected, it’s paced with the same amount of flair as Tim Miller’s original film from 2016. Once again, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have blessed us with a brilliant script, and with Ryan Reynolds himself getting a writing credit, I’m not surprised that this film passed the 6 laugh test as quickly as it did, think about how well the first film handled it’s comedy, multiply it by a mighty dose of self-referential Disney-Fox jokes and add a little time travel to the mix, and you have the 1 hour 59 minutes that create this sequel’s charm. It’s shot really well by Jonathan Sela, and Tyler Bates provides a score that’s different to Junkie XL’s material for the original, but still fits in with the film’s unique charm- especially with the use of a choir to sing all that… and that’s the closest thing to a spoiler in this review.

Performance wise, once again Ryan Reynolds knocks it out of the park as Deadpool, it’s hard to see him and the character as separate entities anymore after this film, and that’s quite indicative of his work just getting the damn thing made. Working alongside him is a freshly de-gauntleted Josh Brolin, and unlike Thanos, Cable is a character who a lot of audiences will like towards the film’s ending, and he really does feel like the right man for the job. Returning from the first film are Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapicic as the voice of Colossus, Morena Baccarin and TJ Miller, and joining them to fill out the cast is Terry Crews, Zazie Beets, Julian Dennison and many others, but it is definitely safe to say that everyone is fantastic in the film. It really was a tough film to review given my expectations (and the amount of spoiler worthy material), but Deadpool 2 just nailed it.

THE VERDICT

Aside from a few plot issues, Deadpool 2 is consistently awesome. Especially the mid credits scene. But this film really does have a lot of bearing on Fox’s X-Men universe, now that we’ve seen the birth of the X-Force, how will it all fit together? Only time will tell, as well as multiple viewings. This film is a hell of a benchmark to beat, as it’s enjoyable, funny, and a brilliant 15 certificate.

RATING: 5/5