He's back, and this time, he's on a mission to find a family. After a devastating loss, Wade Wilson must protect a troubled young mutant from Cable, a time-traveling cyborg with a big gun. To even the odds, he assembles his own super-team: the X-Force (management is not responsible for dismemberment). Deadpool 2 takes the meta-humor and R-rated violence of the original and adds a surprising amount of heart. This is the rare sequel that might just be better than the first.

• Title: Deadpool 2
• Director: David Leitch (the guy who also gave us John Wick, which, yeah, makes total sense)
• Key Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Zazie Beetz, Julian Dennison, Morena Baccarin
• Genre: Superhero... kinda? It's a superhero movie that took the genre, shot it in the knee-caps, stuffed it in a zamboni, and then made a self-referential joke about it. So let's go with "Comedic-Action-Meta-Tragedy."
• Runtime: Like, 2 hours-ish? But it flies by, man. It really does.
• Release Date: Back in the halcyon days of 2018, when we were all younger and more innocent.
• Rating: A very hard R. Like, R-for-"Are-you-sure-we-can-show-that?" R.

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The Lowdown

Lemme try to explain this without giving away the farm. So, our boy Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, is in a. place. A dark, sad, emotionally wrecked place. Let's just say life ain't all chimichangas and unicorn glitter right out the gate. He's living with the grizzled, non-nonsense Colossus and the perpetually eye-rolling Negasonic Teenage Warhead, trying his darndest to be a X-Men intern. It's. not going great.

See, the core problem isn't some big world-ending threat. Not at first. It's way more personal, way more human. He's grappling with loss, with the point of it all, and in a moment of trying to do something vaguely heroic, he ends up in a super-max prison for mutant nuisances. This is where he meets this absolute firecracker of a kid, Russell, played by Julian Dennison, who is basically a walking, talking ball of teenage angst with the power to shoot fire from his fists. They have a. connection. A messed-up, foul-mouthed, trauma-bonded connection.

And then, bam. The future shows up. Or, more accurately, a grumpy, chrome-covered, time-traveling badass from the future named Cable, played by Josh Brolin, shows up with one mission: to kill this kid, Russell. Why? Well, that's the movie, bro. Deadpool, in his infinite, fractured wisdom, decides nope, not on my watch, and assembles a team of. let's call them "specialists". to protect the kid. He calls it X-Force. It's the most ambitious, poorly-planned, and hysterically misguided superhero team-up you will ever see in your entire life. Ever.

The Vibe

Yo, the vibe is. unhinged. It's like the first movie drank six cans of Red Bull, read a bunch of Nietzsche, and then decided to do a line of Pixy Stix off a copy of The Uncanny X-Men. It's still got that breakneck, fourth-wall-shattering, joke-a-millisecond pace we all fell in love with, but there's this new layer underneath it all. A layer of. genuine heart? And I'm not just talking about the one he occasionally rips out of a dude's chest.

It's wild, man. One minute you're cackling at a joke so specific and niche you feel seen, the next you're getting hit right in the feels with a moment of such raw, unexpected sincerity it kinda takes your breath away. Then, before you can even process that, you're watching a dude get sliced in half by a superhero whose only power is being lucky. The tonal whiplash is a feature, not a bug. It's a beautiful, chaotic mess that somehow, against all odds, holds together.

Shout-Outs

Alright, seriously though. Now, let's talk about what makes this thing sing.

First off, Ryan Reynolds. I mean, obviously. The man is Deadpool. It's the role he was genetically engineered for. But here, he gets to stretch a little. The sarcasm is still dialed to eleven, the pop-culture references are more esoteric than a film student's thesis, but there's a sadness in his eyes behind the mask. You feel the weight on him. It's a legitimately great performance wrapped in a CGI suit and a thousand one-liners.

And Josh Brolin as Cable? Chef's kiss. Dude is just a mountain of grim, grizzled intensity. He’s the perfect straight man to Deadpool's clown prince. Their chemistry is this bizarre, antagonistic, lowkey flirty thing that absolutely carries the movie. You buy that these two idiots would hate each other and also, somehow, become the best partners ever. It's a buddy-cop movie where one buddy is a nihilistic mercenary and the other is a cyborg from a post-apocalyptic hellscape. You know, normal stuff.

But wanna hear something crazy? The scene-stealer for me, hands down, was Zazie Beetz playing the role of Domino. Her power is literally "luck." And the way they visualize that on screen is just. genius. It’s not flashy; it’s just things improbably, hilariously, going her way. She’s so chill about it, too. Just a vibe. "I'm just lucky." Ugh, iconic. She is the coolest person in this entire universe and I would watch a whole trilogy about her, no question.

And the cameos. Oh my god, the cameos. I couldn't even mention most of them because the sheer surprise is half the fun. There is one, however, that involves a certain A-list superstar in a role you will NEVER see coming and literally had me screaming with laughter. It might be the single greatest meta-joke in cinema history. No, I'm not exaggerating. Fight me.

And can we just appreciate that they somehow made a subplot about a dusty, broken Vanessa's photo into the emotional core of the whole damn movie? Like, how? How do you do that? Wild.

The Niggles

It ain't perfect, not gonna lie. I gotta keep it a buck with you.

But sometimes, just sometimes, the joke machine goes into overdrive. There's a feeling at a few spots that they're just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. A reference lands, then two don't, then a third one absolutely kills. It can feel a bit exhausting, like you're mentally scrolling through Twitter at lightspeed. You miss a beat because you're still processing the last three.

I get it, the whole "emotional core" thing is a bold move. But there were moments where the switch from "deep, meaningful pain" to "dick joke" was so abrupt it felt. jarring. Not in a good, whiplash way, but in a "did the writers get bored of the feeling stuff?" way. I wanted them to sit in the sadness for a second longer before undercutting it. Let the wound breathe before you pour whiskey on it, you know?

Also, this is a bit of a minor quibble, but the main villain, aside from Cable's initial mission, is a little. meh. He's just a generic bad guy who hates mutants. We've seen it. He's basically a plot device to get everyone to the final set piece. After the brilliantly personal stakes of the first film's villain, this one felt a bit like a step back. They kinda knew it, too, which is why they don't focus on him much. But still.

So, final score? I'm gonna give Deadpool 2 a 9/10. Seriously. It took the blueprint of the first one, sandblasted off the shiny new car smell, and built a monster truck with a nitro booster on top. It's bigger, somehow more emotional, and just as, if not more, hysterically offensive and clever.

Who's this for? Bro. If you liked the first one, you'll love this. If you're a comic book nerd who gets the deep-cut references, you will feel so validated. If you just need to laugh until soda comes out of your nose at things you probably shouldn't be laughing at, this is your movie. If you've ever wondered what a superhero movie would look like if it was directed by a hyper-caffeinated, emotionally-stunted genius. well, here you go.

Who might want to skip it? If you're easily offended, for the love of god, just keep away. This movie is gonna personally affront you and your entire lineage. It's not for those who like superhero stories to be grim Christopher Nolan-esque affairs, so if that's you, look away. And if you haven't seen the first Deadpool, you are lost, not just on plot, but on the rhythm of the whole thing, man. Go do some homework. Final closing advice? Round up your besties, order an irresponsible amount of pizza, and just let the madness wash over you. Don't think too hard. Just feel it. And for the love of all that is holy, STAY FOR THE POST-CREDIT SCENES. They are, and I say this with the full weight of my critical faculties, the most important scenes in the entire film. They fix things. You'll see. It's a masterpiece of controlled chaos. A beautiful, ridiculous, heartfelt mess. Just like its hero.

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References

• Ryan Reynolds IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005351/
• Deadpool (2016) - The one that started it all: https://cinewatched.com/deadpool-2016-review
• Josh Brolin as Cable - A deeper dive: https://cinewatched.com/cable-comic-origins
• The official X-Force roster (comics): https://www.marvel.com/teams-and-groups/x-force
• Director David Leitch's other work: https://cinewatched.com/david-leitch-action-style