Making a good sequel is an extremely difficult task. As Wade is eager to remind you, Deadpool was such a runaway success that it became one of the highest grossing R rated movies of all time. How exactly are you supposed follow that up? Well, Deadpool 2's answer is to go bigger, bolder and ballsier. All too often when a sequel attempts to up the ante, it ends up losing sight of what made it's predecessor so great. Thankfully, this is not the case here. Deadpool 2 is a full-on and hilarious romp.
After tragedy befalls Wade Wilson (Reynolds), Mr Pool must enlist the help of some familiar faces and his newly assembled X-Force to help protect a teenage mutant (the always entertaining Julian Dennison) from Cable (Brolin), a fellow mercenary from the future.
The most noticeable difference between this movie and the first is the scale that the significantly larger budget allows for. Everything is bigger: the action, the gag reel, Deadpool's appetite for cocaine - everything has been dialled to eleven and impressively so. Gone are the days of leaving the ammo bag in the taxi 'by mistake' and in it's place we get some frantic, full-throttle set pieces. As you might expect from the man that brought you John Wick and that kickass hallway fight in Atomic Blonde, David Leitch crafts some delightfully brutal fight scenes that show off both the physicality of Cable (seriously, how is Brolin in such great shape at ... he's 50?! God damn!) and the invincibility of Deadpool. There are numerous fun and engaging action beats throughout - one chase sequence in particular is truly enthralling. You could argue that showcasing set pieces of this scale detracts from some of the simplistic charm of Deadpool, which may at times be true, but when the action is this good it's hard to care.
Yet, amongst the explosions, the humour that made everyone fall in love with this character shines through. I might even dare to say it's funnier than the first. There is something for everyone to laugh at. Extremely graphic slapstick? Check. Unapologetically crass testicle humour? By the barrel load. The jabs at the expense of movie studios and the superhero genre are back in full force. The movie also deserves credit for leaning fully into the bizarreness of the source material and including some of the more ridiculous characters in the X-Men roster. There are so many jokes and they are pretty much all funny. Personal highlights included the end credit scenes (which are oh so worth sticking around for) and an extended gag in the middle of the film that provoked the biggest laugh I've heard in a cinema in a very long time.
Perhaps the most surprising element of this movie is the inclusion of some surprisingly emotional moments. Between the curse words and dick jokes we get some really moving moments between the characters and the creators show some real restraint to avoid undercutting the tenderness of these moments with a joke, which gives this sequel a sense of stakes that the first may have lacked at times. In fact, all the character work is really strong. Josh Brolin gives a sinister and menacing performance, whilst putting in the effort to distinguish Cable from a certain other big baddie that he played recently. Zazie Beetz really shines as Domino and her personality elevates her character to one of the stars of the film. Of the retuning members, TJ Miller and Stefan Kapicic's Colossus are the standouts. Despite the strength of the supporting cast though, this is still very much Ryan Reynold's show, as he continues to demonstrate why he was born to play the merc' with a mouth.
Deadpool 2 is an extremely entertaining movie, without even a whiff of 'bigger-and-better-itus'. It takes everything that you loved about the first outing and quadruples it, adding some fresh and exciting elements along the way. It may even be better than the first.
4/5 Stars
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