Before we dive into this “Deadpool 2” review, I should have you know that I am actually writing this review on vacation. You might be asking these two questions:
QUESTION 1: “Jack, why are you taking a vacation? You don’t deserve a vacation! I want more content out of your blog! I’m your overlord! Why aren’t you listening?”
QUESTION 2: “Jack, you’re on vacation, why are you doing this? Just enjoy yourself! Doesn’t blogging get in the way of your relaxation!”
I have a couple answers. To specify, I have one for the first question and another for both questions.
ANSWER 1: My latest piece of content here was published during this exact vacation, so f*ck you.
ANSWER 2: No, blogging is not getting in the way of my vacation, I intended on blogging no matter what people think.
Nevetheless, the powers of my creative juices are flowing and I’m willing to deliver some great content! Speaking of which, you may be asking, where am I vacationing? The answer, Walt Disney World, and I must say, this place has tons of kids. One place that will be getting more kids is the US state of California. A couple by the name of Paul and Genevieve are currently expecting, and to add in another piece to the puzzle, they live in California. their journey to reach this point however, was one through hell. This is all explained… in “What the IVF?!”
“What the IVF?” is a relatively new series on YouTube starring the recently mentioned couple, Paul and Genevieve. This series documents everything up to the duo’s journey to conception, and unfortunately for them, it wasn’t all that pretty. Actually, I take that back, it was pretty. I’d say it’s pretty terrifying! The two encounter unfortunate realities in sex, tests, appointments, and scary things that are smaller and less attractive than the Seattle Space Needle. You can find the latest “WTIVF?” content on the series’s dedicated YouTube channel. One such example is their latest episode, where as the title says, the two try EVERYTHING. I think that’s just amazing, because the two didn’t try bungee jumping. SPOILER ALERT! Be sure to subscribe to the “WTIVF?” YouTube channel, check out their website, and visit their other social media pages! All the links are listed below, so please check them out! Also be sure to tell them that Jack Drees sent ya over!
WTIVF? WEBSITE: http://www.whattheivf.com/
WTIVF? YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCILXSidkzWgwrQ5Oa1py78w/featured?disable_polymer=1
WTIVF? TWITTER: https://twitter.com/WTivF
WTIVF? INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/wtivf/
WTIVF? FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/What-The-IVF-288868031634125/
“Deadpool 2” is directed by David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, John Wick) and stars Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern, The Hitman’s Bodyguard), Morena Baccarin (Firefly, Gotham), Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War, No Country For Old Men), Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Geostorm), Terry Crews (The Expendables, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), Lewis Tan (Into the Badlands, Iron Fist), TJ Miller (Silicon Valley, The Emoji Movie), and Rob Delaney (Catastrophe, Burning Love). From the asshats of a studio known as Twentieth Century Fox, known for making pieces of trash including “Snatched,” “Fantastic Four” (make your choice on that one), “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked,” “Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds In Paradise,” and “Freddy Got Fingered,” comes their latest attempt at not trying to f*ck up the character of Deadpool. The movie “Deadpool 2” is about Wade Wilson, who is trying to form a team of mutants in order to protect a boy from the evil Cable.
This review, at least to me, is rather overdue. “Deadpool 2” was released on the third weekend of May this year. I REALLY wanted to see this a lot earlier than I did, but hey, I finally witnessed what I’ve been missing all this time. Apparently “I Feel Pretty,” a movie dedicated to a completely different audience and one that didn’t even get many great reviews, was a much more important task to take on during “Deadpool 2’s” opening weekend. I didn’t even see “Book Club” around that time, a much more recent release and something more people were talking about at that point. Let me just say, I’m an idiot, but at least I’m smart enough to know that. The point is, part of me regrets not seeing this movie earlier. And I say this regardless of my ultimate thoughts.
“Deadpool 2” is one of my most anticipated movies of the year, BY FAR one of the best marketed movies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve had positive thoughts delivered to me from people I know. Any movie that embraces the fact that they’re from the studio that brought you “27 Dresses” is a movie that you know is going to be good. In stores like Walmart, to promote the new movie, Fox released special slipcovers to some of their older movies, including some in the X-Men universe, where “Deadpool” is photobombing! Not to mention, this is a sequel to one of my favorite movies of 2016. When I did my top 10 list at the end of the year, “Deadpool” made it to my top 5. I loved the humor, the action, Ryan Reynolds’s performance, the overall script, and the fourth wall breaking. I was, naturally, very excited for the sequel as time passed. I mean, why wouldn’t I be? In a day and age where we are saturated with comic book movies and superhero movies, the IP of “Deadpool” in the realm of film delivers a breath of fresh air in ways. I was really looking forward to this movie, and as far as my response to it, I gotta say this was absolutely worth my time. Now I will say, like most sequels, this installment doesn’t surpass the original. However, it does what a sequel should do. It manages to maintain a similar feel to the original film while still effectively continuing the journey of the characters we care about. All the interesting and lovable characters, Wade, Vanessa, Weasel, Blind Al, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Colossus, Dopinder, they’re back, and they have not turned to s*it! They’re all funny, charming, and raw. That last one may be a bit of stretch, but regarding the universe which this movie takes place, everything just felt like it fell into place. You’ve even got some FANTASTIC new characters, a couple who by the way we will eventually get to.
Without revealing enormous details to this movie, “Deadpool 2” is told in such an interesting manner that just makes it more enjoyable than it would be if it were told in other fashions. Deadpool narrates throughout and just makes it a thrilling experience of a film. After some serious thoughts, I gotta declare Ryan Reynolds an official utter god of narration. Congrats, Ryan Reynolds! You have officially joined the ranks with people like Morgan Freeman, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and William Shatner as the official gods of narration. I will say though, Ryan, if you’re reading this post, this will not make everyone forget about “Green Lantern.” This story is told in a somewhat similar way to how the first one was told, but with some differences in the mix. I don’t see it as unoriginal, I think it’s one of the most effective ways a story such as the one “Deadpool 2” provides can be told, so well done!
Speaking of things that are well done, this movie contains a number of references to things you may know from pop culture. If you are trying to go into this movie completely blind and you don’t want to know a SINGLE SOLITARY THING THIS MOVIE REFERENCES, either skip over this list or leave the post. Keep in mind, these are not the exact references, these are just properties that has some sort of reference in the film.
Some references include:
- Top Gun
- Say Anything
- My Little Pony
- Other Marvel properties
- Passion of the Christ
- Bambi
- The Lion King
- Saw VII
- The DC Universe, and Batman
- John Wick
- Fox & Friends
- The Human Centipede
- The Terminator
- The Goonies
I like all of these references, and I even gotta say that a number of them were possibly better than some of the references in another movie I watched this year, “Ready Player One,” which is amazing, because some would argue that movie is sort of built around references.
Let’s talk about Wade Wilson. I’ll say, even if the alter ego of “Deadpool” weren’t a thing, I gotta go ahead and say that I would love to hang out with Mr. Wilson himself. And part of it has to do with, much like in the first movie, Ryan Reynolds’s overall performance as the character. If I had to think about the best superhero interpretation of all time, although in this case it’s more of an anti-hero, Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool would certainly be in the conversation. He just takes a character which on paper, is already funny enough, takes it, and applies “awesome cream” to it. Two movies in, Ryan Reynolds has nailed the character to the tenth degree that at this point, I can’t imagine any other actor playing the character of Deadpool. Seriously, watch this movie, or the first one for that matter, and you can’t imagine someone else on screen saying “Is there a motherf*cking tub somewhere?! This f*cked-up unicorn needs a f*cking bath! Seriously! I’ll put this bitchface somewhere! For f*ck’s sake! It needs to be inside of something and I can’t take it to Cher because apparently I now have a restraining order from her! And no, don’t say take the unicorn to Stan Lee! That guy’s a c*ck! He didn’t sign my f*cking comic book!”
Next up, we have Morena Baccarin’s character of Vanessa, and over the past couple of years, this character has truly grown on me. Part of it may be because I’m a straight, white, hormonal teenage boy who doesn’t know all what the world is cracked up to be, but nevertheless. Let me just say that the romance between Vanessa and Wade in these movies, is one of the all time best romances I’ve seen on film. The dialogue between them, the vibe given off from watching them, the overall sense of connection they have, it’s a dramatic symphony on screen. The character of Vanessa, by herself, is great. But put her together with Wade, you’ve got a whole different ballgame.
When it comes to this film’s main antagonist, Cable, I got to say, he’s terrific. He might be just as good, if not better, as Francis, the villain from the first “Deadpool.” He’s played by Josh Brolin, who I think is a spectacular choice to play the role based on his performance, not to mention it brings a very coincidental moment in movie history since Brolin was in another superhero movie based on a Marvel property released a few weeks prior to this one as the main antagonist. If you have to ask me if I had to choose between Cable and Thanos and tell you which villain is better, I’d personally pick Thanos, however when it comes to the character of Cable himself, he does not disappoint. And that’s a good thing because Cable was probably highly anticipated since his name was mentioned at the end of the credits in the first “Deadpool.”
One thing that might come off as different and interesting about “Deadpool 2” is that we find out a couple things about Negasonic Teenage Warhead. First, her character is LGBT. Second, she has an on-screen relationship with someone of her sex. This is the first relationship of this kind in a superhero movie and while it didn’t really have much of an effect on the movie as a whole, it made me think to myself, I haven’t seen everything in a superhero movie, and there will probably be more to see as time goes by. And I will say, having seen this, makes Brianna Hildebrand a solid casting choice for Negasonic Teenage Warhead considering she’s gay in real life.
I’m not gonna talk about all of the X-Force addons, but I really do want to talk about two in particular, and to start this off, let’s talk about Domino. She’s lucky, which as of watching this movie, I’ll say is TOTALLY A SUPERPOWER. Domino is played by Zazie Beatz, and while she is on the FX show “Atlanta” and somewhat known by a number of people for that sort of thing, this movie is probably gonna help her in the future and make her land more roles! Also, after watching this movie, I will say that luck is not only a superpower, but at times, a funny superpower. Be sure to look out for what I mean.
Now, let’s dive into my most anticipated character in the entirety of “Deadpool 2,” a guy by the name of Peter. When I did my review for the final trailer of “Deadpool 2,” here’s a bit of what I said:
“I seriously want some more promotion with this character, I want the merchandisers to shove this character into every store as an action figure! I want Funko to make him a Pop figure! Also make exclusives for him at GameStop! FYE! Walmart! Hot Topic! Target! Walgreen’s! 7-Eleven! San Diego Comic-Con! New York Comic Con! Emerald City Comic Con! Rhode Island Comic Con! Toys R Us even though they’re going out of business! Blockbuster if they come back as a toy shop! RadioShack if they make a comeback and rename themselves as ToyShack and develop a bigger market for remote control cars! Maybe somewhere in Kim Kardashian’s ass! I want Peter to go far and wide as Peter’s eyes can see!”
I apologize to all souls who happen to go by the name of Peter, but a major lesson I was focusing on was “F*ck everyone named Peter (except this one we’re talking about).” Honestly, I was a tad disappointed by Peter. But then again, I had REALLY high expectations for him. I had nothing against Peter, but you barely get Peter in this movie. So I kinda blame the writers on this one. Peter himself was awesome, and also goes to show that people without powers can also be heroes. It just goes to show that it doesn’t always matter who the character is, it doesn’t matter how amazing they are in one way, in this example it’s on paper or a trailer, they can ultimately be a disappointment in another medium. You can take a character as awesome as Batman, and put him in something s*itty like “Batman and Robin,” which kind of can ultimately make that iteration of Batman s*itty as well. I like Peter, and what you see of him here in this film, is nice, but I wanted to see MORE of him.
One thing that’s totally great about not only the first “Deadpool” movie but the property of Deadpool in general is its need if you will to poke fun at random things. This movie manages to poke fun at another superhero movie with an R rating, “Logan.” I will say, I didn’t see “Logan,” so I won’t get into detail about it, but I know some things about it, and what this movie does regarding that movie is nothing short of a treat. The first line in the movie is “F*ck Wolverine.” You know you’re getting something fantastic with that line! I won’t go into detail, but the way they handle the meta humor not just with that, but just about everything else in “Deadpool 2” is marvelous!
Something that honestly kind of shocked me is that the movie, based on the trailers and the way that this movie’s marketing made me think before actually going to see it, is the vibe that was provided at various points, especially towards the end, of the film. This is the second installment of this iteration of “Deadpool,” and usually when I see second installments, I think to myself, if this goes well, there might as well be another sequel. While I would love to see another “Deadpool” movie, I feel like that could potentially come off as forced depending on what happens. This second movie had a very satisfying ending that if “Deadpool 3” were to ever be announced, I would sort of be excited, but another part of me would ask why that’s even a thing. I don’t even know why I’m keeping a comment like that, considering how I read that “Deadpool 3” is already in development. To my utter surprise, I’d actually prefer getting a sequel to “Blade Runner 2049” despite its super satisfying ending because I feel like there is more to be told in the “Blade Runner” universe. I’d even rather see a sequel to “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” because while I didn’t particularly think that movie had the overall quality the first one contained, I can still imagine more in that franchise being told. “Deadpool 2” has an ending that makes you go, “Well, that felt like an ending.” Part of it may be due to other events that occur beforehand, but still, when all events are taken and put together in a timeline, someone like me would think to themselves, I saw what I need to see. I’m not saying I didn’t like what I saw, it’s not like I hate the franchise now and I’m just done with it, I just think the franchise has really reached a point if anything else is told, it would be tacked on or unnecessary.
Although if they do make a third one, I gotta say, something I saw in this second installment, gave me an idea for the third one. Since TJ Miller has been in the news recently for some bad reasons, the crew should either get Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World, A Beautiful Mind) to play his character of Weasel, or if they can’t do that, don’t bring back TJ Miller, but get some random guy, maybe someone who looks like Weasel in ways, and CGI Plummer’s face over. I say this because there was a segment where there happened to be a news feed playing, and on the bottom of the screen, there was a bulletin, and some of the text included something along the lines of “Christopher Plummer turns down role in ‘Deadpool 2.'” Also, if the crew actually got in contact with Christopher Miller, please let the world know! I would love to know if that’s actually true!
In the end, one of the best marketed movies I’ve ever seen is also able to deliver one of my favorite movies of the year. I definitely want to buy “Deadpool 2” once it comes out on 4K, and after seeing this movie, it reminded me of how much I want to go to Rhode Island Comic Con this November because they’re getting a few of the “Deadpool” cast members including Brianna Hildebrand (Negasonic Teenage Warhead), Stefan Kapičić (Colussus), and Morena Baccarin (Vanessa). This is not even my favorite superhero movie this year, but this goes to show how much better this year’s superhero movies are compared to last year’s superhero movies. I didn’t see “Logan” last year, but I did see “Wonder Woman,” and I know that the DCEU is usually regarded as the inferior story as far as comic book superhero cinematic universes go, but I LOVED that movie. “Deadpool 2” is the third GREAT superhero movie I’ve watched in 2018, the only superhero movie this year that I saw which I didn’t think made it to that sort of mark is “Black Panther,” which is saying something because I thought it was actually pretty good, and I saw it in theaters twice. Fox, if you’re reading this, I gotta say, if you want to make a “Deadpool 3,” go for it, I’ll probably see it, but don’t just do it to force a story down our throats for money. I’m gonna give “Deadpool 2” a 9/10. This is the same rating I gave “Incredibles 2,” another superhero movie that came out this year. And if you ask me, I’d say that “Incredibles 2” was better, but if this were a marketing contest, “Deadpool 2” would blow so many movies out of the water! Not only is it creative, but as I watched the movie, I was thinking to myself, so many of the movie’s funny parts weren’t even shown in the trailers. THIS IS WHAT A MOVIE SHOULD BE.
Thanks for reading this review! Be sure to stay tuned for a post that I keep talking about, and don’t deliver on (because I’m working on it and I’m getting other stuff out first), my upcoming mysterious “2001: A Space Odyssey” post! Please stay tuned for that, and no, you’re not getting a single hint as to what it is! Don’t even think about asking for anything! However, stay tuned for that, and also stay tuned for more great content! I want to know, did you see “Deadpool 2?” What did you think about it? What would you say is better? “Deadpool” or “Deadpool 2?” Comment down below, please give me your thoughts, I’d love to hear them! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!
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