By Alex Y. Vergara
In a time when not a few people deem you as “harsh” and “judgmental” for simply describing, say, a fat person as, well, “fat” (as if these purveyors of political correctness aren’t being judgmental themselves by finding malice in the unvarnished truth and taking you to task for simply telling it as it is), thank God there’s a funny, irreverent and no-holds-barred superhero movie like “Deadpool 2” to remind us once in a while not to take ourselves too seriously.
After all, there’s a big difference between telling the truth and being downright malicious. “Deadpool 2,” in spite of its deliberate attempts at irreverence, is far from being mean-spirited. Truth be told, it’s a superhero movie with a heart, a sequel that earnestly tries to show a more nuanced depiction of its main characters without losing its original flavor.
Sometimes it falls flat on its face, but most of the time it succeeds, thanks in part to a crisp, unpredictable script and a brilliant, deadpan cast led by Ryan Reynolds.
With or without the mask, you could see (and feel) that Ryan is having the time of his life miming and breathing life to a mischievous character whose mission in life, apart from mowing down bad guys, is to save a wayward teen mutant (Julian Dennison as Firefist) from falling completely into the abyss of baddie-hood.
Upon the prodding of Colossus, a bereaved and distraught Deadpool does this as a member of X-Men, albeit as a mere “trainee,” as not a few characters in the film love to rub in. Firefist, who later shares a jail cell with Deadpool, was having a mega tantrum after suffering untold abuse from a cruel headmaster who wants to purge mutants like him of their weird and “immoral” powers.
And even without a mask, Ryan was able to telegraph his emotions—especially while pining for his lost love—under tons of prosthetic makeup or what TJ Miller, who reprises his role as Deadpool/Wade Wilson’s bar-tending best friend, described so graphically in Part 1 as “an avocado that made love with another avocado.” Too bad, TJ was underutilized this time in favor of newer characters.
And if the overly long, mind-numbing “Avengers: Infinity War” has “Aliens” as one of its pop culture references, “Deadpool 2” draws from Kirsten Dunst and her immortal “I want some more” line in “Interview with the Vampire.” It didn’t happen the way Dopinder (Deadpool/Wade Wilson’s faithful and eager-to-please Indian driver played by Karan Soni) wanted it to happen, but he was able to squeeze in Kirsten’s line anyway near the end of the movie. We won’t say anything more.
It’s actually one among many rib-tickling references Deadpool 2’s writers, which includes Ryan himself, try to mine to get moviegoers’ attention. The fact that Cable, the film’s resident antagonist, is played by none other than Josh Brolin, isn’t lost on not a few Marvel fans.
Cable, channeling his inner Terminator, time-traveled to the past to try to liquidate Firefist before he barbecues the former’s family to a burnt crisp. This became the main conflict of the story, as Deadpool tries to protect Firefist from a vengeful Cable, while convincing him that the hotheaded teenager deserves a second chance.
Deadpool, during one of many wonderfully choreographed fight scenes, even manages to take a dig at Marvel’s rival by calling Cable too “dark” for comfort that the guy reminds him of those DC characters. Ouch!
As the creator of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, among other members of the Justice League, DC, of course, has long been Marvel’s archenemy for consumers’ attention and entertainment money ever since those heady salad days involving purely graphic novels printed on paper.
So, what about Josh? In case you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere in Knowhere lately, the actor is the same dude who essayed the role of Thanos in the most recent Avengers installment. And Deadpool deliberately, of course, reminds us of this fact by calling Cable Thanos not once but twice in the 119-minute movie directed by David Leitch.
Other hilarious attempts at foreshadowing include Deadpool’s declaration that “another CGI fight coming up,” as Colossus and a much bigger and more powerful nemesis dubbed as the Juggernaut prepare to duke it out during one of the film’s climactic scenes.
Depending on how the film performs at the box office, he also drops hints that fans haven’t seen the last of Deadpool when he tells Firefist, in an attempt to douse the fellow’s raging hot head, that he’s “young enough to carry this franchise 10 years into the future.”
And unlike Thanos, Deadpool, who’s filthier and more brazen than ever, didn’t need any of the Infinity Stones to travel through time.
Since you’re not supposed to take anything in this movie seriously, it was unclear to us if Deadpool was able to really travel through time (thanks to Cable’s handy back-to-the-past contraption) or was simply imagining it with relish, including foiling the death of his lady love (Morena Baccarin) and dispatching movie-star handsome Ryan himself just when he had just bagged the supposed role of a lifetime.
Hint, the role doesn’t involve a red costume and tons of “uglifying” prosthetics, but Ryan would have gotten to wear a ring.
Although most of the scenes and situations were obviously conjured to elicit laughs, a number, in our minds, at least, seemed organically funny enough despite their implausibility. When Domino (Zezie Beetz), for instance, joins Deadpool’s hastily put up ragtag team, which he christened as the very derivative X-Force, she has none of the flashy superpowers other applicants possess.
And what is she bringing to the table? Her uncanny ability to remain lucky even in the direst of situations. True enough, while other members of the X-Force meet horrific deaths (one, for instance, got electrocuted, while another was shredded like trash), thanks to Deadpool’s cluelessness and incompetence, Domino manages to wriggle out of every mess she finds herself in with nary a scratch.
In contrast, Deadpool suffers from all sorts of unimaginable injuries, self-inflicted or otherwise, that would have killed other superheroes devoid of that one amazing power to regenerate. Why, even the once immortal Wolverine, whom Deadpool admires but eventually pokes fun at, can be killed.
Speaking of death, you wouldn’t want to miss Deadpool’s long, drawn-out death scene in the end. So, did he or didn’t he finally die this time? Uh-oh, we’re not telling. But that fact that this sequel, like Dopinder, has left us wanting for more should give you a clue.
