Saturday, May 19, 2018

#MovieRecap DEADPOOL 2

For a movie that had remained titled “the untitled Deadpool sequel” I was kind of expecting to see the final product simply called “Cable & Deadpool” as a reference to the long-running comic series.

But I suppose Deadpool 2 works too.
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Yesterday evening I went for a late night screening of Deadpool 2 over here. And to make things short, simply put, I loved it!
I admit I never expected to love it this much, and basically kinda prefer it over the original.

Most of the first signs left me with a lot of doubts about this sequel. The first one could have been a one-done-deal, kind of lightning in a bottle. After some early leaks, Fox ended up greenlighting a random creator project, with the original director Tim Miller and Ryan Reynolds all over their pet project.

Now this sequel saw the original director leave for creative differences with Reynolds (replaced by John Wick director David Leitch!)! Musician Junkie XL also left the sequel for a more secure-bet like composer Tyler Bates. A much bigger budget for the film also meant far less risks and more studio interference. Not counting the expectations...
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Also, the end of the last film announced the arrival of Cable. Another classic Rob Liefeld creation, the original comics were kind of the reverse of this situation in that regards. Cable led a team only to be confronted by Deadpool during his own first appearance.

Shortly after that they announced Domino would also join the film! I know there’s all kinds of crazy talks on the internet regarding Domino’s casting. I will just say I was sad to see them take this minimalist approach with her look, but the actress proved herself perfect for the role! Seeing her on screen, in the actual film, completely sold me on this version of Domino! And I'm saying that as a long time fan of Dom's.

Just like Cable, by the way. Josh Brolin seems to be everywhere right now. And despite far less backstory and development for Cable compared to Thanos, he was just as perfect for the role! I specially loved all the effects around Cable. His arm and weapons make such weird unique sounds.

And to go back to Zazie Beetz, she played Domino with a lot of fun and charm. Her weird mutant luck-powers ended up being such fun cinematic sequences!
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Story-wise, Deadpool 2 is a lot closer to what you’d expect from a comic book story.

The first one was a pretty simple film plot. Not only a 3-act structure story, but also a comic book origin like most standalone superhero films end up being. Plus you can simply resume the first film by “Deadpool is after Francis to have his revenge. They fight on the highway before a crashed hellicarrier. Along the way the origin story is cut through the film.”

Deadpool 2 in comparison has so much going for it!

It feels like a comic book tradepaperback volume, spread around a 5-issue run with an overall storyarc. You can almost see the “X-Men crossover issue”, the “prison issue”, the “X-Force issue”, the “Orphanage issue”, etc.

And that’s not saying it’s a bad thing, on the contrary. It really genuinely felt like reading a Deadpool comic.
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With David Leitch behind the film, the action scenes were so much amped up compared to last time. Remember Deadpool forgetting his gun in the last film (for budget reasons)? Well, let’s say nobody forgot any weapons this time!

So much kickass action, explosions, badass scenes.

The film felt like a huge John Wick 1+2 recreation on speed in the first few minutes of the opening sequence. With Deadpool instead of Keanu. I even found the choreography and colors pretty similar in those first few minutes.

Speaking of the film felt only a tad bit too long in its opening scenes and ending scenes. We got introduced to a few opening sequences, including a James Bond-style 3D intro reminiscent of DP1′s intro, which felt a bit unnecessary to me and a bit too much videogame-y. And the film seemed to never want to end, stretching the jokes and end a bit too long as well.. at least it was hilarious!
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All the X-Force scenes were fantastic, hilarious and completely subverted my expectations! Poor X-Force, you will be sorely missed...

X-FORCE!! *does the wakanda pose*

They even all looked pretty close to their comic book counterparts, which should have been a sign only Domino would survive...

Shatterstar even came from Mojoworld!!

Peter was the true standout, he even had a character arc and a pretty decent sendoff, all things considered.
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Ryan Reynolds IS Deadpool! He even kicked a lot of ass out of his DP costume!

Cable was badass and perfect. Even though his first introduction scenes felt like watching a completely separate film (a much better Terminator than any of the recent Terminator films!).

And Domino’s the standout star of the film for me, even though she didn’t end up having much to do and no real narrative. She was fun, a badass and a quite lovely lady if anything <3 p="">
And for the haters, I just wanna end up on a note saying she was a lot closer and had a lot more to do in common to do with comic book Domino, details aside, than the modern movie versions of Scarlet Witch, Yellow Jacket, Bane,  Harley Quinn or Aquaman, and I don’t see anyone complain anything about those!

This was such a fun entertaining feel. I feel like it’s gonna be as fun and highly rewatchable as the original Deadpool was!

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