not quite as fresh and effortlessly entertaining as the original, but still pretty damn fun!

Rating: 8/10 (19 May 2018)

"Deadpool 2" (R, 1:59) is a superhero action-adventure comedy, which is a sequel to 2016's boundary-shattering "Deadpool". This is the 11th of the X-Men films. Although Marvel Comics properties, neither the X-Men or Deadpool films are considered part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This one was written by returning scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, but this time with help from franchise star Ryan Reynolds. Version 2.0 has a different director, David Leitch ("Atomic Blonde", "John Wick"), after original director Tim Miller left the project due to "mutual creative differences" with Reynolds.
Much like the original, the sequel has plenty of sarcasm, inuendo, social political satire, meta humor, 4th wall breaking... and bloody violence. Fan favorite characters are back too! The titular "merch with the mouth" remains devoted to his one true love, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), is still friends with his former roommate, Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), and continues to receive support from his best friend, Weasel (T.J. Miller), and favorite cab driver, Dopinder (Karan Soni), while still being frenemies with X-"Men" Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). D2, however, has more heart, as Mr. Pool's capacity for love and self-sacrifice extend beyond his relationship with Vanessa and he begins playing nice with others... kind of. Well, some early narration does refer to this as "a family movie", so...
After a shocking tragedy early in the film (so early that the opening credits get all meta with it), Wade Wilson / Deadpool is acting darker than usual. Colossus and NTW take Wade to the X-Mansion and try to break him out of his funk by getting him involved in X-Men business. When they take him to a mutant rehab facility to try talking down an overweight mutant teen named Russell (Julian Dennison) who is threatening violence against the facility's manager (Eddie Marsan), the way Wade handles the situation drives a fresh wedge between him and the X-Men. Wade decides that Russell needs his protection (and that Wade himself needs to do some protecting), so he forms a paramilitary mutant group that he calls X-Force. This puts him, and new recruits like Domino (Zazie Beetz), Zeitgeist (Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd) and Bedlam (Terry Crews), up against a huge mutant called Juggernaut and a another known as Cable (Josh Brolin) who has come from the future for the sole purpose of killing Russell. Yeah, there's a lot going on here.
"Deadpool 2" would be a blockbuster if it were the first in the series, but can't quite match the original. Well how could it? 2016's "Deadpool" was a shock to the system, a real game changer. This one keeps in place the attitude and the actors which made the first one so popular and expands the title character's world to give us more to look at, but the sequel isn't as fresh and effortlessly entertaining as the original. D2 may be a little bit less slick than its predecessor, but in and of itself, it's still a damn good time. "A-"