A self aware spectacle.

Rating: 8/10 (19 May 2018)

After the massive success of the first Deadpool film, it was inevitable that a sequel would be produced. This time the merc with a mouth (Ryan Reynolds) has to protect a little boy (Julian Dennison) from the time travelling assassin Cable (Josh Brolin, in his second appearance in a superhero blockbuster). This is about as much I will say about Deadpool 2 story wise because there many twists and turns that I didn't expect, especially from a Deadpool movie. I am going to be honest, I did enjoy the first film, I didn't love it though, there were a few moments where the characters annoyed me. The action in the first film also didn't impress me, bad cgi fights. However they improve on almost every aspect when it comes to the sequel. This time they switched directors, from Tim Miller (who will helm the new Terminator reboot) to David Leitch (John Wick and Atomic Blonde). Leitch is one of the best directors when it comes to shooting action sequences, and he shows of his brilliant skills a lot in the new Deadpool film. There a long shots that show off the very well choreographed fight scenes. This gives the film a sense of wonderment in a way of 'how does he do it?' but also realism. I was genuinely surprised that this film had me as involved as it did, especially because the first film did not always work for me. This is a genuinely interesting film, with a very cliched story pulled of in a non cliche way. The film is also incredibly funny, this film throws a lot of jokes at you, making fun of the MCU, the DC universe and even itself. Not all of the jokes work, but when you laugh for minutes straight, you won't notice that a few didn't. However there were some genuine moments where I got invested into the story, in particular Josh Brolin as Cable. His story makes sense and his motivation does, however there are some interesting twists and turns his character goes through. Not all of it was well written though, it seemed like that characters were presented a certain way and were deliberately changed to simply shock the audience. Sometimes this works when the audience gets an idea of who the character is, however in this film I felt that these changes felt too artificial, particularly singling out Russell, played by Julian Dennison. There is nothing wrong with his performance, he brings a lot of emotion and laughter to his character, however the sudden switch did not always work. Same thing can also be said about Cable. Reynolds and Brolin are truly the stars of the film, Reynolds brings his charisma and charm to Deadpool, whilst Brolin plays the straight man thrown into such a ridiculous situation. Overall I am probably in the minority as I believe that Deadpool 2 is a superior film to the first, it has a more compelling story with a more likeable protagonist. There is a more organic and interesting story that does have some emotional scenes, however it also delivers on what makes Deadpool so special.