More of the same with Cable a standout

Rating: 6/10 (18 May 2018)

Simply put, if you loved Deadpool then Deadpool 2 is most certainly your newest must-see slice of crass language, over the top violence and more self-referential digs than you can poke a sword at.
One of the biggest surprise smash-hits of the last decade, the first Deadpool had no real right to be as entertaining and amusing as it was and benefited greatly from an audience across the globe that didn't expect it to be nearly as proficient as it was, so in many ways Deadpool 2 has a lot more weight thrust upon its shoulders in today's climate, with many eager fans awaiting more of Ryan Reynolds playing Ryan Reynolds under the guise of a tight red gimp suit.
It's safe to say that new director David Leitch (aka one of the guys that killed John Wick's dog) doesn't mess with the formula here, maybe a few less genitalia jokes, but by the by Wade Wilson's newest adventures being the world's most smart-mouthed anti-hero are going to play out exactly the way you thought they were going to.
As was the case with the first film, Deadpool 2 doesn't try overly hard narrative wise, this new jaunt sees Wilson in a state of depression and in a situation where he finds himself trying to protect Hunt for the Wilderpeople star Julian Dennisen's mutant teenager from time travelling super-soldier Cable but it's all an excuse to give audiences more of what they came to love in the first outing.
Along with the to be expected there are some truly funny and standout scenes in play in Deadpool 2, such as an imaginative sequence demonstrating new mutant Domino's luck (played fantastically by newcomer to the series Zazie Beetz) and the first mission for Wilson and his new X-Force squad that includes standouts Peter and Vanisher, while the introduction of Josh Brolin as Cable is the films biggest win, with Brolin rolling on with that good Thanos form.
So good is Cable that you wish the film would've allowed more room for growth with his inclusion into the story and while he plays a key role in proceedings, you still can't escape the feeling that the film would've grown as a whole had Brolin been allowed more spotlight, ditto for Dennisen and Reynolds budding mateship, that despite forming the core of the narrative thrust is never properly built up, making Wilson's mission as a whole less engaging than it could've been.
These misses narratively combined with other elements of Deadpool 2 make it feel like a backwards step or at the very least of a stalling of the series from the first, there's a sense here that everything's a little auto-pilot, the action too taking a backwards step from the imaginative sequences of the first film and while perfectly entertaining, this is an experience filled with nothing that would suggest Deadpool 2 is going to be a film you'll be going back to anytime soon.
Final Say -
Serving up more of the same but without the surprise element of the first, Deadpool 2 is going to be another box-office smash and introduces us to one of the Marvel universes most exciting new characters in the form of Cable but there's the feeling that this franchise as a standalone entity has already spent a fair portion of its blood-soaked and pop-culture infused fuel tickets.
3 Green Lantern scripts out of 5