Film of the Week: Deadpool 2

It’s bigger than the first one. It was immediately apparent there was a lot of money pumped into the production of this film, especially during the parody of opening sequences of James Bonds, with the song Ashes, sung by Céline Dion. The question therefore is, just because they went bigger, does it mean it’s either just as good as the first, if not, better.

The simple answer is, it’s about the same. They went bigger because the first film’s success allowed them to. They were able to ramp up everything. Sometimes, trying to go better than the first film doesn’t necessary work, but with Deadpool, it most definitely works.

Deadpool is unique in so many ways. It took them ten years for the first film to finally be made. They played it safe and went simple. They gave exactly what the audience had been waiting so patiently for, and it was an absolute success. Of course the studio grew confident with giving the film a bigger budget, allowing them incorporate an incredible amount. With Deadpool’s distinctive characterisation, and with so much to explore throughout his comic book run, there was so much that could be done, preventing its increase in size from ruining the film. It’s still goofy, it’s still Deadpool doing what he does best – breaking the fourth wall, making references that we, the audience understand whilst the other characters stare in confusion. They took the simplicity of Deadpool’s characterisation from the first movie and built a much larger film set with plenty of special effects around him – and that’s what makes this film a tonne of fun.

Deadpool 2 is funny throughout, making jokes about sequels over the years, along with many other pop culture references. It’s entertaining, and there is a lot that I wasn’t expecting. There’s a decent amount of development on Deadpool’s part. At the beginning he describes this movie as a family film, and he wasn’t lying. This is about Deadpool, who sees himself as an outcast, learns that there are people who care about him, and subsequently, learns he can care for someone else as well. He becomes a hero he never believed he could be – whilst still being the anti-hero, trigger happy, always-out-of-control Merc with a Mouth.

During the early stages of this film, Tim Miller, the director of the first film had creative differences over the sequel. He wanted to keep it as simple as the first, which I can understandably see, because why attempt to go bigger when you know what works. Why try and fix something that wasn’t broken. Ryan Reynolds wanted to go bigger, and so the two split. Tim left the project, to be replaced by David Leitch. Unfortunately for Tim, I have to disagree with keeping it simple. Whilst it is extremely easy to ruin a project by attempting to go bigger, Ryan had the confidence to do so. Going bigger was the only way to give the audience more of what they wanted. They wanted Cable, and so they go Cable. They wanted more X-men, they go more X-men. If they tried to go as big as they did for the sequel for the first film, I can see it possibly not ticking all the right boxes. The development of the two films is perfect. Simplicity to make the audience happy. Bigger to keep them happy. They’ve been waiting since Wolverine: Origins for a decent representation of Deadpool, it would be completely foolish to do anything different.

In conclusion, Deadpool 2 gives us all the laughs we expected, and so much more. It thankfully panders to the audience, and that is the reason why it’s just as good as the first one. It’s not better than the first film, because Deadpool is who he is, it would be wrong to change or add anything to the character. All that was done was putting the character we see in the first film in a bigger set piece and let essentially let him do what he does best – with a much more fleshed out character arc; that’s the one thing that’s better than the first film.

I do highly recommend Deadpool 2.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)

P.S. This review has been approved by Deadpool.