SNARK, NO SPARK
The edge just isn’t there in ‘Deadpool 2,’ which goes blandly dadcore
It’s not easy to capture lightning in a bottle twice, and it’s even harder to push boundaries when you’re playing it safe.
In “Deadpool 2,” the manic antics fly fast, but the franchise loses its edge as wise-cracking antihero Deadpool goes dadcore, attempting to infuse standard-issue fourquadrant studio blockbuster beats into what was once a revolutionary R-rated premise.
Of course, superfans of the fourth wall-breaking Marvel Comics character will be delighted to see Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth back on the big screen, slicing up baddies and roasting everyone from his enemies (this time around it’s futuristic soldier Cable) to his frenemies (Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine) to his own studio, 20th Century Fox, just as he did in 2016’s surprise smash “Deadpool.”
Two years ago, the scrappy film based on Rob Liefeld’s and Fabian Nicieza’s Marvel Comics creation felt fresh and subversive, introducing the origin tale of cancer patientturned-mutant mercenary Wade Wilson.
“Deadpool” charged along with an anarchic energy on its way to two Golden Globe nominations and the biggest R-rated global box office in human history while mercilessly eviscerating the superhero genre.
“Deadpool 2” finds its antihero nursing gut-wrenching existential pain by mentoring a troubled mutant youth, battling a murderous visitor from the future, linking up with a handful of the precious few other Marvel superheroes licensed by Fox and attempting to cobble together his first superteam, X-Force, by placing an ad in the newspaper. (Shockingly, it does not go well.)
But while the sequel benefits from Reynolds’ superhuman charisma as the charmingly annoying, katana-wielding protagonist, the film, nevertheless, feels too much like more of the same: more of the same gross-out gags, more of the same irreverent jokes, more bits where Deadpool has to regrow severed limbs to the disgust of everyone around him, more running commentary on the movie he’s in….
Thankfully, “Deadpool 2” has a Canadian national treasure aboard to breathe new life, emotion and a winking, self-aware wit into the
action. No, not Reynolds. Celine Dion. The involvement of Dion, whose mournful, actuallygood “Ashes” serves as the James Bond-esque “Deadpool 2” theme song, is a welcome stroke of genius; for starters, as anyone who wore out their “Titanic”’ soundtrack on CD knows, a little Celine goes a long way.
Days after the screening, the legit earworm of an inspirational ballad the legendary crooner belts at the start of “Deadpool 2” over a cleverly executed 007-satirizing intro (complete with a reprise of the first film’s snarky opening “credits”) remains a highlight.
It’s also, frustratingly, the only truly surprising new addition to the “Deadpool” saga, which gets a beefed-up budget and a handful of new characters but for the most part churns out overly familiar eccentricity.
Even fueled by Reynolds, whose likability is practically a super power, a new director in David Leitch (“John Wick” and “Atomic Blonde”), charismatic new costars like Zazie Beetz (“Atlanta”) and Julian Dennison (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), bigger stakes (and more money to execute them), “Deadpool 2,” suffers from the sequelitis that typically threatens gimmicky gambles turned tentpole franchises.
Your mileage will vary depending on how much patience you have for Deadpool’s tireless antics and how easily you are entertained by limb-severing, body-battering physical humor, the relentless parade of blue jokes about pranking coworkers with bodily f luids, infant genitalia, and the “Human Centipede” movies, and the spectacle of Reynolds flaming himself over how much “Green Lantern” sucked.
There’s a tedium to the sort of repetition that merely rehashes and recycles the same wink-wink barbs that worked the first time around — but also a relatable, even pitiable humanity in the film’s desperation to be liked.
At the core of this followup written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Reynolds, is an emotionality that — like the pimped-out weapon that the humorless Cable (Josh Brolin, growling life into his second Marvel character of 2018 after “Avengers: Infinity War”) totes back in time along with a conspicuously significant teddy bear — has been cranked all the way to 11.
Picking up where the first film left off, the sequel finds the happily content Wade mulling fatherhood and purpose with the love of his life, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), until his day job offing yakuza, gangsters, and Russian thugs follows him home.
Adrift in a waking nightmare, severely suicidal yet unable to kill himself thanks to his mutant healing powers, Deadpool finds purpose superhumanly lucky Domino mentoring Russell (young (Beetz, one of the sequel’s Kiwi talent Dennison), a saving graces). hotheaded 14-year-old juvenile Uninspired plotting mutant delinquent he lands him in mutant prison, takes under his wing after shackled by a techno-collar the youngster tries to set his that renders his mutant orphanage on fire. powers useless and brings
He gets help from returning back his cancer, which, in sidekicks Weasel (TJ turn, allows for some impressively Miller), Blind Al (Leslie morbid fight Uggams), and Dopinder scenes featuring body-twisting (Karan Soni); reunites with physical humor. X-Men Colossus (Stefan Director Leitch, a former Kapic ic ) and Negasonic stunt pro lauded for his inventive Teenage Warhead (Brianna action, never reaches Hildebrand); and finds a ca- the dynamic virtuosity pable new teammate in the of his previous films but ably pieces together a midpoint set piece set on wheels, tracking a speeding convoy through a busy city. Later he stages four forgettable battles in the film’s biggest fight sequence — and even that moment is deflated by Deadpool himself, who interrupts the action to announce the movie’s big VFX clash between entirely computer-generated characters.
The film’s impulse to profess a knowing, snarky superiority can become painfully awkward. The jokey opening credits that name Leitch as “one of the guys who killed the dog in ‘John Wick,’ ” is a lot less funny juxtaposed with the brief, blink-andyou’ll-miss-it end credits acknowledgment of Sequana SJ Harris, the stuntwoman who died during the making of the film.
At one point in “Deadpool 2,” Reynolds as Deadpool references the surprise Golden Globe acting nomination he earned for his work in the first film. “The academy is watching,” he whispers to his audience. Are they? It’s either self-deprecating snark or earnestness masquerading as selfdeprecating snark.
Deadpool, a superhero who deep down inside is just as basic as the rest of us, wants it both ways. He might need another sequel to actually pull it off.