Deadpool 2 (15.)
Directed by David Leitch.
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, Julian Dennison and T.J. Miller. 119 mins.
Deadpool 2 is the follow up to the self-referential, 4th wall breaking, meta-super-anti-hero movie that was a surprise smash, and the title is presumably ironically unimaginative. At one point Reynold's indestructible, immoral mutant mercenary has to recruit a gang to form the X Force. The applicants all have fairly lame names like Shatterstar and Zeitgeist because all the best superhero names have long since been taken. If the film wanted to be really meta and knowing there'd be a figure called The Shadow Of Its Former Self, a masked hero whose still considerable powers just don't seem so special or effective anymore.
The problem with the 21st Century is everything gets so old, so quickly. The first Deadpool was only two years ago but what was marvellously fresh and invigorating then, now seems a little old hat. Or, if you prefer, tired mask. (Watching this makes the achievements of The Proper Marvel movies all the more impressive – we cast everything aside at a furious pace and almost as a point of principle, yet somehow for over a decade they have been working the same formula, and more often then not catching us off guard, winning us over yet again, when by rights we should be wearing our moving on face.)
Now as old hat goes, you could do worse. Humour remains Deadpool's saving grace. There are a few dead spots when the repetitiveness of this world where every crack is wise and every ass smart cause it to drag, but there are still plenty of laugh out loud moments. They have also drafted in the fat, sorry appetite challenged, kid from The Hunt For the Wilder People, to play a prominent new character. This is a doubly smart move. Firstly, because he was very funny in that role and, secondly, almost nobody outside of New Zealand has seen it.
The problem is the action. After the director of the original, Tim Miller left due to "creative differences" the choice of the uncredited co-director of John Wick and named director of Atomic Blonde seemed like a suitably sadistic pair of hands to take over. Personally, I had no great love for Atomic Blonde, but the action and fight sequences had a beautiful flow to them. Shockingly, the action in DP2 is generic and dull, and the effects work is extensive and second rate. Somebody at Fox needed to loosen a few more dollar bills from Old Man Murdoch's dying grasp, because this doesn't have enough invention to compensate for its cheap-as-chips, CGI mush visuals.
I would say more. I was particularly narked by a plot point that happened before the opening credit sequence (a Bond send-up.) Normally that would be early enough for me to mention but Fox has had us signing embargoes and promising not to give away any plot spoilers. So all I can really safely say is this is a disappointing follow up but with managed expectations, it can still be an enjoyable one. Ideally, there should have been a moment when Reynolds turns to the camera and lifts his Deadpool mask to announce that really, you shouldn't get your hopes up for a film where reviews have been embargoed until a few hours before it is released.
Directed by David Leitch.
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, Julian Dennison and T.J. Miller. 119 mins.
Deadpool 2 is the follow up to the self-referential, 4th wall breaking, meta-super-anti-hero movie that was a surprise smash, and the title is presumably ironically unimaginative. At one point Reynold's indestructible, immoral mutant mercenary has to recruit a gang to form the X Force. The applicants all have fairly lame names like Shatterstar and Zeitgeist because all the best superhero names have long since been taken. If the film wanted to be really meta and knowing there'd be a figure called The Shadow Of Its Former Self, a masked hero whose still considerable powers just don't seem so special or effective anymore.
The problem with the 21st Century is everything gets so old, so quickly. The first Deadpool was only two years ago but what was marvellously fresh and invigorating then, now seems a little old hat. Or, if you prefer, tired mask. (Watching this makes the achievements of The Proper Marvel movies all the more impressive – we cast everything aside at a furious pace and almost as a point of principle, yet somehow for over a decade they have been working the same formula, and more often then not catching us off guard, winning us over yet again, when by rights we should be wearing our moving on face.)
Now as old hat goes, you could do worse. Humour remains Deadpool's saving grace. There are a few dead spots when the repetitiveness of this world where every crack is wise and every ass smart cause it to drag, but there are still plenty of laugh out loud moments. They have also drafted in the fat, sorry appetite challenged, kid from The Hunt For the Wilder People, to play a prominent new character. This is a doubly smart move. Firstly, because he was very funny in that role and, secondly, almost nobody outside of New Zealand has seen it.
The problem is the action. After the director of the original, Tim Miller left due to "creative differences" the choice of the uncredited co-director of John Wick and named director of Atomic Blonde seemed like a suitably sadistic pair of hands to take over. Personally, I had no great love for Atomic Blonde, but the action and fight sequences had a beautiful flow to them. Shockingly, the action in DP2 is generic and dull, and the effects work is extensive and second rate. Somebody at Fox needed to loosen a few more dollar bills from Old Man Murdoch's dying grasp, because this doesn't have enough invention to compensate for its cheap-as-chips, CGI mush visuals.
I would say more. I was particularly narked by a plot point that happened before the opening credit sequence (a Bond send-up.) Normally that would be early enough for me to mention but Fox has had us signing embargoes and promising not to give away any plot spoilers. So all I can really safely say is this is a disappointing follow up but with managed expectations, it can still be an enjoyable one. Ideally, there should have been a moment when Reynolds turns to the camera and lifts his Deadpool mask to announce that really, you shouldn't get your hopes up for a film where reviews have been embargoed until a few hours before it is released.
