Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

The sacrilege of the progressive vanguard is on superpowered display in Deadpool 2, and man, is it ever entertaining. We’re talking LOLs out the wazoo. Never mind that Ryan Reynolds’ third turn as Marvel’s pottymouth superhero leaves you needing a morality shower after the lights come up. The ride is worth it.

Burn, baby, burn. Deadpool 2 has burns to spare. Burned hero, well kind of an antihero superhero, who delivers a nonstop patter of burns to friends and foes alike, most off-color, many profane, some nasty in a subtly suggestive pornographic way. Burns to spare, with laughs to go with them. Lots and lots of laughs.

Directed by former stuntman David Leitch, Deadpool 2 employs 140 stuntmen on top of a huge cast of almost 70. That’s twice the stunts as the actors! Add in extensive FX & CGI and what emerges is a movie with a 4.1x overall reality factor, which is well into fantasy land. Thus, much of it is a live-action cartoon.

Deadpool 1 pioneered R-rated modern Marvel movies. Deadpool rival Logan followed, with DP2 now returning serve, a shockingly irreverent entertainment: sexually, violently, theatrically, comedically. Also, Deadpool often talks directly to the audience, adding to the clever transgressiveness of the whole thing.

Marvelous, just marvelous, how Marvel creates new hits with most every movie in the MCU. Deadpool now features several, connected to the X-Men and spawning the three stars in the poster above. Marvelous!

Acting - Great 4.0

Ryan Reynolds has a motormouth to rival Robert Downey Jr’s. His very verbal Wade Wilson / Deadpool is a major moviestar turn, often hilarious, always insouciant, occasionally even deeply human.

Josh Brolin plays his second Marvel supervillian of the month: Cable here, Thanos in Avengers: IW. Unlike Thanos, Cable evolves. With sequels coming, Brolin’s late career efflorescence continues to burn bright.

• Morena Baccarin is a world class beauty as the woman who Reynolds loves and can’t protect. “Kiss me like you missed me!”
• Zazie Beetz is more than lucky. She jumps offscreen as the smart and sexy Domino. I just like saying Zazie Beetz plays Domino.
• T. J. Miller plays his one note shtick as a sour bartender buddy. Miller’s act got old a while ago.
• Leslie Uggams, the great Leslie Uggams, has an unexpected role for this most elegant of actresses.
• Karan Soni is rather wan as a guy named Dopinder, even if the character is drawn wan.
• Brianna Hildebrand plays Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Now there’s two names to rub together.
• Jack Kesy underwhelms as Black Tom.
• Eddie Marsan is appropriately starchy as a perverted establishment figure.
• Cameos: Terry Crews, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, Tye Sheridan

Film - Great 4.0

The behind-the-camera crew of Deadpool 2 is remarkably independent of their Marvel forbears. Writers Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick & a guy named Ryan Reynolds never worked on a single comic book.

Edge - Sordid 3.1

Deadpool 2’s sordid rating comes from a relatively low 1.7 sex rating (mildly titillating), but a high 3.7 rudeness rating (naassty) and a savage 4.0 violence rating. Severed bodies are not uncommon. Be warned.

Reality - Fantasy 4.1

As noted in the Summary commentary above, Deadpool 2 is directed by former stuntman David Leitch and employs 140 stuntmen on top of a huge cast of almost 70. That’s two stuntmen for every cast member! Add in extensive FX & CGI and what emerges is a movie with a 4.1x overall reality factor, which is well into fantasy land. Thus, much of it is a live-action cartoon.

Fantasy aside, the persona of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool character is that of a sexually progressive cutup. Sacrilege is the coin of his comedic realm.

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