Poking fun at the superhero genre

Film review: Deadpool 2

MANILA, Philippines — The foul-mouthed, wisecracking superhero Deadpool is back; and when I say “stand-up,” it carries a double meaning. One meaning would be how he’s essentially a well-meaning, honorable “Merc with a Mouth” despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary; and it also refers to how he’s a stand-up comedian throughout this sequel. There is no respite from all the jokes and asides that punctuate the action sequences one can expect from any superhero film.

This is MetaCinema, with the screenplay having Ryan Reynolds parody himself, his Deadpool character and all comic-book superhero films. The DC Universe, James Bond, Batman, Green Lantern, the X-Men, Wolverine, there’s no end to who or what becomes fair game to the jokes and quips that whiz by in the Deadpool stand-up routine. It’s dizzying, and if there is a possible issue here, it would be joke fatigue for some members of the audience. Reynolds constantly breaks down the fourth wall, turning to us, the audience, with a wink and grin and to join him on the gag.

With the origins story firmly anchored in the first film, the fresh element to this outing would be the attempt to make Deadpool a team player — an X-Man in training. He assembles his own X-Force, and this gives us one of my new character highlight reels — that of Domino (Zazie Beetz), who says her superpower is being lucky and proves it with hilarity. Russell (Julian Dennison from Hunt for the Wilderpeople), a pyrokinetic orphan child, is the other more textured new entry in the cast. And of course, fresh from playing Thanos, we have Josh Brolin as Cable, a bounty hunter from the future.

For a sequel, there really isn’t that much of a story going on. Deadpool 2 is really more about brazen attitude and the incessant procession of asides, one-liners and veiled insults. But that was essentially what drove the first film to such R-rated success. It smartly parodied how superhero films were taking themselves so seriously, and poked fun at the genre. If anything, the film establishes how Deadpool can eventually take a place interacting with other superheroes, that he doesn’t have to be such a lone wolf forever.