Deadpool 2

AN UNFORTUNATE CASE OF SEQUELITIS

Allow me to begin by defining the term 'sequelitis'.

Sequelitis - When the follow-up to a highly successful first movie falls into the common trap of thinking that going 'bigger' for the sequel means 'better'.

We've seen this problem repeated time and again as sequels become more and more common, especially in the past decade with the sheer amount of comic book movies made.

Within the same cinematic universe as Deadpool, we got X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) which, apart from the score by John Ottman was pretty abysmal. That was a follow-up to the brilliant X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) which fixed the messed up timely with such class, only for all that hard work to be undone by its 2016 sequel.

With mistakes like these made in the past [don't even get me started on X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)] and all by the same studio, you'd think they'd learn from their errors of the past.

Evidently not.

The first movie was a commercial and critical smash hit, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. Pretty tough act to follow, but Deadpool is in a league of his own when it comes to box office appeal.

This character allows for so much humour and wackiness with absolutely no boundaries at all, and that in itself is so refreshing in a congested world where more than three comic book movies are released on a yearly basis.

And in terms of humour alone, this movie was even funnier than the first.

From the get-go, Ryan Reynolds (not even going to call him Wade Wilson/Deadpool because they're practically one and the same) is on an absolute roll with his wisecracks and absolute savagery. He doesn't let off at all, to a point near the end of the movie where his motormouth even becomes more irritating than funny. Thankfully, that's just the only instance (in my opinion) where it got irritating.

All the jokes are extremely meta, as you'd expect, and in the best possible way too. It truly is an absolutely hilarious movie.

However, the same can't be said about the story and just the overall skeleton of the movie.

It's quite a bit of a mess in terms of how the movie can't focus up and tell a structured story. Characters kind of just bounce from place to place and it makes it very chaotic and hard to follow. If the story had been a complicated one, the movie would have been absolutely unbearable.

In the first movie, they deliberately told a very basic plot with a flashback style of storytelling, allowing for an unlimited amount of jokes to be placed wherever they pleased, and that worked an absolute charm.

Here, the jokes do hit more than they did in the last one, but the convoluted story and some of the jokes being excessive to the point of becoming irritating (as mentioned earlier, like four paragraphs ago) make the overall viewing experience a conflicted one.

Basically, I was laughing really hard in many instances and I was also getting really annoyed at times. Smart thing then to make the movie a comfortable 120 minutes long. Any more of it would've been like gorging yourself at a cheap buffet to that point where you had too much and you don't want to eat, live or breathe anymore.

Let's talk about the new characters in the movie, and I'm glad to say that most of the additions along with the recurring cast members were great.

It's proving to be the summer of Josh Brolin. First as Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and now playing Nathan Summers/Cable, he is hot property right now.

He's one heck of a badass and at 50, he is in CRAZY good shape for this role. Makes him all the more convincing as the time-travelling, Winter Soldier-armed... soldier. Wanted to call him a mercenary but I don't think he is one. My comic book knowledge of the character of Cable is practically nought apart from the fact that he is the son of Cyclops from the X-Men.

I thought his introduction to Deadpool's universe was really cool and it opens up so many possibilities for the character, and considering how Josh Brolin reportedly signed a four-film deal to play Cable, I think it's safe to say that we're going to see a lot more of him in the coming years.

Another great addition was the character of Domino (Zazie Beetz), a fortune-manipulating mercenary who joins the X-Force in some style. Speaking of the X-Force, there's a scene on one of their missions which is absolutely hysterical. Keep your eyes on special alert for a hilarious cameo.

After hearing about the character's inclusion in this movie, I went to read up on her - and I was totally puzzled as to how they were going to visually portray her luck-bending abilities in the movie. After seeing it, it was totally dope how they handled it, and personally, she's my favourite character in this movie.

She's cool, she's badass, she's hot and can totally hold her own against the big boys. Can't wait to see more of her in the future.

One character I wasn't too keen on was Russell Collins/Firefist (Julian Dennison), whose on-screen presence was really annoying.

The movie's plot revolves around this character's journey, though having said that, it's more of the two-thirds of the plot with the first act being about something completely different.

Hence, when Firefist is suddenly dropped into the mix, it becomes very odd how the rest of the movie revolves around him, someone I totally didn't give a shit about.

It's that sense of "assumed importance" regarding the character which I couldn't comprehend. If there was more of an emotional connection I could share with him, I'm sure the character wouldn't have been as odd. On top of that, the actor who plays him (although still young) came off as whiny and I can't stand whiny.

On to the technical side of things, and I felt that director David Leitch was a little bit confused with his job. On the one hand, you got the sense he was trying to incorporate his own style into the movie with his action movie credentials (John Wick, Atomic Blonde) but at the same time, felt tied down by having to follow the style set by Tim Miller, director of the first movie who was let go prior to production on Deadpool 2 starting due to creative differences.

What you get in the end is a conflicted movie in terms of style - and one that has some of the worst CGI i've ever seen in a Hollywood movie.

There's one scene which is impossible to miss where it looks as though the movie had completely overestimated how much their relatively low budget could stretch. It's pretty shocking and I don't recall Deadpool making a comment about that (not to my memory - I've only seen it once). If he had, that would have been ultimate meta awesomeness.

The music by Tyler Bates is pretty inventive in its use of a choir. Just keep your ears peeled for some of the lyrics the choir sings. It's hilarious and it earned this score its status as the first movie soundtrack ever to get a Parental Advisory sticker on its case.

All in all, Deadpool 2 delivers brilliantly on the laughs but not so much when it came to its story. It ends up being a bit of a tonal mess with jokes going too far and side plots being uninteresting.

The new additions to the cast are welcome as well as the prospects for future instalments in this franchise and its extended X-Men universe.

Do stick around for the mid-credits sequence which is absolute comedy genius. People have called it the best mid/post-credits sequence ever put to screen - I think I agree with them. Also, there's no post-credits scene right at the end but if you want to see (or hear) what I was referring to regarding the inventive score, you'll hear it in its full glory if you stick around.

7/10.