In reconnecting with the Merc with a Mouth, aka Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) two years after we’d first been introduced to the character, we find him more or less settled into the crime-fighting life—chopping off the heads (and assorted limbs) of evildoing mob bosses and ring-leaders by day, romancing fiancée Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) by night. In fact, things are going so great that he and Vanessa have decided to go ahead and start a family together.

Of course, we know the laws of superhero filmmaking won’t stand for that kind of contentment—and true enough, no sooner have they started thinking of baby names that unspeakable tragedy strikes, and Wade’s world comes tumbling down like so many Lego blocks.

Wracked with guilt and wanting to put an end to it all, our hero tries to blow himself up, but his regenerative powers—and the timely intervention of the metal-bodied Colossus (Stefan Kapicic)—brings him back. He soon becomes an unwilling member of the X-Men (well, ‘trainee’, technically, as Negasonic Teenage Warhead played by Brianna Hildebrand never fails to remind him) and his first assignment is to help rein in a hotheaded, out-of-control young mutant called Firefist (Julian Dennison). The job, however, proves more difficult than initially assumed, especially with the arrival of the time-travelling, bionic-armed meanie Cable (Josh Brolin), who wants to kill Firefist for mysterious reasons of his own. But Wade—glimpsing in the boy a chance for his own redemption—is determined to protect him from Cable and set him on the right path, a mammoth task that will require him to join forces with a number of very, very odd people with some very odd talents.

Of course, if you’ve seen the first Deadpool, you’ll probably know that the story is more or less incidental to the comedy, and the sequel is no different in this regard. Really, Deadpool 2, helmed by stunt-coordinator-turned-director David Leitch, is very much a barrage of jokes strung together by a barely-there plot. It’s a veritable smorgasboard of smug, self-referential quips, non-sequiturs, blink-and-you-miss-it pop-culture references, unexpected cameos, and crude humor—in many ways not unlike a long, feature-length episode of Family Guy. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that as a bad thing per se; Deadpool 2, like its predecessor, is a lot of fun, particularly if you’re not new to the super ‘verse, because that’s what the film’s biggest meta-zingers are reserved for. Pitting itself as a corrective for the dour solemnity of such features as Batman V Superman, Leitch and his team of scriptwriters—comprising Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and lead actor Reynolds himself—let rip at the conventions of the superhero film. 

But while one can’t deny that this sort of irreverent, playful approach is far better suited to bringing out and reveling in the inherent absurdities of the genre than the brooding, self-serious tone favoured by others—a fact increasingly being recognised and applied to newer entries in the field—Deadpool 2 occasionally veers towards the other extreme. Yes, it’s smart, self-reflexive and very frequently hilarious, but there are times where you feel the writers trying a touch too hard, shoveling in the jokes and references—and practically sledgehammering the fourth wall to pieces—with an aggressiveness that gets wearying by the end. In any case, as detached and blasé an attitude as it might affect, one gets the sense that Deadpool 2 is actually desperate for validation, yearning for a pat on the head.

That aside, what was good about the first film still holds true for the second: Reynolds proves once more that this is the role he was born to play, his own persona and quirks bound up so with those of the character as to render the two practically inseparable. The fact that his face is effectively hidden for most of the running time makes all the snark and attitude he exudes all the more impressive. Brolin, in the other corner, is quietly effective, a far more restrained (and far less CGI-dependent) performance compared to his recent stint as the main baddie in Avengers: Infinity War—something Deadpool himself calls out at one point, saying, “Zip it, Thanos!”

And then there are the supporting acts. You might recognise Dennison as the irrepressible Ricky Baker from 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and he propels his scenes here with that distinctly offbeat Kiwi charm. The addition of the mutant Domino, played by Zazie Beetz of Atlanta fame, to the team is a smart move, although the logistics of her powers can be a bit of a headscratcher if you really think about them—if she really had the enduring support of Lady Luck, how come she ended up tortured at that mutant rehab joint in the first place? I have to say, though, that I’m thoroughly disappointed Hildebrand’s Teenage Warhead has so little to do here; the dynamic between her and Wade was one of my favourite things about the first film, and I’d been hoping for more.

Free as it is from the burden of having to explain the protagonist’s backstory and origins, Deadpool 2 certainly allows more room for invention. But, much like in the case of the Teenage Warhead, rather than deepening what worked in the previous installment, Leicht’s film perhaps goes a bit too broad, too fast, pushing in far too many new characters so that it’s impossible to go beyond a very superficial understanding of them.

Let me be clear, I really did enjoy the film for the most part, and am looking forward to seeing what our idiot-in-red gets up to in upcoming chapters—not to mention, the hilarious promos brought out in the lead-up to the big release that have by now become as much tradition as those post-credits scenes in Marvel films. All I’m saying is that Deadpool’s particular brand of subversion doesn’t always ring sincere, even less so in this second outing: While it might ostensibly seek to lampoon the comic-book movie as we know it today, it’s hard to forget that the series itself is very much part of that same franchise-building machine. As edgy as it might make itself out to be, it’s operating within a relatively limited space, the boundaries of which are more apparent here than in the previous film.

Deadpool 2

Director: David Lietch

Actors: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin,

Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz

Genre: Superhero comedy