Solid reviews land for Deadpool 2

The reviews for Deadpool 2 are in.

And basically, if you loved Deadpool, it’s safe to say that you’ll love Deadpool 2 – that’s the general feeling among critics for the R-rated festival of meta wisecracks and free-flowing claret.

Those who did not may remain unconvinced, and there are plenty of caveats issued too, but largely the sequel appears to have impressed.

Writes Empire: “It’s fair to say if you didn’t get on with the first film’s always-winking comedy and unheroic bloody violence, you probably won’t find much solace this time around, but if you’re on board for the ride, Deadpool 2 is more entertaining than ever.

“Plus, it remains a refreshing superheroic counterpoint to the likes of Avengers: Infinity War or Justice League — here, the only thing at stake is Wade Wilson’s sanity.”

Uproxx reckons it compares favourably to other Marvel fare too: “Is Deadpool 2 obnoxious? Is it needlessly self-aware? Is it drunk on its own fairly tame naughtiness? Is it so stuffed full of unrelated pop culture references that it sort of feels like a meme shirt come to life?

“The answer to all those questions is a resounding yes, but it’s also, weirdly, refreshing. For all its light provocations and general desperation, it also has something its main competitors at Marvel lack: a sense of play. The stakes suddenly aren’t so huge, and it’s not until you’re watching it that you realize how exhausting those constantly-raising stakes had been.”

“At its best, the film resembles nothing less than an ultraviolent Looney Toons spinoff, with Reynolds once again going full Bugs Bunny behind either a mask or a mountain of makeup — his extremities all akimbo, his rapid-fire comic patter usually landing on just the right side of obnoxiousness,” writes Variety.

“At its worst, there’s something mustily mid-’90s about its self-congratulatory rudeness, its sensibilities lying somewhere between a Farrelly brothers film and a Mountain Dew commercial.”

There are less effusive notices too, The Wrap writing: “Anyone who wasn’t amused by the first go-round isn’t going to hop on board for this entertaining but by-the-numbers do-over.”

Writes Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun-Times: “A few of the movie parody jokes and pop music cues feel a little timeworn. We’ve seen satires on THAT particular film scene before and we’ve heard THAT particularly sappy ballad used to comedic effect before as well. But even the easier jokes are delivered with enthusiasm, and accompanied by creatively gruesome R-rated carnage.”

Collider adds: “It’s the kind of earnest storytelling that the rest of the movie would seem all-too-eager to mock. This gives Deadpool 2 a case of tonal whiplash where you’re laughing hysterically at the devil-may-care jokes only to have to pump the brakes and care about Deadpool’s emotional arc.

“And yet at the end, Deadpool 2 is similar to its predecessor in that you’ll have a blast while watching it and then almost immediately start to forget it.”

The Guardian had other concerns, however, noting that most of the movie’s characters have a lack of any decent material to work with, including Deadpool’s new sidekick Domino, played by Atlanta‘s Zazie Beetz, while taxi driver Dopinder comes over as little more than ‘a weedy, emasculated Indian stereotype’.

“Such concerns might not bother Deadpool 2’s core audience too much, but they implicitly suggest that core audience is white and male, and that everybody else ought to just lighten up. It’s easy to do so, given Reynolds’ undiminished charm, and the generous flow of weapons-grade gags. But now that it’s no longer the underdog, Deadpool is in severe danger of punching down rather than up,” writes.

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz and T.J. Miller, and directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 is out now across the UK.

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