X-Force Origins: Deadpool

By Tom Pacak

Before starring as Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds made his career out of doing mediocre comedies and trying the superhero genre with “Green Lantern” and “Origins: Wolverine” both of those films were critical and box office failures. Reynolds even admits that with the countless jokes made to those films expense. With Deadpool, Reynolds has found the role that will define his career. He returns in “Deadpool 2” as Wade Wilson aka Deadpool, the smartass antihero who has a tendency of pissing off his enemies with wisecracking insults. The first Deadpool film was a huge critical and financial success; it became the highest grossing R-rated film beating Passion of the Christ or has Deadpool would say, “Jesus.” “Deadpool 2” surpasses the original with more of the daring R-rated jokes and gabs at Marvel.

In the first film, Deadpool learned the important lesson of protecting someone you love. This time around, Deadpool learns the value of what makes a family. When “Deadpool 2” begins, Deadpool has a perfect luxury of killing bad guys and making love to his gorgeous girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). One of the best assets of the Deadpool movies is its tendency to never be taken seriously. Even when a spoiler alert happens, Deadpool is always cracking jokes about other superhero films. Watch out for the equally hilarious and purposely awful opening credits with a song by Celine Dion called “Ashes.” For your information, this song is eligible for the Best Song Oscar nomination and better be there come February.

Beaten down and depressed, Deadpool finds no purpose in his life. He tries blowing himself up with gasoline barrels with a laugh-your-pants-off result! His X-Force allies Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) and Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) try to recruit their favorite dumbass to stop evil asylum leaders that look like Jared Kushner from hurting the young mutant kid Firefist (Hunt for Wilder People’s Julian Dennison). During the rallies in Charlottesville, the writers were inspired to have these asylum leaders be the primary antagonists. They reflect people in America who feel like their country is being taken from them and anyone different is a threat to society.  

The thing that’s preventing the X-Force from protecting the Firefist, a futuristic baddie Cable (Josh Brolin, didn’t he play another Marvel villain this year?) wants this kid dead for reasons that resemble the Terminator movies. It’s a real hoot watching these misfit toys ham it up! Reynolds’ ability to never be serious is perfect with Brolin trying to be serious in this farce. I don’t how Brolin managed to keep a straight face when Reynolds calls him Thanos or when Brolin says, “Dubstep is for pussies!” Watch out for a shoutout of One-Eyed Willy from “The Goonies.” Atlanta’s Zazie Beetz add a sassy attitude as Domino, the mercenary mutant who has the power to manipulate luck whenever necessary. Other members of the X-Force that show up briefly are Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Peter (Rob Delaney) a non-mutant who has the special power of being below average, and Vanisher an invisible mutant (a big A-list actor too good to reveal cameos).

Does the film go over its head? Of course! Some characters don’t get the laugh out moments you wished they did and having TJ Miller in there is a bit problematic. The movie has great representation with the first LGBTQ couple (Teenage Warhead and Yukio) and the mutants in this film are a perfect metaphor for oppressed groups. Instead of representing a single group as mutants, the mutants in this film represent all groups that are oppressed in society. 

Ok, this is the part of the review where I go over a pivotal spoiler that ruins the movie for people who haven’t seen it. As a wise man once said, “SPOILERS FOREVER.” You have two seconds to close the review and come back, 1,2. Alright, the film has gone through some controversy with the use of “Fridging.” Fridging is the process of killing off a female character (mostly a girlfriend) to motivate the actions of the male protagonist. The actions that set this film in motion is the death of Deadpool’s girlfriend Vanessa. The opening credits open with exclamations to what just happened “Produced by: Did They Just Do That?” The ultimate message of the film is Deadpool learning to find family during rough times and accepting death. During the mid-credits, it is revealed that Deadpool stole Cable’s time travel gadget and went back in time to save Vanessa, thus openly pissing on the concept of fridging. This ending is both taking a piss on the concept of fridging while throwing the whole film's messages out the window.

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Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars