- Joined
- May 16, 2019
After writing my post, I realized I didn't remember anything about DP2, except being annoyed by Domino. So I re-watched it, just finished 10 minutes ago.
You're right, it mostly doesn't hold up. It's reddit humor plus mild dick and ass jokes. The pop culture references are grating, and many scenes have long rambling dialog that doesn't work when people are just standing there listening. I had to fast-forward the longer dialogue scenes, when they try to both write a hackneyed story with lame lessons while also lampshading it.
Also, I didn't catch it at the time, but it mangles Deadpool's comic version's randomness into a steady string of... I hate to describe it in such a stereotypical way, but it really is stereotypical liberal smugness.
I didn't catch it in 2018, tuned out to the culture war stuff I guess. But this movie keeps choking down Tumblr-cum-Twitter garbage. Not mocking it, always as the basis for a bad joke.
DP calls Cable racist for wanting to turn off Indian music in the cab. This becomes a stretched out bit with DP lecturing him about civil rights and multiculturalism. He references Cable being racist for the rest of the film, without a single reinforcing callback. Why? Random!
The big bad enemy is a balding Christian schoolmaster-turned-torturer, who DP descibes as "the pray the gay away type". He could be described as "comically evil", except it's the one thing in this movie not played for comedy. He just straight up electrocutes kids, and spouts pseudo-Bible verses at every opportunity.
The heroes call all his assistants pedophiles (without being edgy enough to show or imply anything like that). In hindsight that is some hilarious projection from the same group that nudges every character towards pansexuality with every joke. DP takes every opportunity to decry sexism against women, then hits on every male character and grabs Colossus' ass after Colossus forcibly moves his hand away.
(Granted, Wade was inappropriate like that in the comics... but he was equally inappropriate to both men and women. Domino is wandering around with her tits halfway out of her costume, and Wade never jokes about them once. Comic book DP would have made the proclamation against sexism as an excuse to hug her and cop a feel.)
I guess 2020 and the woke-ification of all the other movie franchises made me hyper aware of this stuff now. DP2 is still in the phase where they're pushing it, but not going all out. AFAIK nobody called them on it and they're probably going to be even worse in DP3.
I didn't catch it in 2018, tuned out to the culture war stuff I guess. But this movie keeps choking down Tumblr-cum-Twitter garbage. Not mocking it, always as the basis for a bad joke.
"What's your superpower, cultural appropriation?"
"It's heaven here, Wade... we can have anything we want." "Can every day be International Women's Day?"
"Who hurt you? The pedophile mustache guy? Jared Kushner guy?" (referring to 2 henchmen behind the kid)
"I always thought the name X-men was sexist... be more inclusive!"
DP calls Cable racist for wanting to turn off Indian music in the cab. This becomes a stretched out bit with DP lecturing him about civil rights and multiculturalism. He references Cable being racist for the rest of the film, without a single reinforcing callback. Why? Random!
The big bad enemy is a balding Christian schoolmaster-turned-torturer, who DP descibes as "the pray the gay away type". He could be described as "comically evil", except it's the one thing in this movie not played for comedy. He just straight up electrocutes kids, and spouts pseudo-Bible verses at every opportunity.
The heroes call all his assistants pedophiles (without being edgy enough to show or imply anything like that). In hindsight that is some hilarious projection from the same group that nudges every character towards pansexuality with every joke. DP takes every opportunity to decry sexism against women, then hits on every male character and grabs Colossus' ass after Colossus forcibly moves his hand away.
(Granted, Wade was inappropriate like that in the comics... but he was equally inappropriate to both men and women. Domino is wandering around with her tits halfway out of her costume, and Wade never jokes about them once. Comic book DP would have made the proclamation against sexism as an excuse to hug her and cop a feel.)
I guess 2020 and the woke-ification of all the other movie franchises made me hyper aware of this stuff now. DP2 is still in the phase where they're pushing it, but not going all out. AFAIK nobody called them on it and they're probably going to be even worse in DP3.
It's not all bad. The action is still great, better than anything the MCU has done post-Endgame. The scenes with Wade and Vanessa work. The comedy is good when it's banter, not dialog; the snappy bouncing between multiple characters feels like the proper formula. Brolin's Cable manages to make a Liefeld over-the-top creation believable; I'd actually like to see him return for anything X-men related.
But this really should've been the end for Deadpool, it was clear they were losing the magic at this point. I have zero faith that the 5 years since then have improved what the studio or writers are able (or willing) to put out.
