Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (AKA. Deadpool), brings together a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy with supernatural abilities from the brutal, time-traveling cyborg, Cable.

Any sequel faces a difficult challenge living up to the expectations set in the first film and in the case of ‘Deadpool 2’, that job is particularly hard given how it spent much of the original film establishing itself as an outsider that played by different rules. Success means a sequel and ‘Deadpool’ was no different to other superhero films in that regard, but I mostly enjoyed ‘Deadpool 2’ even as it naturally felt like it lacked some of the sharpness and bite that made the original such a riotous laugh. The premise this time focuses on Deadpool establishing a team of fellow mutants to protect a teenage mutant (Julian Dennison) from Cable (Josh Brolin), a time travelling cyborg, and like the first film, the story acts as a jumping off point for the comedic elements in the script.

Ryan Reynolds is once again brilliantly charismatic in the leading role and he’s helped by a stronger ensemble this time around with Dennison (fresh off ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople‘), Brolin and Zazie Beetz as Domino particular highlights. Brolin has already lit up one superhero franchise (‘Avengers: Infinity War’) this summer as a key antagonist and he’s a highlight here as well in a more comedic setting, bouncing well off Reynolds and the rest of the cast. The ensemble provides many of the biggest laughs, primarily the introduction to the X-force team which is absolutely hilarious and a sequence towards the end in Blind Al’s (Leslie Uggams) house that had me howling with laughter. The action sequences are well put together and the jokes are plentiful (if not quite as consistent or as strong as the first film) but it’s too long, largely on account of a slow build up, and I felt the emotional material was misplaced and didn’t work alongside the overt comedic tone of the rest of the film.

‘Deadpool 2’ is a solid sequel to the superb first film and whilst I didn’t enjoy it as much as that film, I laughed a lot and that’s pretty much what I was looking for out of this movie.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: David Leitch

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, T. J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Jack Kesy, Stefan Kapicic, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Eddie Marsan, Shioli Kutsuna, Terry Crews, Lewis Tan, Bill Skarsgard, Rob Delaney and Brad Pitt

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/