[7]

SPOILERS. I think. If you care, don’t read!

I’m so glad we have a superhero who flirts with both men and women. In Deadpool 2, Ryan Reynold’s wisecracking vigilante is seen grabbing the iron ass of Colossus, going tip to tip with Cable, and still pining for Wolverine. Maybe he’s done as much for gay rights as Will & Grace or Ellen. Plus, what other superhero is going to stage his theatrics to the singing war cries of Dolly Parton, Celine Dion, and Cher? Deadpool’s a straight (or bi?) boy, but he’s super gay-friendly, so I gotta like him. Hell, the sequel even has Marvel Studios’ first lesbian superhero in it. She doesn’t do much, and I still don’t know what her power is (shooting fire out of her tits or something), but she’s got a girlfriend now.

Anyway. Another Marvel movie. And like usual, I can’t say much of interest about it except that it’s like a bad pizza. And by that, I mean it’s still good. Marginally more entertaining than the first Deadpool movie, even. It’s funny and moves pretty well. The two smartest decisions it has going for it are that it doesn’t involve cataclysmic world-ending events and it doesn’t revolve around a cookie-cutter villain like all the other Marvel movies. No, the Deadpool sequel is surprisingly oriented around Reynold’s character trying to redeem a fat mutant kid whose been abused at a shady school by some dude who looks like the warden from Shawshank Redemption. If the kid gets angry enough to kill the Shawshank guy, he’ll become an unstoppable killing force in the future. That’s why Cable (played by grizzly Josh Brolin) has come back from the future to terminate the kid. But Cable isn’t the real bad guy. And neither is another surprise bad guy who makes an appearance. The principal antagonizing forces at play are Deadpool’s and the kid’s consciences. A refreshing change of pace.

So while Deadpool 2 doesn’t necessarily have me singing from the rooftops, the math adds up: Reynold’s charm + smart screenwriting decisions + homosexual flirting + diva songs = winner.