Why Deadpool 2 Is The Best X-Men Movie Yet
As far as comic book adaptations go, they don't get much smarter than this.
Though all the trailers, TV spots and adverts might not have made it clear, Deadpool 2 is a love-letter to nineties X-Men, and a triumph in the superhero genre.
While the first film went on to endear itself to audiences thanks to a refreshing - albeit slightly irreverent - plot (one made by a particularly untempered performance by lead Ryan Reynolds), the sequel makes efforts to ensure that everyone knows it's an X-Men film. The charm of the first is still there of course, but in terms of embodying the spirit of the X-books' most iconic decade - the nineties - Deadpool 2 is a near perfect movie.
In that respect, and while the film could certainly be called a pallet cleanser in the aftermath of the devastatingly good Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2 actually follows in the footsteps of some of the genre's most lauded efforts, encapsulating the scope and unabashed comic book-y-ness of films like Infinity War, along with all the heft, drama and emotion that has typified Marvel's most recent movies.
Yes, Deadpool 2 might not be a Logan, an X2 or even a Days of Future Past, but it does achieve what it sets out to do in a remarkably uncompromising way. Doing so allows the film to embody the spirit of the X-Men's most pivotal decade, and while it's a period Dark Phoenix will venture to next year, Deadpool 2 has - unlike X-Force's very own Zeitgeist - placed its finger firmly on the pulse of the mythos' history.
SPOILERS AHEAD...