"Deadpool 2" can be likened to a skilled comedian performing improvisation. While on stage, a majority of the jokes hit the mark, delivering laughter, with some being exceptionally funny. However, there are a few that might not quite land as successfully.
Possibly, the hurried nature of its production might be a factor—considering the first movie had almost a decade of development while the second was pushed out in a mere two or three years. It could also be due to limited funding, with $110 million falling short of the budget for the initial Avengers film. However, there's a chance it's attributed to a lack of effort or dedication. Yet, despite this, the protagonist remains a remarkable comedian. Consequently, the overall impression after watching the film might still validate the ticket price, particularly because there's a scarcity of purely comedic movies on the grand scale of cinema. Naturally, this assumes an appreciation for Deadpool's style of unfiltered or sardonic humor, which serves as his coping mechanism in the face of tragedy.
In the film, Deadpool twice exclaimed about his own script's "lazy writing." First, when Cable explained how his time machine worked: "Once sent me here, once sent me home"; then when Domino helps him remove the collar in the end: "The code can't be just one character." This type of self-referential parody is the greatest feature of the Deadpool series. It's been exaggerated to an extreme degree in "Deadpool 2". To a certain degree, this aspect salvaged the movie, but regrettably, it also had a detrimental effect on it.
Let’s talk about lazy writing. First of all, the title is very lazy. The production team thought that since they couldn't think of any particularly good subheadings, they might as well just call it "Deadpool 2". This laziness also applies to the film, which recycled many jokes and subplots from the previous movie, filling in most of the comedic gaps conveniently.
Again, we have to mention "fridging". It is a term used to describe a common phenomenon in popular culture: using the tragic death of the female protagonist as the motivation for the hero's actions, thus driving the plot development.
Although Vanessa's death in Deadpool 2 was ultimately reversed by the official, the creators faced questions about "fridging" and stated that they had never heard of the word before, feeling that the more abused Deadpool became, the more entertaining he became as a character. However, it was a waste to let such an important female character die in the first act and then not appear again in the movie.
Even the motivation of the secondary male character Cable was the same. Like copy-pasting, Deadpool was obsessed with reuniting with his lover, and Cable was obsessed with reuniting with his wife and daughter. In the end, both men sacrificed their wishes for saving a child (although Cable may have had other reasons). To make matters even more lazy, Wolverine did this exact thing last year to save a child.
The "lazy writing" that made me laugh the most happened in prison, which was used to introduce the villain Juggernaut's dialogue. It goes like this:
The fuck you want?
That's my fucking pudding.
Fuck your pudding.
Thanks to Deadpool's mask, adding lines was easier. The joke not only felt very up-to-date - using some hot words related to political correctness - but also very "meta".
When a character breaks the fourth wall, they are usually talking to an actual audience in real life and aware that they are a fictional character. Meta, however, reverses this relationship. It's when real-life events related to the content of creation have an effect on the creation itself, like a nested self-referentiality and metaphor.
There is a great example at the end of a video on YouTube called "Breaking the Fourth Wall Versus Meta", where the director Jon Favreau uses his own portrayal as a chef in his independent film "Chef" after “Iron Man” to vent his frustration with food critics symbolically referring to the pressure he faces as a director in real life.
The pinnacle of meta humor likely resides in the post-credits scene featuring Wolverine and Green Lantern. Nevertheless, the writers overlook the principles of time travel, opting to reuse jokes from earlier episodes despite the logical inconsistencies.
The dialog and self-references in these 'meta' films require a high familiarity with the Marvel universe, which is also the trap that movie studios set for audiences to watch the films multiple times. This trend has become increasingly exhausting in recent years. Instead of improving the script, these filmmakers seem to prefer to spend time and energy on unnecessary cameos (like Brad Pitt and Matt Damon in this episode) than on enhancing the storyline. This year's "Ready Player One" and "Avengers: Infinity War" pushed this trend (also known as "recognition cinema") to its extreme. The main recipe for this trend is to tell a common story with a script full of Easter eggs and sprinkle some current social issues for flavor.
The humor in movies often ranges from profound to superficial, provoking uncontrollable laughter or stirring nostalgic sentiments about the storyline, to the extent that audiences overlook script inconsistencies. There's also a tendency to find justification for the lack of originality - a sort of self-awareness, acknowledging laziness as an excuse for being lazy. In "Deadpool 2," we witness new mutants joining the team, Cable experiencing an awkward moment facing his own reflection, and Juggernaut casually mentioning his connection to Xavier as his half-brother. There are references made to Mojo World, and Cable hints at his daughter Hope, a mutant, who exists in his father Cyclops's youthful timeline. Additionally, Drew Goddard, acting as a consultant for the film, confirmed his involvement in the upcoming "X-Force" movie, indicating several hints and references for future projects within the cinematic universe.
I've seen you looking better... which if you've ever looked in the mirror, is saying quite a bit about the crap-circus that is pitching a tent on your face right now, dude.
Superhero movies usually offer great entertainment even without groundbreaking originality. However, when Batman starts delivering jokes, it raises concerns about the prevalence of unchecked "comic relief" becoming a common issue in these films. There's a hope that "Deadpool 4" will address and improve upon these concerns.
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