DEADPOOL 2 (Malaysia, 17 May 2018)

Genre: Action / Comedy
Running Length: 2:00
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller,  Stefan Kapicic, Karan Soni, Leslie Uggams
Director: David Leitch
Screenplay: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Ryan Reynolds

What's this movie about?

Mercenary Wade Wilson aka Deadpool, recruits a team of folks with supernatural abilities to protect a young mutant boy from a time-traveling cyborg, Cable. Sounds like Terminator, isn't it? 

Highlights!

• Not serious/serious approach. It doesn't take itself seriously, even when serious things happen especially the first and last 15 minutes of the movie. It delivers the seriousness and even tenderness of certain moments but in a funny Deadpool way. 
• The side characters. The middle act where Deadpool recruits a bunch of misfits and thereafter followed by parachute drop scene = highlight of the entire movie!
• The soundtrack. The intentionally mismatched use of songs for some scenes (eg. using a hopeful song during a bleak moment) really makes those moments memorable especially a super slo-mo scene.  

Lowlights

• Overly produced action scenes. Too long = boring
• Uneven comedy. Like most comedy movies, some will land and some won't. But there are some one-joke concept that keeps going it overstays its welcome. However, the movie redeems itself with its end-credit scenes (that's a particular one which had me in stitches!) 

In summary

I enjoyed DEADPOOL 2 much more than the first outing . I felt this one has got a more complete story, whereas the first one was just a series of gags and one-liners.

RATING: 7/10

DEADPOOL (2016)

Genre: Action / Comedy
Running Length: 1:48
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Stefan Kapicic, Brianna Hildebrand, Leslie Uggams, Gina Carano
Director: Tim Miller
Screenplay: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, based on characters created by Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza

Firstly, let me get a few things out of the way. The DEADPOOL shown in Malaysian cinemas is an inferior version; it's censored artistically and as a result, it's distracting. Secondly, I'm not a fan of this anti-hero because from what I understand, this movie was made for the fans. What this means is that if you like the first 10 mins of the film, you will have a blast with the remaining time. If you don't like what you see in the beginning, Deadpool our main guy would not grow on you overtime. You'll just get more of the same.

Deadpool is definitely a different kind of superhero (or anti-hero) movie from the Marvel studio. Right from the start in the opening credit sequence, you know the movie is going to poke fun at itself and everything else; Liam Neeson, Hugh Jackman, IKEA, other superhero movies, Ryan Reynolds himself etc. To a certain extent, it works in small segments but not as an entire feature length. It can get pretty tiresome watching Reynolds spewing away smart-ass one-liners laced with F-bombs and dispatching (killing, maiming, torturing) baddies with absolutely no compunctions (Perhaps that's why the short short promo videos on YouTube leading to the release is so much more fun to watch). Sorry guys, I'm a non-fan.

In terms of story wise, it's actually a love story. Reynolds plays a mercenary named Wade Wilson and when he found out he has terminal cancer, he signs his life over to a shadowy organization with the promise of a cure + superhero abilities, so that he can reconnect with his lover. Unfortunately, in the process, he was horribly scarred and he swears revenge over the evil doctor who made him ugly.

Overall, this movie feels small because it was clearly shot on a tight budget (there's even a joke about this in the film) with only two real action sequences bookending the movie. In summary, the highlights of the movie are Ryan Reynolds and the 80s/90s music selection. The hype is true. Reynolds was born to play this role. As for the song selection, you just can't go wrong with Chicago, Salt-N-Pepa and "Wham!"

Rating: 6/10