‘A Lead Tool Too’

Despite the ‘F’ word bandied about liberally in the film, the viewer is regularly reminded that it also stands for ‘family’, which our hero plans to start with his live-in girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin).
The opening credits set the tone for the next couple of hours. After a tragedy befalls Wade aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), a series of sub-plots unfold till we come to the heart of the film – a teenaged Flameflinger mutant Russel (Julian Dennison) is on the radar of the antagonist: ‘Cable’, a cyborg mutant (Josh Brodin). Having vowed to save the boy, Deadpool gathers his old gang of X-Men. The action starts (director Leitch was a former stuntman) after Deadpool and Flameflinger are packed off to ‘Icebox’, a high-security prison for mutants.
DP2 works on two fronts – its commercially successful and visually arresting prequel in 2016 as well as the bagful of in-house Hollywood jokes. The gags are delivered by Reynolds with a face as deadpan as his mask and makeup. Apart from the unusual opening credits to Celine Dion’s soundtrack, the action scenes play to Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ singing in the background.
With above-average performances, Deadpool 2 is a worthy sequel and tries to be different, and succeeds, but occasionally. The film is laced with humour, gags and one-liners – directed either at itself or other sci-fi films.
Of the supporting cast, Indian origin Karan Soni, as cabbie Dopinder, has a much juicer role than warranted by the script. On the flip side, for the most part, the writers seem to have over-relied on these one-liners… with the core of the story showing up only halfway into the film.