Though I was laughing I initially had reservations about this sequel. But it pretty soon won me over and I think I liked it almost as much as the first film, if not just as much.

At the end of the film I had a hard time remembering my initial reservations, but I suspect at least some of it was from a sense of deja vu. I haven’t seen the first film in years, but I still think I felt like I was very much watching a sequel.

This one is just as sassy, just as rude and crass, and just as meta as the first film. And so I guess there is some sense in which it is just very much Deadpool 2. But there are additions to it that mostly work and, as always with Marvel films, I appreciate the very minor stakes. (They are literally saving a child.)

My biggest quibble is arguably also one of the sequels strongest aspects. Deadpool would be a bad character if he wasn’t so funny, because he’s immortal. But the film finds a way to make him mortal. It’s not believable, but this is a Marvel movie after all. And I think giving a suicidal immortal mortality works. The issue I have is his weird “heaven” dreams he has when he’s nearly dying. They don’t really help the movie much, in my mind. They are the weakest part of the film, but then I’m not sure how else to handle his death wish.

It’s a very funny movie. I laughed a lot, which is important in something like this. (I’d argue it’s important in most of these comic book movies, but especially in one so meta.) As I felt about the first film, this character succeeds to the degree that he and the film around him are funny, and this is a funny movie with plenty of laugh-out-loud lines.

It’s been long enough since I saw the first film that I’m not sure how I feel about this in relation to the first. I guess I’d have to watch it again. But, with that in mind, it at least feels like a very worthy sequel to me.

7/10