Picking up where we left off, I went on and on about Deadpool 2 and how I found it a supreme superhero movie and, arguably enough, a well-constructed sequel that's a tad better than the first film.
Well, would you have guessed that Deadpool 2 had the benefit of having a couple of extra versions of the film to choose from?
Let's start with the more obvious choice: the Super Duper Cut.
I noticed some things that played differently in this cut than in the Theatrical Cut. And we're talking about more than just new scenes. The only other alterations I remember in the cut are more visible bloodshed and gore and certain lines from the Theatrical Cut being replaced with more meaningful or more outrageous and raunchier lines and jokes. However, most of them occurred throughout the movie's first half and later in the mid-credit scenes.
Let's start with what I remember seeing in the first half.
I remember seeing many new scenes in Deadpool's international ventures to track down killers and bad guys as part of his mercenary routine, exposing more bloodshed among the bad guys, whether in Hong Kong, Sicily, Biloxi, or Osaka. Even then, in the Theatrical Cut, the location that the movie said Deadpool visited in Japan was Tokyo, but it was Osaka in this cut instead. Plus, whereas the fight scenes in the Theatrical Cut introduced them in order – Hong Kong, Sicily, Tokyo, and Biloxi – here, it switched the last two around so that we see Deadpool fighting in Biloxi and then in Japan.
But even then, the scenes of Sicily, Biloxi, and Osaka had excellent transitions in each of them.
For instance, once Deadpool unloaded his guns on the Mafia gang in Sicily, the Mafia boss, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Robert Downey Jr., was running away with a case of money when Deadpool jumped up and shot him down. As Deadpool remarked…
Let's see Captain America do that.
…which I'm convinced was a sly reference to Captain America and Iron Man's rivalry in Captain America: Civil War. Then, as the case of cash flew out of his hand, the case opened, letting out the bills, and then it transitioned to the money flying around the prostitutes displaying themselves in Biloxi. That was a terrific transition, and this leads into the next transition that felt so nicely done. As Deadpool unloaded his ammo and swords all over the criminals in Biloxi, he ran across the stage where the showgirls were. As he slid across the stage, it transitioned into him sliding into a bathhouse in Osaka, where he was prepared to fight the gangsters there next.
Also, let me make one thing clear about what the montage was like in each cut.
In the original cut, as Deadpool got to work on doing the bad guys in, the movie quickly demonstrated his worldwide killing expertise, leading into the brief montage of what kind of killing sprees he's been up to after his encounter with Ajax at the end of the last film. But here, the montage felt more relaxed, allowing the attacks and bloodshed to sink in more, especially once we reach the Osaka scene, in which case, after Deadpool slid in, all the bad guys had their katanas ready, and as Deadpool got his ready, he said…
¿Dónde está la biblioteca?
I'll explain more about that later.
And the next minute and a half is a 360-degree rotation of Deadpool punching and slicing all the Japanese gangsters, once again set to Enya music, which this time is 'Caribbean Blue.' That's another elegantly riotous use of tranquil music like Enya's to play over something so chaotic. I dare you to watch the Osaka sequence and not crack up seeing such unmixable components playing together.
Also, there were a few moments in the film where Deadpool showcased his heartfelt moments. For example, before he went to work on the bad guys in Hong Kong, he laid low and fooled the Hong Kong gangsters into thinking he was as good as dead after being shot down. Instead of saying to the bartender beside him…
I'll take a cranberry grapefruit vodka. I know it's a sea breeze. Don't make me say it.
Here, he says…
Don't worry. You're not going to die, although these will kill you.
…referring to a lit cigarette she was holding. So, this cut shows extra moments of warmth from Deadpool while not losing sight of his more riotous, zany, wisecracking tendencies.
In another scene, as Dopinder dropped him off at his house to meet up with Vanessa for their anniversary, Deadpool was about to walk away, just like in the Theatrical Cut, when he turned back to Dopinder. Despite feeling nonplussed about Dopinder's sudden admission of wanting to be a contract killer, especially after Interview with a Vampire and his murdering Bandhu, Deadpool still believed in his potential and urged him to go forth and make his dreams a reality.
And that's another thing. I noticed many people complain how the scene where Deadpool, Cable, Domino, and then Dopinder all ran to the orphanage replaced 'Welcome to the Party,' which they thought was too cool a song to be replaced by anything else, with 'Fly Like an Eagle,' performed not by Seal like in Space Jam, but by its original songwriters, Steve Miller Band.
Well, I'm starting to think that this was a reference to what Deadpool's conversation with Dopinder in the taxicab wrapped up on. As Deadpool encouraged him to pursue his dreams, he colorfully said to him:
You're an eagle, and goddamn it, an eagle's got to soar. You gotta grab those dreams. Grab those dreams by their dick tip and make it rain!
Something about these connecting threads adds another layer of humor that I'm not sure others caught on to, but they still yielded implicitly terrific results.
Later, the credits sequence that paid homage to James Bond and was set to 'Ashes' had some of its credits tweaked. For example, whereas one of the credits for the cinematography was by 'Blind Al' in the original cut, here, it said, 'Cinematography by Someone Who Would Literally Film Anything.' And whereas the credit in the Theatrical Cut went 'Written by The Real Villains,' here, it says, "Writers: I Blame the Writers, 'Real Heroes' My Ass." Somehow, I can't help but look at the credits in this cut like they sounded outraged compared to the dumbfounded tone the credits conveyed in the Theatrical Cut.
A few scenes in this cut amounted to some running gags. First off, in the Theatrical Cut, when Wade was talking to one of the mob bosses in Hong Kong on the phone, he said:
I did take 8th grade Spanish, so, ¿Dónde está la biblioteca? Which literally translates to 'I don't bargain, pumpkin fucker'.
From then on, he did things like normal in the Theatrical Cut. In this cut, however, he made a running gag out of that. Whenever he said ¿Dónde está la biblioteca?, it did not play out the same way it did the first time where the subtitles read the proper translation, which is 'Where is the library?' in Spanish. For the rest of the cut, Wade dropped the Spanish phrase, and every time, the translation said, 'I don't bargain,' just as Wade insisted it meant. That's some wittiness for you without Wade even needing to explain it.
Next, as Wade continued to lament Vanessa's death, he was prompted to do himself in after hearing Blind Al's reassurance about how he couldn't live until he died a little. In the Theatrical Cut, he tried that with the barrels of explosive fuel, which was what Deadpool 2 started with before it returned to that scene to get its viewers up to speed. In the Super Duper Cut, Deadpool tried out a couple of other methods to commit suicide, each one ending gruesomely, but not permanently, for Deadpool. He started by launching himself into a zoo pit full of polar bears, where he was maimed and eaten. Next, he drank a container of Clog Clear on top of a tall building and voluntarily slipped off the roof's edge onto the sidewalk far below. Then, it set the stage for his suicide by fuel barrels back home.
Next, as Wade settled in the X-Mansion, he rummaged around in the kitchen when he noticed plenty of plastic boxes, each with a Velcro tape and an X-Men's name on the label. As he remarked on that, he talked to the girls who were there, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio, and told them about how talking to them at least gave him a little bit of exposure to who the real him was and that Wade meant to be proud of who he was deep down.
Later in the cut, Deadpool tried talking some sense into Colossus, or at least getting him to help him on his mission to rescue Russell, similar to John Cusack in 'Say Anything' down to the boombox over his head. In his case, it was just a smartphone with equally loud blaring music that Deadpool held up to his head. Negasonic Teenage Warhead arrived and knocked the phone out of his hands with one of the plastic boxes with the Velcro marking on it. It's telling Deadpool that the Velcro tape does come in handy.
Later, unlike in the Theatrical Cut, where Colossus just kept lying down as he listened to Deadpool's speech about why Deadpool was wrong to do what he did to Colossus and yet still asked Colossus whether he'd be willing to help him, in this cut, Colossus walked out, had his say on the matter to Deadpool, and then Deadpool made his speech to Colossus as he walked away. Personally, as cute as it was to see the Velcro joke make a comeback here, there's just something about watching Colossus recoil away from Deadpool as he covered his ears only for him to come back later that feels more impactful like Colossus gave that some deep thought when concerning the viability of maintaining the status quo, knowing what rules to maintain, and which ones are appropriate to break under the most extreme circumstances. Here, even though Colossus looked like he was starting to come to that realization, at first, I thought watching him walk out and have his say in defiance of Deadpool kind of diminishes the purpose a little to me. At the same time, though, I realized that it still carried the same effects as in the Theatrical Cut, just with different reactions from Colossus.
However, let's get to the one addition that I thought helped the cut a great deal.
In the Theatrical Cut, whenever Russell's backstory of torture by the heads of the orphanage was mentioned, it was shown in flashback how he was experimented on before returning to the present. But in this cut, before Deadpool, Colossus, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead ventured out to try to reason with Russell, it showed how Russell was carried off into the orphanage and later taken in as he was strapped to the experimentation chair. Then, the heads worked their weaponry and gadgets on Russell as they tried to strip him of his mutant powers. The sadistic atmosphere, though not very rampant, was still noticeable and can easily be felt. Watching them strap poor Russell down while they prepared to experiment on him did create some moments of queasy anticipation for what they were about to do to him, which made the following scenes with Russell retaliating outside of the orphanage and ending with Deadpool listening to the kid and shooting down the guys who mistreated Russell now carry more sympathetically quarrelsome overtones.
During the mid-credit scenes, the scene with Deadpool talking to Wolverine after shooting down his other self in X-Men Origins: Wolverine went on a little longer as he made some chitchat with Wolverine about what contributions he would have made for Wolverine later.
Unlike in the Theatrical Cut, the mid-credits sequence had one more instance that extended into one more scene after the end credits. So, what happened?
Deadpool snuck into a nursery where only one baby was kept, and he contemplated killing him. But he was uncertain of whether to harm a baby until he looked closely at the nametag, as did we. What did it say? A. Hitler. It's like the scene deliberately made the audience condemn Deadpool's contemplations to kill a baby until we glimpsed at his identity.
But even with all the 'maximum effort' Deadpool said he would have done, all he did throughout the rest of the scene, as we've seen after the end credits, is cuddle him up and attempt to change his diapers while contemplating having Cable do the job for him since he's good at killing kids. So that brought forth more moral dubiousness than would be allowed even in the Theatrical Cut.
While they didn't change much of the narrative in the long term, these additions and variations still helped make the film's sense of humor a little more obvious, probably because of how blatant some of the remarks were, especially from Deadpool. They also exposed a few good nuggets worth of exposition from characters that felt nice but didn't add much to the movie. Once again, the beginning scenes of Russell being taken into the orphanage made for some incredible stage-setting for what we would've seen of him and his connection to the orphanage. Even some of the smaller moments I mentioned emphasized some of the more heartfelt moments from characters like Wade Wilson and, in some cases, even Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Colossus, and Vanessa. Eight times out of 10, everything about them hit their mark here and did a great job adding extra spice to what was already one spicy superhero movie. So, when all is said and done, I might give points to this cut for going even further with its jokes, knockout moments, and expository demonstrations.
Au contraire, Deadpool 2's other version, Once Upon a Deadpool, is the exact opposite…in a technical sense.
Several months after Deadpool 2 was released on Blu-Ray, there was a heavy air of uncertainty over Deadpool's future. The reason was that at the time, the news broke through about Disney, which already owned Marvel, being on the verge of purchasing 20th Century Fox next, and thus would've had complete ownership of Deadpool. What complicated things is that Disney tried to steer clear of anything R-rated unless it was through Touchstone. Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe's lineup generally went no higher than PG-13. And Deadpool seemingly wouldn't have been a suitable fit for either platform.
In response to this uncertainty, the filmmakers experimented on Deadpool 2 by reformatting it in PG-13 waters as Once Upon a Deadpool. The F-bomb was either unsaid or bleeped out, any instances of nudity were pixelated, the raunchier jokes and scenes were made less salty, the violent scenes were made less bloody, and the biggest addition to Deadpool 2 in this cut was a framing device in which Deadpool narrated the movie in storybook form to a bed-strapped Fred Savage, all of which paid homage to The Princess Bride.
That's, in concept, a ridiculous idea. Having caught on to censorship the hard way with Diet TDI – ring any bells? – I knew that any cut that lessened any objectionable content that otherwise made the original work so cherished was bound to end in disaster. But for the sake of proper critiquing, I decided to give this cut a whirl anyway.
While I still believe that the other two versions of Deadpool 2 are much better, to my surprise, this cut was not without some charm and clever moments.
The framing device I spoke of was well constructed and did a decent job of complementing Deadpool 2's story while keeping it supposedly in the PG-13 territory, all with the humorous context that Deadpool could provide. Besides, Fred Savage was the same actor who played the young boy listening to his grandfather as he told him the story in The Princess Bride—so, watching him complain about being kidnapped against his will instead of simply being sick and being forced to listen to Deadpool telling him the (filtered) story of Deadpool 2 led to some outlandish and funny moments from him.
But what helped this new aspect of Deadpool 2 maintain its humor to me was how meta it was. As Deadpool clued Savage in on what he was about to do with him regarding Deadpool 2, he commented on the situations concerning Disney's purchase of Fox, and it tinted his conversations with Savage with a slightly begrudged nature, as if Deadpool wanted to get it over with as quickly as Fred Savage did.
Do you remember how Wade Wilson thought some parts of Deadpool 2 were just lazy writing? In this version, Fred Savage threw in similar complaints, too, sounding less like the innocent kid who became fascinated and hooked by the story being told to him and more like a Deadpool nerd.
For example, he complained about Vanessa's death as just another 'woman in the fridge' moment. If you remember from my Cloak and Dagger review, this tactic was more commonplace and famous in the comics after it made a splash in Green Lantern 54. And in another instance, he asked questions about the aftereffects of Deadpool's bisection by Juggernaut. Why was Deadpool's upper half of his body able to grow back but not his lower half? Couldn't that have grown into another Deadpool with the exact likenesses? It's that kind of commentary that added to its meta state, which I already admire so much about this cut, along with what I'm about to highlight next.
There have been a couple of times in the movie, both in the framing device and the film itself, where they've had a little too much fun with the bleeps throughout the movie. In one scene I found sidesplitting, Deadpool constantly bleeped Fred Savage's F-word when he talked about doing something to Matt Damon in a fighting ring. But as Deadpool finished bleeping him and Fred Savage asked him what he was bleeping him for, it turns out Fred Savage was talking about fighting Matt Damon, whereas Deadpool thought he meant fucking Matt Damon. To see this put a spin on how censorship could be handled sounded like the classic humorous lambasting that sounded appropriate not only in a PG-13 movie but also for characters like Deadpool.
Plus, there's one scene involving Deadpool and Fred Savage that felt too good for me to see as anything less. In this instance, Deadpool was torn in half by Juggernaut – but not onscreen or with as much blood, mind you – and once Juggernaut finally tore Deadpool in half, it cuts to Deadpool and Fred Savage looking at each other blankly, mainly because Fred Savage was so taken aback by Deadpool admitting his bisection in the story. They didn't speak, but their expressions to each other told me right away what they were feeling about what Juggernaut did to Deadpool in the story, and it made it one of the funniest scenes in this cut.
Because Deadpool 2 originally had its end credits scenes that included Deadpool going back in time to fix the mistakes of the past, I wondered how the framing device would've snuck in at this point. After the end credits wrapped up, Deadpool finished reading the story, and as he had promised, he cut off the tape that held Fred Savage in place. And it turned out he was not wearing any pants. Then, as Deadpool took him out of the bedroom door, the camera pulled back to reveal that it was all just a major film set with the cameraman being seen recording it.
Ironically, some scenes from the Super Duper Cut were added to the movie. And for what the filmmakers decided to throw in from that cut of Deadpool 2 into this one, I like how they noticed some of the adequately spicy elements from that cut and still had them work alongside the other scenes that were either toned down a little or were brought back from the Theatrical Cut. For example, it does bring back 'Welcome to the Party' as opposed to 'Fly Like an Eagle,' which I'm still convinced was used in the Super Duper Cut as a reference to what Deadpool suggested of Dopinder in the taxicab. One of the only scenes added to this cut that was new and not seen in either of Deadpool 2's other cuts outside of the framing device occurred during Deadpool's suicide attempts, which included the polar bear maiming scene. The new scene had Deadpool sit on a bench and use a gun to kill himself. Then, an elderly couple came by to sit beside him with the old lady carrying a bunch of balloons. In the middle of Deadpool's pleas for them to go away, he said to the lady, 'I loved your work in Up.' I don't know how that got in there outside of attempting to provide a softer method of Deadpool trying to kill himself, but that still was a light and funny scene to add to Deadpool 2.
As for this cut's omissions, it tossed out the entire sequence of Deadpool committing his international killing spree as part of his mercenary job. It also threw out the James Bond-esque opening credits since it instead used opening credits that stylistically resembled The Princess Bride in keeping with its homages to that film. At least Once Upon a Deadpool had the courtesy to save Celine Dion's 'Ashes' for the end credits.
It also brings up another point I flashed on as I watched the cut. If you can believe it, movies like Saturday Night Fever and James Cameron's Avatar films also had extra versions that sanitized their raunchier elements to endorse a more family-friendly image. But there's something a little creative, dare I say it, about how Once Upon a Deadpool decided to retell Deadpool 2 in a PG-13 environment with flair and the classic humor as expected from Deadpool, no matter how it was conveyed.
The filmmakers rearranged this, thinking it would have made a passable version of Deadpool 2 to release under the Disney/MCU umbrella. Thankfully, however, Disney+ eventually allowed both Deadpool films and Logan to be streamed in their original version. And to make things better, Kevin Feige allowed Deadpool's next film to maintain its R-rated integrity. It ensured Deadpool fans and probably the filmmakers that they were in good hands and that the Marvel superheroes would've been allowed to retain the core components of what made them so famous in the first place, whether it pertained to the expected MCU formula or not. After all, if characters like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Punisher, and Echo made as much of a breakthrough as they did in their R-rated glory and still fit snugly into the MCU, so too can Deadpool.
Given what kind of superhero Deadpool is famous for being, it was interesting to see more than one different take on Deadpool 2 unleashed here, especially since it concerns just Deadpool 2 and not the first film. It may have been hit and miss, and it was just for experimentation – and knowing how Deadpool will stay his true self under the MCU, Once Upon a Deadpool might age fast – but seeing what both cuts attempted to do with Deadpool 2 still made for some intriguing comparisons.
Be that as it may, Deadpool 2 is a sequel worthy of the titular character. The jokes were still rampant, the action was upped from the first movie, the emotional moments took centerstage, the characters were still as riotous as ever, the performances were still top-notch, the dynamics were excellent, and it took the storylines of all the returning characters from the first movie to exciting new directions. And after watching the trailers for its (as of this writing) forthcoming follow-up, Deadpool and Wolverine, it seems like Deadpool might have bigger fish to fry – and I mean, if handled carefully; look at how Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania did it – as he gets comfortable in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, I'm excited to see what the future might bring for Deadpool.
Bring on the popcorn and your X-gear because this next chapter of the Merc with a Mouth's adventures is one hell of a ride!
My Ratings
Deadpool 2: A low A
Deadpool 2 - Super Duper Cut: A
Once Upon a Deadpool: An unanticipated B
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