Deadpool 2 Wastes The X-Force

Deadpool 2 finally brought the X-Force to the big screen, only to waste the team in the process. In the spirit of going bigger and badder, the movie introduces several characters commonly associated with the iconic Marvel group. Of course there's Josh Brolin's Cable, whose involvement is given appropriate prominence in light of their storied history as a duo, but there's also the X-Force, who've been introduced as Deadpool's team in the blockbuster. An X-Men offshoot from the early '90s, X-Force was a grittier, edgier team of mutants and misfits to whom Deadpool was a recurring major antagonist before his popularity led to him becoming more of an anti-hero. Initially led by Cable, the group is synonymous with the world of the Merc With The Mouth and their inclusion is an exciting prospect that's undermined by the sequel's mishandling of their first big-screen appearance.

In the movie, X-Force are a band of hired help Deadpool and Weasel put together to stop Cable from intercepting Firefist's prison transport and killing him. Domino, Shatterstar, Vanisher, Bedlam, Zeitgeist, and Peter, led by Wade, sky-dive out of a plane together in what trailers made seem like one of the biggest set-pieces of the feature.

It's big alright, but not in the way anyone expects as most of the group are killed or butchered due to Wilson's poor planning. Heavy winds cause several of them to go off course, crashing into buses and helicopter blades among other generally grim ways to die, leaving Domino and their red-and-black leader to face down Cable. It's a great sequence, but it's a waste of what was one of the movie's most interesting ideas.

This Page: It's Undermine's Deadpool's Core Message For a Laugh

Page 2: It Makes X-Force Feel Irrelevant

It's Undermine's Deadpool's Core Message For a Laugh

When Deadpool is written well, he's one of the most entertaining superheroes there is. Tragic, unpredictable, dramatic, and melancholic all at once, his best stories are the ones that balance his humor and his tragedy on a knife-edge, never favoring one too strongly over the other. The first Deadpool movie is an excellent example of what makes him so compelling – he's got this frenetic energy and presence, but it's all a cover for a deep, unbearable loneliness he's trying to remedy in whatever way he can.

The X-Force bit in Deadpool 2 is what happens when he's written poorly, the humor coming from a place of hollow nihilism and cheap thrills rather than actual character. Really, it comes down to what the whole incident means for the Merc and his development, in that it ultimately means nothing. The inception of the team and their hiring is great – Wade learning to play with others and accept that he's a hero is exactly what his journey should be – but the film just forgets about the rest of them once Domino's all that's left. After he watches the heroes that he brought into this mess get killed on his watch because of his lack of planning, there's barely a mention once Juggernaut tears him in half and the focus shifts toward a Deadpool/Cable alliance. There's no gravitas, only a bunch of innocent people with special abilities (and Peter) who get gruesomely killed because they wanted to be heroes, much to our amusement.

It's a play on Deadpool's satirical nature and rejection of superhero convention that values audience entertainment over a punchline with a purpose. There's no denying that the entire scene works on a comedic level; from when they dive out of the plane to when Deadpool grabs the scooter to make chase on Cable and Domino is laugh-out-loud stuff (not to mention THAT cameo), but it's the frivolousness that's irksome. In a plot centered around grief and finding family, it's a motif that feels jarringly cynical and shallow. The whole reasoning behind the faction is to stop an abused child being killed for a crime he hasn't yet committed. To then kill them off with so little regard is unnecessarily nasty and a juxtaposition tonally.

This story is meant to be about Deadpool learning to care for himself and other people, and it's harder to buy into that when the screenplay is willing to gut and dismember other characters just because the writers thought it'd be funny. Being around Wilson is generally bad for your health, but that doesn't need to mean wood-chippers.

Page 2: It Makes X-Force Feel Irrelevant

It Makes X-Force Feel Irrelevant

X-Force is an important part of comics history. They were Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld's first big powerplay at Marvel, changing New Mutants over to what was now his team. If what's being said comes to fruition and the next Deadpool film will be X-Force, introducing them in some small way during Deadpool 2 is wise. And doing it during the main feature is good too; a little more than a post-credits scene so audiences aren't left none-the-wiser, but only a flying visit to whet the appetite. As of now, anyone unfamiliar with the historical significance of the team probably isn't thinking these guys are going to be the next major chapter in Wade's cinematic odyssey, because they all got brutally murdered by some wind and hard luck before they got to do anything cool.

Deadpool and Deadpool 2 will be many people's introduction to the character and his little corner of the universe. There's not a lot of impetus to research further into his source material because these are self-contained and most of their meta-commentary is aimed at other movies and previous parts of Fox's X-Men franchise. A lot of the audience is relying on these films to tell them what to care about when it comes to Wade Wilson and what he's all about, and according to this movie, X-Force isn't really a big deal.

They're brought in from an open resume call from Weasel and Wade, they're named off-the-cuff, and they die at the start of their one big action scene, never to be spoken of again. Domino goes on to have a greater presence while the rest may as well not have not shown up. The introduction of Juggernaut as primary antagonist and Wilson getting torn in half allows the plot to move forward without ever addressing them either. That's cinematic language for “you don't need to care, except for that one, she's cool.”

And good for Domino, too. Her role is great and her powers make for some great writing opportunities in her next appearances. But did her introduction require the X-Force? And more importantly, did her introduction require the X-Force being mutilated minutes after we meet them? Including Terry Crews, whose lethal clash with a windshield comes right after the tumultuous drama surrounding Brooklyn 99's cancellation-then-renewal. Couldn't we have gotten Domino without him and the team being sacrificed for some quasi-clever commentary on how misleading trailers can be, or whatever the intended message is?

The whole thing makes X-Force look like a means to an end rather than the next step in the cinematic life of one of the most popular characters in Marvel's stable. They look like something made up by the writers to add some extra chaos to a script that was a little heavier than they'd like. Instead of the badasses teased in the trailers, we get a bunch of no-gos whose only function is to remind us this is an R-rated comic book movie that breaks the rules. As if Deadpool blowing himself limb-from-limb, slicing apart gangsters with katanas and spending most of the picture talking directly to us didn't already do that. Even as a subversion, they aren't up to much.

With Deadpool using time travel to seemingly undo almost all the major consequences of the movie, it's possible the same lineup will be back for the X-Force movie, although that could be even additional argument that their part in Deadpool 2 is insignificant. It was literally reset by the timeline. Even so, now that audiences are aware that the X-Force group exists, maybe the movie can take it to the next level and prove just how legitimate of a force the Marvel comics team can be on the big screen.