2016’s Deadpool showed that R-rated comic book movies could do serious business and rake in critical acclaim, and the success of Logan seemed to reinforce the point. If there was ever any doubt that Fox would greenlight a sequel, it was quickly dispelled. However, by releasing it so close to the MCU’s Avengers Infinity War – also starring Josh Brolin as villain Thanos – were the studio risking a repeat of Apocalypse’s poor showing?

At the top of his game as an international mercenary for hire, Deadpool’s life is turned upside down by a tragedy he can’t bear to face. The chance to turn a young mutant from the horrific future which lies before him offers a chance at redemption, but only if he can reach the kid before crazed future soldier Cable.

The issue with Deadpool as a character is that it’s very easy to fall into the trap of assuming his appeal lies in how sweary, violent and anarchic the character is. Fall down that rabbit hole too hard and you end up with a two hour movie that labours the joke and grinds on the nerves. The first movie recognised this by not having the character actually be on screen too much and focusing on the love story element between him and Vanessa, so what could the second one do?

As it turns out, more in every way. There was some concern from many fans (myself included) that there was no possible way of improving on what the first movie had done. Here, new director David Leitch works from a screenplay by returning writers Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds to prove that not only can they do better, but that they can seriously up the game.

Deadpool 2 is a family movie, our eponymous hero quips early on in proceedings. It seems like a throwaway line, much like the heavily promoted ‘date movie’ advertising which accompanied the first movie’s Valentine’s Day release in cinemas. However, as the movie progresses, it proves to be just that. It addresses many serious issues with the usual laconic manner you’d expect, but it really does commit to its theme.

Many people had an issue with Vanessa being killed off so early in the film – the issue of fridging raising its head again. The writers claimed to have never heard of that trope, insisting instead that to them the character simply worked better when he had everything taken away from him and was suffering. The actual instigator of the term ‘fridging’, comic book writer Gail Simone says that Vanessa isn’t fridged for several reasons. First, her treatment in the first film is such that she’s an actual, developed character, so not just an object for the plot to kill off to provide motivation. Second, she actually continues to appear in the rest of the film as a sort of ‘spirit guide’ and then gets resurrected in the end credits sequence. Other prominent voices disagree. For what it’s worth, Vanessa was one of my favourite characters in the first movie, and I was disappointed not to get more of her here. That said, the way the film uses her is intelligent and well-written, contributing to the message it’s getting across.

It’s also noticeable that, while the film remains R-rated, it’s significantly less gory than its predecessor. There’s blood and guts, for sure, and language aplenty. But the thing which makes this instalment feel so much more grown up is the themes it addresses rather than how many bodily fluids and dismembered limbs it joyfully splashes across the screen.

For a start, there’s Deadpool himself. His reaction to Vanessa’s death isn’t to go on a rip-roaring murder spree. He’s already killed the guy who shot his girl mere moments after he does it. His initial response (expanded on in the Super Duper cut) is to try to kill himself so he can be with her again. There’s a telling conversation with Colossus after his last attempt where he lays out that the scumbag who killed Vanessa is him – his lifestyle is what killed her and he takes full responsibility. This again moves the whole shape of the narrative away from a usual ‘fridging’ one. Our hero isn’t motivated out of his comfort zone by his partner’s death, he’s simply left in lonely despair by it.

As the film progresses and we get to the Russell/Firefist storyline, Deadpool gets the chance to show that under all that mouthiness and cocksure bravado there’s actually a decent person. His initial, rage-filled response to Russell’s torturers, executing one on the spot while in X-Men (trainee) uniform may seem typical Deadpool. After all, we’ve seen him execute plenty of people already at this point. But there’s something very specific about why he does it. This isn’t just the usual Wade Wilson shits and giggles. This is a genuine response of anger directed at an abuser on behalf of the abused. That he then goes on to continually ignore Russell and tell him to go away when they are locked up in The Icebox doesn’t in fact detract from this. Deadpool at that point is dying from cancer, his mutant ability turned off. He knows he can’t protect Russell, and even advises the young boy on how to protect himself. At that point, he thinks he’s done what he needed to do to get back to Vanessa, and settles in to die.

The rest of the movie plots a surprisingly sophisticated arc of how Deadpool comes to realise the truth behind Vanessa’s words of his heart being in the right place, and how family isn’t something he can no longer have now she’s gone. There’s the assembly of X-Force, which may feel like an extended joke but actually represents his first badly flailing attempt at assembling that family for himself. There’s the constant reassurance from Domino that he’s ‘doing great’, which he tolerates without question, despite his conviction that ‘Luck isn’t a superpower.’ There’s the alliance of necessity with Cable, which draws out the reasoning behind that character’s mission and allows each of them to see the other’s point of view, however grudgingly. And there’s the reunion with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. At every beat, the film shows us a little bit more growth of the character, while still remaining true to his fundamentals.

It helps that the supporting cast are genuinely excellent. Julian Dennison is a revelation as Russell Collins, providing exactly the energy and presence needed for the role. It’s a part which has the audience laughing at the bumbling attempts at ‘Gangsta’ styling one moment and genuinely sympathetic to his plight the next. Given what the character can do, and how he is wont to behave at points, it’s a testament to the writing and the performance that he never feels beyond redemption, and I find myself rooting for him every time I watch.

Of the X-Force, its lone surviving member, Domino, steals every scene in which she appears. Whether it’s the aforementioned serene reassurances to Wade, the cocksure confidence or the awesomely intricate set-pieces surrounding her, Zazie Beetz is magnetic. The imagination shown by the screenplay and direction in putting together her action scenes is in keeping with the rest of the movie, and lends the lie to Wade’s insistence that her superpower ‘isn’t cinematic.’ I can only hope we see more of the character in future instalments.

Josh Brolin’s portrayal of Cable is as perfect as that of Thanos. Where his role as the big purple villain required seriousness, pathos and depth, Cable is what he is and Brolin plays to this in every scene. Cable is at heart a ridiculous character from a ridiculous age in comics, and the film knows this and plays with it. That’s not to say the character doesn’t get some depth himself – we have a nuanced origin story. But that nuance gets trampled on by just how single-minded Cable is, and how much of a dick he spends most of the film being. Even his final act to save Wade’s life loses some of its immediate sheen as he insists that he didn’t do it for Wade at all. He’s a big slab of testosterone, angry retorts and violence who carries a fanny pack and applies chapstick while maintaining heavy eye contact. It’s clear that the writers had as much fun scripting him as Brolin does performing him.

Visually, the film is a feast, as you might expect from a former stuntman and one of the original team who directed the first John Wick movie. I’ll admit a little heresy here for a genre fan – endless fight scenes can get boring for me. Recently I saw John Wick III, which was full of excellent action climaxes that were often preceded by several minutes of people fairly repetitively kicking and punching one another in darkened scenes with frenetic camera work which got difficult to follow and started to test my patience. Deadpool 2 by contrast presents every scene with gorgeous variety, perfect clarity and endless invention. No matter how many times I watch the film, not one of its fight scenes or action set pieces gets dull, from the opening sequence set gloriously to Dolly Parton’s ‘Nine to Five’ to Domino’s extended bit with the mutant convoy and the climatic finale.

It uses its soundtrack brilliantly as well. Perhaps it’s the bigger budget this time around, but there’s a wider variety of songs here and the way that they are used to accentuate or contrast with the action on screen reminded me of James Gunn’s careful deployment of songs in Guardians of the Galaxy. So subtly is it done, it took me until this re-watch to even notice the trick.

For those who loved the first movie, there’s still plenty of gore on display, lots of profanity and sexual innuendo. There isn’t enough Negasonic Teenage Warhead for my money. Brianna Hildebrand gets only a couple of scenes and not much to do or say, but it’s nice to see her playful(ish) relationship with Wade remains the same. It’s also nice to see she’s settled with a girlfriend, and that the movie makes no kind of deal about that at all. Representation in the genre is still rare, and although not much gets done with it, that it’s there at all and not shouted about by the script is welcome progress indeed.

It also doesn’t lose that keen edge of satirical bite to proceedings. As apt to mock its own genre as it is everything else, there’s plenty of sideswiping snark at the X-Men franchise, comic books in general and the wider world. If anything, it gets smarter in this regard, with its pop-culture references being more weighted in the direction of stuff that will stand the test of time rather than some of the more limited shelf life stuff spat out in the first movie.

Essentially, Deadpool 2 feels like a sequel absolutely should. It’s Deadpool, but bigger, louder, slicker and better in every way than its predecessor. It tells a serious narrative, picks up on just as many real world issues as its mainstream franchise stablemates and arguably handles those issues more deftly than they ever managed. Reynolds’ performance remains just the right side of too much, meaning that the character still doesn’t manage to outstay his welcome, and although there are arguably fewer female characters than the first film, Beetz at least gets a sizeable role.

After Deadpool, it was difficult to see where the franchise could go next with its inevitable sequel. Now we have Deadpool 2, the question seems more to be where it couldn’t go. The writers have proven that what one might assume are the conventional ‘boundaries’ for the character don’t exist, and with the franchise now folding into the Disney/Marvel empire, there will be no shortage of additional characters for Wade to encounter/take the piss out of. Maybe the truth is that it’s Deadpool’s world now, and we all just live in it.

As a footnote – if you haven’t yet seen the Super Duper cut of the movie, it joins the elite club of movies where the extended cut makes it better. Like Aliens, T2 and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, once you’ve seen that bigger cut, the cinematic version just isn’t as watchable anymore.