Ryan Reynolds is back as Deadpool for the highly anticipated and extremely well-advertised sequel Deadpool 2, and it looks like the consensus is that it’s a good movie. Hooray!

With 55 reviews counted on Rotten Tomatoes, Deadpool 2 has an 85 percent positive rating, averaging a score of 7.2/10. Which is not a bad job for a movie which prides itself on being rude and gross.

Deadpool 2 follows our favourite mercenary as he puts together a team of superheroes to fight against a time-travelling assassin named Cable.

Much like the original film, it looks to be an ultra-violent, crude and rather funny superhero romp. It’s R rated in the US, if that gives you an idea of its tone.

So, let’s have a look at what the critics are saying:

My understanding is that the social media embargo is up on DEADPOOL 2, but I can't use review language. So let me be the first to say it's both lamp and very, very trampoline. If you blancmanged the first movie, you'll casserole this!

— Chris Hewitt (@ChrisHewitt) May 11, 2018

Very Good Film Indeed

Everyone seems to think Ryan Reynold’s is doing an amazing job in the role, which is great.

Variety led the charge with an extremely positive review, saying:

“In almost every respect, this sequel is an improvement on its 2016 predecessor: Sharper, grosser, more narratively coherent and funnier overall, with a few welcome new additions. It’s a film willing to throw everything — jokes, references, heads, blood, guts, and even a little bit of vomit — against the wall, rarely concerned about how much of it sticks. Plenty of it does, plenty doesn’t, and your enjoyment of the film will be entirely dependent on how willing you are to ignore the mess left behind.”

Empire concurred, first praising their use of the “ballsiest” Basic Instinct gag on screen, and writing that “we’d say it’s the rare sequel that surpasses the original — but as Deadpool would put it: “That’s just lazy writing.”

It’s Pretty Good I Suppose

A lot of the criticism around the sequel basically accuses Deadpool 2 of failing to do more than just deliver the same kinda stuff from the first film. As Entertainment Weekly put it:

“Deadpool 2 might not be exactly the sequel we need, but it feels like the one we deserve. If the first outing was a scrappy, self-referential riff on the noble tropes of superherodom, the second is all that again, squared: a mega dose of meta (or is it a meta dose of mega?) rolled in radioactive goo and stuffed inside a cinematic piñata of fourth-wall breaks, severed limbs, and Yentl jokes.”

Deadpool no spoiler review:
If you liked the first one, you'll like the sequel.
Cheers.

— Erna Mahyuni (@ernamh) May 15, 2018

The Wrap concurs, writing that “somewhere in the middle lies Deadpool 2, which never betrays the promise of the first film; it just doesn’t build on it, choosing instead to replay the greatest hits.”

Very Not Good Actually

Turns out Deadpool 2 is not everyone’s cup of tea at all, with Vulture almost writing it off entirely.

“We’ve reached superhero saturation point, and Deadpool 2 is less a satire of that condition than a symptom of it. It has zero suspense — it’s too hip, too meta, for suspense.”

The New York Times also feels the film is trying a little too hard, saying “this sequel to the R-rated, X-Men-adjacent surprise blockbuster of 2016 works maybe a little too hard in the service of a dubious cause.”

i can't wait for deadpool 2 to get mixed to negative reviews, not make nearly as much as the first film, and then have to deal with douchebag film school frat boys defending it for a month

— Samantha (@Arielrocks5) May 8, 2018

Oh well. Guess we all get to make up our own minds when we go and see it ourselves!

Deadpool 2 is currently playing in cinemas everywhere.