Chocolate Meet Peanut Butter, John Wick Director Takes the Helm on Deadpool 2

John Wick co-director David Leitch is stepping in for Tim Miller on Deadpool 2, and that sound you hear is a whooshing sigh of relief from most of the first film's fans.

The success of Deadpool earlier this year is one of those rare instances when moment and material align so perfectly that it almost feels predestined.  Comic book heroes have become so ubiquitous and have so saturated the cultural consciousness that audiences were waiting for someone to come along and tear everything down, blow it to pieces, and then do unspeakably awful things to it.  Luckily, Fox had Ryan Reynolds and director Tim Miller in their back pocket.  The interesting part of the story (a part some of you undoubtedly know) is that they had them way before they actually made the film we saw in theaters.  Miller and Reynolds shot some test footage for Fox back in 2011 (check it out here) and the studio actually passed on it.  It was too much of a risk, too niche, they thought.  Three years later, in July of 2014, someone of mysterious identity (probably Miller or Reynolds...or both) leaked the footage online, which the internet promptly went insane for, and less than a year later they were filming.

Once Deadpool blew up as one of the biggest hits of this year, the main story on all the entertainment sites revolved around how Reynolds and Miller were the Lennon and McCartney who made it all possible.  These two guys stuck to their guns and the integrity of the character, or patented lack thereof, and it paid off in spades.  They seemed like a team of geek snake charmers who together would conquer the box office.  Then Tim Miller left the sequel.  And not only did he leave, but he purportedly left because of irreparable creative differences with Ryan Reynolds.  Now, I'm a fan of Reynolds.  I think he has a unique presence, and when he is utilized correctly, as he was in Deadpool, he has that undeniable star quality.  Miller, on the other hand, felt like the master craftsman here.  Anyone who can juggle the wild tonal shifts of this kind of meta-comedy and make it look effortless deserves an enormous amount of credit.  Hearing that he was leaving felt like a huge loss for many fans.  Hopefully, bringing David Leitch on board will calm their nerves. 

With all that said, I'm actually a little cool on Deadpool.  Don't get me wrong, I think its tremendously fun, and they definitely nailed the comic book version of the character in a way that I didn't think was possible, but it isn't perfect.  The jokes only seem to land about 75% of the time, which because of their rapid-fire delivery doesn't matter as much as it could.  Also, by the end of the film, I found myself tiring of Reynolds being so dang Reynolds-y that I was ready to take a break.  It hadn't worn out its welcome, but let's just say I was glad it bucked the current superhero running time trend and landed under two hours.  

So, count me as one of those who is extremely happy to see some new blood in command.  The problem is that I'm not sure how many of the first film's issues were Miller, or if he actually acted as a Reynolds-wrangler who reigned in his star's worst instincts.  My only other real worry is that John Wick had some strange problems with tone.  In some moments of the actioner, I couldn't guess if the directors were trying to make me laugh with the depressing over-seriousness of everything happening, or if they just completely misread the pathos of their setup.  As I mentioned before, tone is a tricky thing to get right in action-comedy.  One thing is for sure, though, Deadpool 2 will have some insanely well choreographed and expertly shot action sequences.  What else could we really ask for? 

We'll have to wait until January 2018 to find out.