Deadpool 2 | What to Watch

(Image credit: Photographs © 2018 Twentieth Ce)

Ryan Reynolds’ snarky Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, is back for his second solo adventure and he’s every bit as hilarious, outrageous, irreverent and fourth-wall breaking as before

Ryan Reynolds’ snarky Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, is back for his second solo adventure and he’s every bit as hilarious, outrageous, irreverent and fourth-wall breaking as before.

The film pokes gleeful fun at the superhero movie genre in general and the X-Men franchise in particular. In fact, it begins with a glib dig at Logan (Hugh Jackman's dour swansong as Wolverine), before teeing up a quick burst of carnage, staged with brio by director David Leitch.

We even get a redemptive character arc, of sorts, for Wade. Suicidal when the movie opens, he ends up trying to thwart Josh Brolin's time-travelling cyborg, Cable, from killing teenage mutant Firefist (Julian Dennison) before the rage-filled youngster grows up to become the villain who will murder Cable's family in the future.

To save him Wade assembles a rag-tag band of would-be daredevils, including Zazie Beetz's blithely sassy Domino, for a gag-filled mission. Only comic diehards will get the more obscure in-jokes, but even those with just a passing acquaintance with recent fantasy films will appreciate such snide put-downs as Reynolds' dig at Brolin's grim cyborg: 'You're so dark. Are you sure you're not from the DC universe?'