DEADPOOL 2

 A by-product of Deadpool's $800 million worldwide box office, is that US studios are now far more amenable to taking a risk on more adult-skewed comic book properties. Ryan Reynolds second bite of the Deadpool apple, after his appearance as the character in Gavin Wood’s mind-blowingly risible X Men Origins: Wolverine was something of a ‘makegood’. A Deadpool fanboy through and through, Reynolds’ long-held desire to retcon X Men Origins: Wolverine saw him seize the opportunity to realise a more faithful screen version of Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza’s fourth wall breaking, violent and profane anti-hero with both hands. As Deadpool, Reynolds delivered a performance that many believe he was born to play.

In the first film, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a top mercenary who volunteers to undergo experimental therapy to survive terminal cancer. His treatment is compromised when he’s doublecrossed by Ajax (Ed Skrein) and he’s horribly disfigured. Presumed dead by the love of his life, he exiles himself and seeks vengeance on Ajax. Which (spoiler alert) he exacts. It isn’t necessary to have seen the first film, but it’d set the table for the anarchic, bonkers self-aware craziness that’s served to you in this sequel.

Deadpool is set on a path of deranged vengeance before the opening credits even roll and from that point, it’s continuous pot-shots at DC & Marvel, assailing the X Men (particularly Wolverine) and frenetic, bloody and hilarious action sequences. Director David Leitch’s stunt background served him well when he previously helmed Atomic Blonde and co-directed John Wick. Here, he’s off the chain, with set pieces showcasing imaginative and visceral violence which is ultimately as impactful as a wet-sock because the unreality of the exercise is only amplified by Deadpool’s fourth-wall breaking winks at the audience, his references to the ‘lazy’ script writers, his derision of plot twists from other comic book films and their all-too-common, though well-worn, plot devices. As a foil, Josh Brolin’s time-travelling cyber-soldier Cable is grizzled and po-faced, on a mission to prevent future atrocities as if he’s wandered in from a more serious film. He and Deadpool bounce off one another literally and figuratively, as Deadpool subverts him at every opportunity and mine the situation for laughs. As Domino, a mutant whose power is luck, Zazie Beetz (who stars in Donald Glover’s TV show Atlanta) all but walks off with the film. She currently has no less than six feature films all awaiting release - as well as being slated to reprise the Domino character in an X Force film (along with Brolin’s Cable and Reynolds' Deadpool) - so I doubt this is the last we’ll see of her. Following the tense drama of Avengers: Infinity War and the DC misfire Justice League, Deadpool 2 is like a star-raving bonkers palate cleanser