David Leitch directs Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin and Zazie Beetz in this sequel to Deadpool, where the Merc with the Mouth has to save a kid from a time travelling anti-hero. 

Fair to say I wasn’t the first one’s biggest fan. And for the first act it looks like DPII is going to pound us with exactly more of the same. Obvious schoolboy jokes, an overbearing Cinema Sins style live commentary, grating smugness, flashy yet uninvolving action, weirdly inappropriate emotional moments… Everyone’s back, to the film’s detriment, almost as if they are so unsure what the franchise’s “winning formula” actually is and therefore they are scared to lose any previous element in case the whole thing deflates. Weasel, Dupinder and Blind Al really don’t need quite so much screentime. Reynolds gets more emoting sans mask… albeit covered in make-up that makes him look like a geriatric Ryan Reynolds who has wandered out of a care home in search of extra pudding. Yet midway through there is a series of killer jokes involving the newly formed X-Force’s first mission, powerless Pete’s heroics being a high point. That’s followed immediately by an utterly inspired action sequence showcasing Domino’s powers. Leitch gets to show off his John Wick honed mastery of smash and crash and Zazie Beetz, as the hyper lucky mutant, marks out her stall as a future star to watch. She’s incredibly relaxed, charming and sexy. It is a marked improvement from the incessant fanboyish snark of the uninspired first film. Sure, Brolin’s Cable feels a little lost in the mix and Reynolds is given far too much rope to piss about in the finale… but as a one-off entertainment this sequel won me over effortlessly in a way the first tried far harder to do.

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