Director: Shawn Levy

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney

Less a feature film, more pandering panto this occasionally amusing but ultimately tiresome sequel should hopefully put an end to the anything-goes, multiverse-straddling superhero pics.

After a short prologue in which Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Reynolds) literally exhumes the worse for wear Wolverine, Wade is shown attending an unsuccessful interview to join the Avengers.

Jump to six years later where Wilson is living an unfulfilling life as a used car salesman. His birthday party is interrupted by soldiers from the Time Variance Authority (TVA), who ‘Loki’ viewers and Marvel regulars will know as the protectors of the Sacred Timeline (ours). They take him to TVA HQ where rogue manager Mr Paradox (Macfadyen channelling a pompous and irate John Cleese) tells Wade that his universe is deteriorating after the death of the ‘anchor being’ James ‘Logan’ Howlett. Stealing a TVA device, Wade traverses the multiverse in search of a Wolverine to fix matters. Cue some amusing nods to various versions of the fierce X-Men character, before Wade settles on the yellow suited incarnation (Jackman). The two wind up in the Void, a ‘Mad Max’-style wasteland presided over by Cassandra Nova (Corrin) a powerful mutant who has a connection to a pivotal figure in Logan’s past.

Few concessions are made to non-fans and the uninitiated in a picture that is not so much a piece of narrative cinema as a borderline incoherent parade of cameos, callbacks, and fan service. The edgy humour and gleefully amoral action sequences are fun initially but feel more quaint than transgressive at this point. The bromantic bantz and bickering, while occasionally amusing, becomes wearying over the 128-minute running and the sentimental ending is cloying. Emma Corrin steals the show as a genuinely creepy bad gal who deserves a better film.

Deadpool & Wolverine is out now.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilim