Deadpool & Wolverine review – Marvel’s achingly meta new sequel is going to be huge

If there’s a more obnoxious film this year, I’ll book myself on an all-expenses trip to “the Void” (a dumping ground for reject mutants, superheroes and sundry franchise miscellanea, which Deadpool , irreverent scamp that he is, describes as “a bit Mad Maxy”). This isn’t unexpected. Obviously this movie is obnoxious. It’s directed by Shawn Levy ( Free Guy ), whose approach is to deploy cinematic winks and ironic air quotes, and it stars Ryan Reynolds, who has made a career from walking the precarious line that divides lovable from punchable. It isn’t even necessarily a bad thing: a film can be obnoxious and simultaneously very funny, and Deadpool & Wolverine is frequently hilarious. But it’s also slapdash, repetitive and shoddy looking, with an overreliance on meme-derived gags and achingly meta comic fan in-jokes. It’s going to be huge.

Already paired up in a series of Marvel comic books, Deadpool (Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) make for an entertaining, if explosive movie double act. They have plenty in common: both are self-healers, both have authority issues, both have monster-sized substance abuse problems. But their differences – slashed, stabbed and punched out in close combat in the back of a Honda minivan – are what gives the film its juice. And by juice I mean blood; what with the gore and the risque gags, the film earns every last month of its 15 certificate.

Deadpool and Wolverine are flung together after the timeline of Deadpool’s universe is threatened with abrupt termination by Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), a rogue agent of the Time Variance Authority. Since the death of the Wolverine in Deadpool’s universe is a key factor in its demise, Deadpool goes multiverse-hopping for a replacement and manages to find the very worst version – a self-loathing, drunken failure. Redemption beckons, but not before plenty of effects-driven carnage and a run-in with Cassandra (Emma Corrin), the deranged evil twin of Professor Charles Xavier.

• In UK and Irish cinemas