Deadpool

He stalks the Marvel Universe, but Deadpool is no hero. In this refreshingly oddball if uneven X-Men spin-off, Ryan Reynolds is in his element as the grudging mutant whose tongue is as sharp as the swords he uses to dispatch the bad guys. His target is Ajax (Ed Skrein) - mocked in the credits as "British villain" - who uses cruel and unusual punishment to cure our antihero of cancer and alter his genes, giving him the power of self-healing but also unsightly burns. In this state, Deadpool (once a mercenary called Wade Wilson) feels unable to return home to Vanessa (Gotham's Morena Baccarin), the woman who redeems his naughtiness. It's this vulnerability and Reynolds's self-effacing humour that keeps you rooting for him amid a barrage of wisecracks and fourth-wall-breaking asides. Director Tim Miller sometimes struggles with the balance of extreme black comedy, violence and lovey-dovey stuff, but, like Deadpool himself, his film benefits from being a little rough around the edges.