The Suicide Squad
This “loose” sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad carries over the premise and a handful of characters from the first film, but changes just about everything else, so it should still appeal to viewers who haven’t seen (or didn’t like) the original. This fun and anarchic action-comedy from writer/director James Gunn captures the emotion and character of his earlier Guardians of the Galaxy films, but on a much more blackly-comic, R-rated canvas.
Premise: Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles a new “suicide squad” of imprisoned super-criminals, including Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Peacemaker (John Cena), under the command of Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), to infiltrate the South American island of Corto Maltese and destroy the secret laboratory hidden beneath the Nazi-era fortress.
Review:
It’s probably fair to say that 2016’s Suicide Squad polarised audiences, with some people loving it, and others hating it. I enjoyed it, despite its flaws, and particularly appreciated its spot-on casting choices, and its decision to showcase a lot of lesser-known villains that I’d grown up with from the comic-books. This belated sequel tries (and succeeds) in having its cake and eating it – if you liked the 2016 film, then 2021’s The Suicide Squad continues the premise and brings back Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) from the first film – but if you didn’t like (or didn’t see) the first film, The Suicide Squad works as its own standalone movie, with no real references back to the events of the first film, and an entirely different tone and plot.
The Suicide Squad is unquestionably writer/director James Gunn’s film, and his presence can be felt (in a good way) in every aspect of the film. While there’s always a risk with comic-book movies that they can feel homogenised and generic, The Suicide Squad has a clear sense of identity and tone from beginning to end, and feels like the vision of a single director rather than the product of a studio or committee. If you liked what James Gunn did with his Guardians of the Galaxy films in terms of fleshing out the characters and camaraderie of a rag-tag bunch of lesser known anti-heroes, then the good news is he’s done the same with The Suicide Squad. If you didn’t like the Guardians of the Galaxy films, the good news is that The Suicide Squad is sufficiently different from the 12-rated Guardians of the Galaxy films, in terms of its black humour and explicit violence, that there’s still every chance you’ll enjoy The Suicide Squad.
“…John Cena perfectly combines a comedic lack of self-awareness with genuine badassery…”
Just as with the first film, the casting decisions are spot on in The Suicide Squad. Margot Robbie returns for her third outing as Harley Quinn, and I was a little concerned when this film was first announced that it might undo the character development that she received in Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn – but any such fears were quickly dispelled, and this is definitely the “emancipated” version of Harley Quinn on display her. Jai Courtney returns as Captain Boomerang, just as obnoxious as he was in the first film, while Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag is a bit more relaxed and personable than he was in the first film, as if his time working with the various different incarnations of the “suicide squad” has softened his harder edges.
Just as in the first film, the audience is left in no doubt that Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), the shadowy government agent behind the Task Force X project, is far more dangerous than any of the super-criminal inmates at Belle Reve prison, and Viola Davis looks to be having a lot of fun playing such a ruthless character. The two main new characters are arguably Idris Elba’s Bloodsport and John Cena’s Peacemaker. Bloodsport could have come across as nothing more than a surrogate for Will Smith’s Deadshot from the first film, especially given that both are mercenaries whose only weakness is a young daughter – but Idris Elba is able to find his own space to make the character feel distinct, and his natural charisma shines though in a way that Deadshot’s buttoned-down-loner persona never allowed. John Cena, meanwhile, plays to his comedic strengths, imbuing Peacemaker with an inherent ridiculousness that everyone except Peacemaker instantly sees. Whereas I felt that John Cena’s character in Fast & Furious 9 never entirely worked, as Peacemaker, he’s able to perfectly combine a comedic lack of self-awareness with genuine badassery.
“…Sylvester Stallone voicing the CGI-character King Shark very nearly steals the film…”
The rest of the (very large) cast are all great … even those who don’t last all that long (the film certainly lives up to the “suicide” in The Suicide Squad). Long-time James Gunn collaborators Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn appear as TDK, Savant and Weasel, while Portuguese newcomer Daniela Melchior brings heart to the film as Ratcatcher 2, and David Dastmalchian plays one of DC’s most nonsensical supervillains, Polka-Dot Man. Peter Capaldi sports a very fetching bald look as The Thinker, while Sylvester Stallone provides the voice for the CGI-character King Shark, who very nearly steals the film with his comedic performance. All this and much more, including a small cameo from Taika Waititi.
Tonally, The Suicide Squad intentionally feels more like a throwback to classic war films like The Dirty Dozen than it does a “superhero” film per se. In this respect, it feels like James Gunn has learned from the Marvel model of making genre films within a world of superheroes (so that Ant-Man, for example, is a heist movie set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow is a spy film, and Thor: Ragnarok is a kitsch sci-fi). The truth is, The Suicide Squad is really a men-on-a-mission war film that just so happens to be set in a comic-book world and be about a team of super-villains.
“…builds to a satisfyingly emotional, action-packed & dramatic finale…”
Content-wise, The Suicide Squad earns a 15-rating in the UK, but I’d say that it has less bad language than either Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn or Deadpool, and like Deadpool, nearly all of the graphic violence is played for laughs and deliberately over the top. James Gunn keeps the tone light throughout – although that’s not to say that there aren’t any brutal shocks or emotional gut-punches along the way. But his playfulness can be felt all through the movie, even down to the idiosyncratic way that some of the credits are spelled out in blood, and other onscreen captions are formed by smoke and debris.
This is a spoiler-free review, so I don’t want to get into any specifics regarding the third act of the film, but it’s fair to say that even after seeing all of the trailers, the final act managed to throw me quite a few curveballs that I didn’t seen coming, and built to a satisfyingly emotional, action-packed and dramatic finale.
“…certainly one of the best DCEU films so far…”
Overall, there’s a lot to love about The Suicide Squad, and it feels like it accomplishes everything that it set out to do. James Gunn’s anarchic sense of fun suits the material perfectly, and the structure of the story itself feels like it could have been faithfully lifted from a limited comic-book mini-series. This is certainly one of the best DCEU films so far, and shows (once again) that James Gunn has a real talent for making audiences care about every member of a large, ensemble action cast. I can’t wait to see what he, and the DCEU, does next.
