The Suicide Squad review

THE SUICIDE SQUAD: 

SUPERVILLAINS TURNED SUPERHERO TEAM GET A RELENTLESSLY BLOODY AND OUTRAGEOUSLY FUNNY UPGRADE!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Col. Rick Flag, Harley Quinn, Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot-Man, and King Shark in The Suicide Squad

 

            The “Worst Heroes Ever” are back in The Suicide Squad, the latest installment of the DC Extended Universe and sequel/soft reboot to the 2016 film, Suicide Squad. The first film I didn’t hate, but I didn’t love either, structurally it’s a huge mess with an inconsistent tone, story elements that don’t make sense, and it was heavily edited down against the director’s wishes, but it has an interesting style, and I did enjoy the chemistry between the characters, most notably Will Smith’s Deadshot and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. 

            You can tell the first Suicide Squad was trying to be this dark, mean-spirited, and funny comic book movie especially after the success of Deadpool earlier that year, but ended up becoming a PG-13, watered-down version of one of those kinds of comic book films. Then, there was Birds of Prey last year also featuring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and was the first DCEU film to be rated R which despite its flaws, I found moderately enjoyable and whether you like or disliked the film, Birds of Prey was a step in the right direction for DC’s movies. 

            Now, we have this new version of Suicide Squad with Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street, I, Tonya, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Viola Davis (The Help, Fences, Widows), Joel Kinnaman (House of Cards, RoboCop (2014), Run All Night), and Jai Courtney (Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Jack Reacher, The Divergent Series) reprising their roles as Harley Quinn, Amanda Waller, Col. Rick Flag, and Captain Boomerang, and written and directed by James Gunn (Scooby-Doo 1 and 2, Super, Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2), best known for his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise with Marvel, that I can only describe as a mix of Deadpool, both Guardians of the Galaxyfilms, Troma films (Even right down to having a Lloyd Kaufman cameo in it!), and all the best aspects of the first Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey. The result, one of the best and most entertaining films in the DCEU!

            This is some of the most fun I’ve ever had with a DC film, the charismatic and likable characters and actors, the witty dialogue, the gory violence, the soundtrack, and the delightfully weird and crazy premise. Who knew? 

            The film follows another group of criminals participating in the Task Force X program (or Suicide Squad) in hopes to get out of prison. This time the squad consists of Bloodsport (Idris Elba-Marvel Cinematic Universe, Pacific Rim, Molly’s Game), Peacemaker (John Cena-The Marine, Bumblebee, F9), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone-Rocky franchise, Rambo franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2), Polka-Dot-Man (David Dastmalchian-Ant-Man 1 and 2, MacGyver, The Flash), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior-Ouro Verde, Valor da Vida, The Black Book), their field leader, Col. Rick Flag (Kinnaman), and everyone’s favorite psycho chick, Harley Quinn (Robbie) under orders by Amanda Waller (Davis).

            Their mission, ironically just as strange as the team itself, trek through the jungles of the island of Corto Maltese with malicious forces around every corner to destroy a Nazi-era laboratory that houses a mysterious and destructive force known as Project Starfish. As these convicts-turned-heroes slaughter their way through villain after villain, they discover that there may be some shady details about this project that Waller is keeping secret from them. 

            The film also stars Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who, Paddington 1 and 2, The Personal History of David Copperfield) as The Thinker, Courtney reprising his role as Captain Boomerang, Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead, Super, Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2) as Savant, Pete Davidson (Guy Code, Wild ‘n Out, The King of Staten Island) as Blackguard, Sean Gunn (Super, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Belko Experiment) as Weasel, Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle, DC Animated Universe) as T.D.K. (The Detachable Kid), and Flula Borg (Pitch Perfect 2, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Place) as Javelin. 

            Overall, The Suicide Squad embraces the violent, chaotic nature of its source material and offers a fun, fast paced, and most importantly bloody and hilarious adventure enlivened by its charismatic cast. Instead of being a PG-13rated movie that’s trying to be dark and edgy, here we have an R-rated movie that naturally is dark, edgy, and funny and despite being a sequel, it also works well as a standalone film, even if you’ve never seen the 2016 film you can easily follow along with this one…and it’s a lot more fun to boot! 

             The film’s highlights are the extreme violence and characters and despite the protagonists technically being “Bad Guys”, they’re extremely likable, very funny, and even charming at times and I love hearing all the Suicide Squad members work off each other. Idris Elba’s Bloodsport is relatively like Will Smith’s character from the first film even right down to reuniting with his daughter being the reason why he joined Task Force X, but Elba plays the part well and has some hilarious back and forth headbutting with John Cena’s Peacemaker. 

            Harley Quinn is still just as crazy and funny as ever, though unlike the first film and especially Birds of Prey, she’s more downplayed this time around which allows the other team members to shine. Robbie’s still excellent as the character, but she shouldn’t be the only reason to go see a superhero/supervillain team ensemble movie. 

            The three characters who stand out the most to me are Polka-Dot-Man, King Shark, and Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot-Man is quite possibly the strangest character I’ve ever seen in any comic book movie. He’s so freaking bonkers whenever he’s onscreen and his power is to literally shoot deadly polka-dots at people…he’s probably my favorite character in the whole film, I couldn’t stop laughing. 

            I also really liked the chemistry between King Shark and Ratcatcher 2, King Shark is literally this giant, shark monster who “Nom-Noms” people and has no friends, Ratcatcher is this kind, endearing girl who can control rats (Basically the superhero equivalent of Willard!), the two of them have this strangely, sweet Beauty and the Beast-like relationship, which is pretty much the heart and soul of this film is a girl who controls rats and a giant shark, go figure. 

            The film is also nice and gory with a heavy body-count, bullets and blades flying everywhere, and people getting sliced and crushed left and right. However, the film is also very imaginative with its gory scenes literally right down to having a bunch of Corto Maltese citizens being squashed by a giant starfish monster in the climax…you are not high! 

            This is the Suicide Squad I wanted back in 2016, with all the hyper-violence, witty dialogue, and the colorful cast of characters. It truly is one of the DCEU’s finest outings.