The Suicide Squad Movie Review - James Gunn Strikes Back
There is absolutely no doubt in anyone’s cranium that the original "Suicide Squad" from 2016 was a disappointment beyond cosmic proportions, with its production being a garbage fire under studio interference, its terribly written story with the most unlikable, superficial characters in a DCEU film (second behind Batman and Superman in their first film together) that are devoid of depth or any level of charisma — along with the worst Joker ever portrayed on film, editing so excruciating and sporadic that it makes seizure-inducing raves look like firework shows on The Forth of July, and other aspects such as comedy and soundtrack that are more soul-draining than waiting in line at the DMV. Even with Suicide Squad being critically acclaimed about as well as Tim Tebow’s debut as a Jacksonville Jaguar tight end, it still made almost a three-quarters of a billion dollars. Still goes to show you that audiences will still watch and eat up anything superhero related even if it’s egregious of the highest regard, see also "Falcon and the Winter Soldier", "Loki", two-thirds of "WandaVision", "Black Widow" and yes, even the four-hour drudgery that is the Snyder Cut (trust me, your time is coming).
Throughout the five years of production, a sequel was planned to be directed yet again by David Ayer, but month later decided to work on a different project for DC instead. And after shuffling through filmmakers like Gavin O’Connor and Johnathan Levine, Warner Bros. finally landed on James Gunn, known for bringing to life the first two films of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" series, "Super", the gay cartoon cat sketch in "Movie 43", and for being temporarily fired by Disney after they discovered some controversial, dark jokes that he tweeted in the past. Of course he was reinstated by Disney to direct "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" the day after being hired by Warner Bros, who gave him the free reigns to direct whatever DC property he wanted after Gunn rejected the pitch of directing a Superman film.
That is how, at long last, this standalone sequel came to fruition, and to make sure that audiences know that this is a standalone project, Warner Bros. does most unprecedented act of putting the “The” word next to the original title. But at least it doesn’t do something confusing like re-title itself in the same vein as its 2016 original, such as "Halloween (2018)" to John Carpenter’s Halloween in 1974 or calling the sequel to 'God of War III', “God of War”.
So before we get started, it’s time I stop beating around the bush and cut to the chase already. James Gunn’s "The Suicide Squad" absolutely power bombs David Ayer’s version into the Earth’s mantle and defiles the freaking remains; it’s a massive improvement from its predecessor in ever conceivable way. And given with how abysmal the DCEU has been in the past decade (as seen with recent outings on HBOMax), I remain utterly bewildered as how a film this good has to lug around the dreaded four letter acronym of death in its description. That said, the film is still compiled of issues for every compliment that I can give it.
From what we have this time in the tenth film in the calamitous DCEU, is that intelligence director Amanda Waller has assigned a group of dangerous prisoners, mercenaries and hitmen from Belle Reve penitentiary such as Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Ratcatcher II, King Shark, Polka-Dot Man and Harley Quinn (…again), all of whom are led by Colonel Rick Flag in a group called Task Force X to accomplish an objective which will grant them reduced sentences if accomplished. Their mission? Simple. Infiltrate Corto Maltese, a nation in South America overthrown by an anti-American dictatorship, and decimate a laboratory once controlled by the Nazis entitled Jötunheim containing a confidential scientific experiment by the name of “Project Starfish” a scheme managed and concocted by The Thinker, and eradicate every single shred of evidence that remains of it.
One thing has to be said and it is ultimately the biggest strength of the entire picture: the characters are the ones that carry this movie. They are the ones that make the film stand on its own feet and it is thanks to Gunn’s writing and understanding of the characters, providing interesting aspects, character arcs and fantastic dialogue for them that make certain members of the squad likable and fascinating. Allow me to list down the highlights:
For instance, Idris Elba as Bloodsport couldn’t have been more well cast. Elba is known to be a terrific talent in Hollywood as per usual, and here he hits the nail on the head with his performance as a marksman imprisoned for shooting Superman with a Kryptonite bullet that is forced to affiliate himself with his deranged allies if he wants to prevent his daughter from being incarcerated or (unbeknownst to him) killed. His character work is done consistently, and not to mention writing arcs of his character growing and becoming a leader with his allies throughout the film I believe was earned exceptionally. His line delivery for every line whether it is for a punch line, a one-liner, or banter and chemistry between his teammates, is projected in a raspy, yet charismatic antihero attitude similar to action heroes in the 60s-70s like Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood, and it is executed perfectly for his character.
And (I can’t believe I’m saying this) as much of an overrated wrestler and a gigantic numbskull he is with his comment on Taiwan, John Cena astonishingly fits the bill as Peacemaker, cementing this as probably his best role in a long while. Peacemaker is a man characterized as being a thorough, hardened killer who will achieve peace at any cost, even if it takes reveling in the blood of his enemies whether it’ll be men, weapon and children. It’s a gruesome ideology for sure, but its one that becomes such an fascinating attribute about his character particularly when handled in the third act. Cena’s militaristic performance is backed up with acerbic charisma and incredible timing with the film’s dark comedy, and thanks to the fantastic direction rather than the audience seeing the goody-two shoes boy scout of his WWE gimmick through Cena’s usually shtick, it feels like he bring such presence to the character.
Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2 is described by Gunn as the ‘heart of the film’ and she is precisely that with her performance including having an emotional backstory for her character, Sylvester Stallone as Nanaue, or King Shark for those who forget his first name, the man-eating shark/human-hybrid who I would characterize as a carnivorous cross between Hulk and Groot. He voices him in a childlike personality through his vocal role and it works in spades.
And then there’s Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn once again. Look, Margot may be a fine actress and all, but overtime, I think Harley has kinda reach a point where she’s getting on my nerves, badly. From the mannerisms, to her obnoxious Jersey accent, to her jokes that make Sarah Silverman look like a comedy legend, it all makes me not want to have in any DC installments for a long period of time. Now as you should understand, this iteration of Quinn herself being as ear bleeding as grinding a fork on a porcelain plate is all based on how I personally feel about Margot’s portrayal. As far as her writing goes, aside from a certain trait that she attains where after taking abuse or witnessing evil deeds caused from her past boyfriends that she will stop them if she ever noticed any red flags like for example, plotting on killing innocents. But she out of all the members of Task Force X lacks development with the other characters since she spends most of the plot by herself, has such little chemistry with previous characters such as Rick Flag, and her entire plot point has to rely on total luck and contrivances.
Speaking of which, she acquires the most unbelievable amount of plot armor in the whole film just as poorly as with her appearance in Birds of Prey. And that becomes incredibly distracting during a particular action scene towards the end of the second act where she’s gunning down Corto Maltese soldiers in one of the leader’s mansion. Foot-soldiers would sometimes be in the perfect vicinity and firing range to kill Harley, especially when she has a javelin she kept from a dead teammate, and they would either refuse to fire or they would fire, but not until they run towards her first as she would block the weapon and then kill them. So what it all boils down to it, Harley Quinn is not just a plot device, but entirely unnecessary. She has nothing of value to help the team, no intel to provide or anything, you take her out of the movie and nothing of substance would change of the film.
What makes James Gunn stand out from the crowd like some auteurs such as Edgar Wright, is his visually creative and tremendous presentation and directing style. It shows in such examples with the vibrant and inventive decisions as seen in his title card transitions such as a toilet with soap on the seat reading “3 Days Earlier”, rusty pipes and shrapnel revealing the location to Jotunheim, or blood on the ocean that read the opening credits. It’s a vibrant technique that makes James Gunn one of the more innovative directors in the industry. He handles the R-rating without compromise as the violence is taken advantage of and used to great effect.
Another instance that help Gunn’s directorial approach is perhaps the cinematography. Every shot and angle breaths life and vibrancy in every frame. From King Shark tearing a soldier to pieces to other shots such as the remaining squad members in the white rain walking towards Jotunheim. It’s a beautiful shot, despite the fact that in a plot perspective it doesn’t make sense that while it’s raining that the sun would turn everything white to blind enemies for our heroes to get the upper hand.
And as much as I would love to proceed with discussing its merits all day long, its errors cannot go unmentioned, firstly, its plot issues. Now for the most part, I think that the script handled itself But where the plot really takes a hard left turn into the stupid skid is the third act, specifically due to the film’s nonsensical climax where the plot armor is multiplied ridiculously, and a character who has a very useful mechanism that has appeared throughout the movie is used and while it’s made to be a satisfying moment, I was left wondering, “You could’ve used that the whole freakin’ time?”
Gunn is known for his clever comedic writing, delivery and timing in his scripts, and in The Suicide Squad as far as his execution goes, he hits 70% of the time with his jokes. The other 30% miss the mark on delivering a good punchline, or the punchlines themselves are extended for far too long than they should. The moments that indeed get a genuine belly laugh out of me mainly have to do with Bloodsport and Peacemaker’s exchanges and their violent hijinks. There is a particular scene where Bloodsport antagonizes Peacemaker for wearing ‘tighty-whities’, and Peacemaker’s following line made me explode with laughter.
There is also a particular moment that somewhat have to do with the character of Polka-Dot Man that I was a bit mixed with. You see, the thing with Polka-Dot Man is that he has suffered a traumatic experience as a child as his mother experimented on his siblings attempting to turn them into superheroes, where some of the experiments succeeded, like him, but the others didn’t make it. It scarred him to the point of him being withdrawn from people, and where he also sees his mother on everyone’s face. Now, it’s not the character that’s the problem—David Dastmalchian’s character is incredibly endearing, and his lines a especially with his dry and reserved delivery, but it’s a certain backstory that he has that is treated better than Fat Thor from "Avengers: Endgame". In "Endgame", Thor’s depression and obesity were in portions portrayed with sincerity due to him failing Asgard after Thanos killed all of his people and chopping Thanos’ head off in “Infinity War”, but for other segments were played out for laughs at the expense of him being fat. Polka Dot Man’s trauma and seeing his mother’s face in everyone is handled much better because while we acknowledge how psychologically impactful it is, the sight of seeing a shot of his mom’s face on The Suicide Squad and even the main villain of the film, it’s funny because it’s something unusual that isn’t meant to laugh at the character for having these hallucinations.
The action scenes while they are impressive, visually colorful, shot well to where you can tell what is happening and incredibly gory at that, they are a bit underwhelming considering the amount of plot armor our heroes are given when dealing with threats or surviving odds that they shouldn’t. The visual effects are well composited and believable on screen, and the soundtrack is handled much more appropriately and fit with the tone and scenes aside from it’s predecessor that just decides to cram in every popular song from the 70s and 80s as a reactionary method of aping “Guardians of the Galaxy”.
The Suicide Squad is unquestionably a flawed superhero film, especially when its crafted from the insane mind of James Gunn. However, when you compare it to the titanic pieces of crap that resides in the DCEU and even Phase Four of the MCU, it makes this movie the equivalent of a Charles Dickens novella. And while I may in fact think this movie is good, it’s a piteous shame that it shares a universe with one of the worst superhero movies of all time like “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice”, “Justice League” (including the Snyder Cut [yes, I stand by that]) and its heinous 2016 counterpart. And while it may say anything, this stands testament as the best film in the DCEU; hands freaking down.
Rating: 3.5/5
