The Suicide Squad is a soft reboot of 2016’s Suicide Squad, which despite box office success fell victim to studio meddling and poor critical reception. Now in 2021, director James Gunn of Guardians of the Galaxy success takes the helm for this fresh take on the morally dubious group (now rated 15 instead of PG-13).
The plot follows Task Force X, nicknamed the 'Suicide Squad'- an eclectic group of supervillains and cons, who are dropped off at the dictator-run island of Corto Maltese to destroy a nefarious scientific lab. Returning from 2016’s Suicide Squad are Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman and Jai Courtney. They are joined by an assorted cast of additional squad members played by the likes of Idris Elba, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Pete Davidson, John Cena, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian and Peter Capaldi (and Sylvester Stallone as the voice of a giant man-shark.)
When DC announced that Gunn was taking on this property, I immediately had a lot of faith in him to course correct the franchise. His vision for Guardians of the Galaxy – a rag-tag group of lovable yet dumb characters that bond as a family and cause general chaos, setting it to a brilliant jukebox- is almost too perfect for this project too. And, it turns out… that is exactly the case here. The script for this film is nothing outstanding, but Gunn elevates all elements of the story, bringing a delightfully bonkers and dynamic sense of style to the action on screen, and his signature heart and humour to the characters. Even small details like the title cards are stylishly done. It makes Disney’s creative influence on Guardians seem positively restrictive in retrospect. For DC, this seems to be part of an admirable course correction of their general strategy, by prioritising creator driven stories (Birds of Prey, Joker, Aquaman) after their detrimentally studio controlled Justice League and Batman v Superman, which prioritised universe building over story.
The 'R RATED SUPERHERO MOVIE' has become fairly ubiquitous and less fresh after the success of the first Deadpool, with shows like The Boys and Invincible making it a crucial part of their marketing and concept, and other films like Logan and Joker utilising the increased rating to explore more mature themes. However, I would argue that a concept like the Suicide Squad necessitates and is enhanced by the increased capacity for violence and maturity. I don’t have any knowledge of the source material, but the movie has a lot of fun with the freedom the increased rating allows with all sorts of gruesome deaths and dark comedy.
Gunn’s decision to kill off members of the squad at various times in the movie has been the focus of much marketing, and it largely works very well, instilling a wild sense of unpredictability to the story and also offering a lot of comedic fodder (literally). It's sort of like an extended sequence of that Deadpool 2 bit where Wade recruits lots of minor superheroes only to have them quickly die in a gruesome fashion while parachuting. The Suicide Squad plays as an grander take on that concept. Sure, it is a shame to see a couple of actors go out a little sooner than I would have wished but the idea is so fun that it’s hard to begrudge anything that happens.
As mentioned before, the soundtrack was a big draw for me going in given that both volumes of Guardians' Awesome Mixes occupy a place in my heart and my playlist. James Gunn has brilliant taste in music and, more importantly, a natural instinct for how to best utilise songs to enhance his films. What I didn’t expect was for the score to be such a standout! I found out afterwards that John Murphy composed the original music for this movie, and it’s no wonder it was so good, given Murphy’s masterpiece of a score for Danny Boyle’s 2007 film Sunshine. Here, the main theme for the squad is just as cool as the soundtrack- the rock style guitar riff is incredibly thrilling and blends seamlessly into Gunn’s song choices (and is reminiscent of Daniel Pemberton’s also excellent work for Harley’s theme in Birds of Prey.)
The story of the film is nothing too unique, and is really just an excuse to allow for the insanity to occur, bolstered by some truly great action set pieces. One of my favourites involving Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn who manages to top her already incredible prison fight in Birds of Prey. After a shaky, misogynistic start, I am really glad she is able to have fun with this character now and be the badass she was destined to be. The action in the finale never quite manages to reach the highs of Harley's set piece or the opening beach scene, but it does make up for this in terms of sheer bizarreness. Seriously, this might be the wackiest comic book movie…ever? And for that, I am grateful. Not everything works, but I love the fact that the movie was allowed to be what it is and not a generic and pristine studio spectacle, forgotten by the time the credits role.
In terms of the titular group themselves, Margot Robbie and Idris Elba are the stand-outs of the film, but the more outlandish characters like Polka-Dot Man, Ratcatcher 2 and John Cena's Peacemaker also have some great moments. Gunn’s ability to juggle the sheer absurdity of the characters with a sincere love for the material is what makes the group dynamic shine here. The comedy will work well for those who enjoyed the chaotic stupidity of Guardians or the gore driven shock of Deadpool or Amazon's The Boys. Since that comedy style isn’t for me personally, I didn’t find much to laugh out loud here but I still think the comedy was enjoyable overall especially since the rating allows for some very dark humour that sets it apart from Gunn’s work with Guardians.
Overall, The Suicide Squad is a fun comic book movie of the 15-rated, shock/gore genre, enhanced massively by Gunn’s stylish directing. His flair for visuals and especially for music makes this an incredibly entertaining ride, and a blast to watch in the cinema. The humour and character work will hit different depending on personal preferences but the fast pace, creative action and fun vibe more than makes up for any shortcomings that the script may have.
Thank you for reading this review of The Suicide Squad, it was so nice to be back watching a great superhero movie in the cinemas after so long.
I do not own any of the images used in this post.