'The Suicide Squad' review — DC anti-hero film is an ultra-violent joy
Inside the walls of the fictional Belle Reeve prison in Louisianna, USA, a variety of the world’s most dangerous super-criminals with overwhelming sentences for the heinous crimes are housed. As these increasingly desperate men and women looking for a way out, in steps Amanda Waller, the head of the black-ops squadron Task Force X with a way to shave years off of the inmate’s sentence. For every successful mission an inmate completes as a part of her “suicide squad,” they lose ten years off their sentence. It’s an offer that, to many, seems far too good to refuse.
Their new mission? The squad needs to destroy a secret military project on the small island nation of Corto Maltese. The problem? It’s infested with a highly trained army with a hunger for American blood. The odds of survival are low, but this squad is just about crazy enough to do the mission and maybe make it back alive.
The text below each of The Suicide Squad’s character posters reads “don’t get too attached,” with an implicit promise to the audience to fear for the safety of the film’s cast of characters. As the film begins, the bodies begin to pile up making good on the suicidal nature that the film’s titular team takes its name from. Don’t get too attached.
After his untimely firing from Marvel following the resurfacing of some old bad-taste jokes, Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn was quickly snatched up by Marvel’s competition to helm their next bad guy ensemble flick. Picking up as a semi-sequel, semi-reboot to David Ayer’s less-than-stellar 2016 original, Gunn’s new film sports a shiny new R-rating and enough brain-splattering headshots to go around. It’s an irreverent and unique take on the superhero genre that feels as much as a middle finger to the audience as well as a love letter to comic’s most obscure characters. The end result is a film goofier, gorier, edgier, and far more graphic than most of its peers and it’s all pulled off perfectly thanks to Gunn’s creative vision and the incredible cast assembled for the film.
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| Rick Flag (Kinnaman), Bloodsport (Elba), and Peacemaker (Cena) after a narrow escape. Still: The Suicide Squad (2021) © Warner Bros. |
The Suicide Squad is a massive movie. With seventeen names credited to the main poster, multiple parallel narratives, a time-jumping story structure, and a truly weird world to introduce, the film never buckles under its own weight. The pacing is perfect, the stylization is unique, the strangeness of the comic books is fully embraced, and the characters are fleshed out and well developed. The cross-cutting between the storylines and points in time never comes across and distracting and helps to keep the film moving at a steady clip. The opening action sequence establishes the film's premise before subverting the audience's expectations to prepare for what is to come.
The film fully embraces its strange, weird, and wacky roots while updating it with a high rating that somehow never feels antithetical to the cartoon-like world that The Suicide Squad builds. Gunn’s ultra-violence is used for shock and humour and goes hand-in-hand with his inventive shooting style. The frame is saturated in colour, the camera hardly ever stops moving, and the action is larger than life — and so is the gore. The work of cinematographer Henry Braham is miles ahead of most superhero movies. So much of the action was done practically. That dedication to visceral action is present in every action sequence. The camera grounds itself in chaos instead of feeling like an impersonal display for digitally rendered images. That’s a compliment I find I give out far too little to many other superhero films.
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| Director James Gunn with members of the cast. Left to right: Sean Gunn, Pete Davidson, Mayling Ng, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Nathan Fillion, Gunn, Margot Robbie, Flula Borg, Michael Rooker. Photo: Jessica Miglio & DC Comics. |
So much of the film’s success is owed to the incredible cast assembled. While the entire seventeen-character main cast deserves recognition, I want to focus on the few central characters who drive the film. Hot off the heels of her solo film Birds of Prey, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is delightful and entertaining. She commands every scene she appears in bringing effortless amounts of charm and personality. Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag sees major improvement from his appearance in the original film. Flag is given a new layer of empathy and kindness which takes him from a generic stubborn military leader to a friendly face. Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, another of the few returning characters from the original, remains almost entirely unchanged, however, her dower personality is given new meaning contrasted with the proper absurdity of everything going on around her.
The true highlights are the many new characters The Suicide Squad introduces. Idris Elba is the film’s proper lead playing Robert DuBois, A.K.A Bloodsport, a character incredibly similar to Will Smith’s from the original film. However, with a great foil with John Cena’s character and more concrete development, Elba never feels like Smith’s replacement. John Cena plays Christopher Smith, A.K.A. Peacemaker, a lawful-evil character with a sick sense of justice. Peacemaker is the character that Cena was born to play: larger than life and serious to the point of humour. Daniela Melchior and David Dastmalchian play stand out characters Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man, respectively. While they may be two incredibly deep-cut characters from the comics with laughable names and powers, their respective characterizations take them both in new, intriguing directions. Lastly, King Shark, a talking shark voiced by Sylvester Stalone, is wonderful. King Shark’s elevated from the brute of the squad to a funny, cute character, and show-stealing delight with a penchant for horrific violence.
The Suicide Squad is something special. Thanks to an incredible cast and a brilliant director with a strong creative vision, this film is a true standout. It is far above most other superhero films. It’s well-paced, inventive, and memorable. I wish that more films would take as many risks as this one does because the end results are worth it. There is so much more to this film too that I didn’t mention here. There are so many wonderful characters, moments, and sequences which I greatly admire but which words cannot properly capture. Check out this movie! It is well worth your time. I know that I cannot wait to revisit The Suicide Squad again soon.
Score: 4
The Suicide Squad is now playing in theatres and streaming on HBO Max.
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