OnScreen Review: "The Suicide Squad"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
DC Comics is seemingly always in perpetual catch up mode with Marvel Studios these days. When James Gunn was temporarily fired by Disney, DC brought him in to do this sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad. Gunn eventually returned to the Marvel fold, but having him do The Suicide Squad is a chance for DC to close the cinematic gap on Marvel. With the DCEU basically on permanent hiatus in the wake of the Zack Snyder Justice League being mothballed, The Suicide Squad exists in a cinematic universe where it can likely do just about whatever it wants with no consequences, because there is no overarching plan. That is clearly freeing to Gunn and company, who lean into the R-rating the film earns.
Once again, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has assembled Task Force X, for a Dirty Dozen-style mission, this time to a fictional South American island-nation called Corto Maltese. Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) leads the rag tag group once again, this time comprised of almost too many rogues to name, but the important ones are Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), King Shark (voiced by Sly Stallone), and a returning Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). Forced into the mission, an assault on the island and an eventual incursion into the heart of the city leads to heavily fortified lab known as the Jötunheim where they are to take out “Project Starfish” which turns out to be an alien known as Starro the Conqueror.
Two films in Gunn’s previous filmography come immediately to mind when watching The Suicide Squad; there will be inevitable comparisons to Guardians of the Galaxy, but the powers and abilities of Starro also evoke Gunn’s 2006 horror comedy Slither. Another film that it can be likened to is the Ryan Reynolds-led Deadpool franchise, embracing the irreverence, the violence, and R-rating. There are flourishes of bloody, gory violence as Gunn finds new and inventive ways to kill characters, highlighted by the opening beach incursion but also a stealth attack on a jungle compound that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and Jesse Ventura proud as Idris Elba’s Bloodspot and John Cena’s Peacemaker engage in some one-upmanship in degree of difficulty kills. Margot Robbie was the big draw with the first Suicide Squad, and she still plays a prominent role here, but she blends in much better with the collective whole this time. Daniela Melchior, in her first Hollywodo role, is a standout as well.
This sequel is leagues more entertaining than the David Ayer original from 2016. The mood is lighter without sacrificing any of the edge that an R-rating affords. The color palette is not muted by murky darkness and rain the entire time, something that has continually bogged down DCEU movies. The actors involved have way more chemistry together and it feels less constrained and bogged down by the need to tie back to the overall DCEU. Elba and Cena play well off each other. Sly Stallone voicing King Shark is a real treat. And every character has a quirk but is also not just a caricature. Also, Starro has some genuine Stay Puft quality and comes across as a much more credible and terrifying threat than was implied by the trailers for the movie.
Still, there is something that feels a little off about the movie. At times it feels like the movie is a little overstuffed with characters. A lot of the early parts of the movie bounce between the squad on Corto Maltese and Waller’s command team, but then the command team disappears for a long stretch of the middle before being re-engaged for the third act. Also, in the opening moments of the movie, the command unit is placing bets on which characters will die, but then they start to develop a conscience almost out of nowhere. Actor David Dastmalchian portrays Polka-Dot Man, and he is an actor with a unique and compelling face and the character has a complicated backstory with his mom, which is how he became the Polka-Dot Man. He is potentially one of the most compelling characters in the movie, but outside of his explanation of his condition and a few visual gags of him picturing other people as his mother, the character feels a little underserved overall; it left me wanting a lot more. There’s also a character death that seems blatantly pulled from the Joss Whedon playbook.
Overall, The Suicide Squad is an entertaining, low stakes two hours, and James Gunn brings life into this sequel to make it enjoyable, but it doesn’t completely congeal into a cohesive whole like either of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies did, which is just an unavoidable comparison. Even so, it is good to see DC lighten things up a bit and change gears a bit with this movie. Hopefully it can serve as a valuable lesson in how to modulate their tone from movie to movie instead of everything always being so dour.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars