The Suicide Squad is what happens when you give James Gunn complete creative control of a DC movie centered around expendable supervillains. The filmmaker assembles the most unlikely of lowlifes to accompany the already established antiheroes, then subjects them all to a splatstick voyage of abject madness. The result is an absolute crowd pleaser filled with ultra-violence, insane gore, and a whole lot of heart to match the humor.
The setup remains the same as the 2016 film; Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) continues her Suicide Squad program by selecting Belle Reve penitentiary’s worst to embark on lethal missions with unlikely survival odds. The trade off for the criminals is that if they manage to survive, their jail sentence gets reduced dramatically. Returning members Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) accompany a new team of misfits to the beach of enemy-inhabited Corto Maltese. Explosions, gunfire, and a whole lot of carnage ensue, followed by the reveal of a secondary team. This team is led by a coerced Bloodsport (Idris Elba). As the title indicates, the two large factions have one ultimate goal, and not all will live to see it through.
The mission itself doesn’t matter much. That’s not to say that Gunn didn’t write and execute a fully realized assignment for the crew, complete with villains and obstacles, but that it’s the characters that make this soar. It’s the eclectic bunch of lowlifes that entice viewers; the mission just guides them through thrilling action set pieces. The Corto Maltese political upheaval is mere background to the far more boisterous, attention-grabbing characters we love to root for or against. And Gunn goes for broke there.
True to its promise, The Suicide Squad is a complete bloodbath of a movie from start to end. It’s a standalone, but one that leans into already established relationships to tug at heartstrings. It’s the new bonds forged in the fires of battle that bring the most poignancy and heart, though. Gunn balances them all well for such a large ensemble, ensuring the most pertinent members of this doomed squad get moments to shine and the character development to make you care. You cry when King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) cries. You cheer when the unloved and unwanted succeed at finding their worth. You lose your mind when Bloodsport and Peacemaker get into a pissing contest that leaves a pile of brutalized corpses in their wake. You laugh along with these loveable oafs that wouldn’t be so loveable at all in lesser hands.
Gunn goes so full throttle in the front half that the energy isn’t always sustainable, and moments of nonlinear storytelling cause some pacing lulls. Even still, it’s an insane blast of epic, Troma-like proportions (complete with Lloyd Kaufman cameo) that it’s impossible not to have a grin plastered on your face by the time you leave. Even with an epic Kaiju-sized finale, The Suicide Squad keeps you on your toes. Who lives and dies isn’t guaranteed, and Gunn never shies away from killing his darlings. The true villains and antagonists are never cut and dry, either. That unpredictability, combined with the massive heart pumping through this movie’s veins, creates an epic spectacle of a film.
It’s endearingly sweet, even as it’s spilling brain matter and gore by the bucket load.
The Suicide Squad releases in theaters and HBO Max on August 5, 2021.
