The Suicide Squad
Year: 2021
Director: James Gunn
Starring: John Cena, Viola Davis, David Dastmalchain, Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman, Daniella Melchor, Margot Robbie & Sylvester Stallone
Runtime: 132 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 14/10/21
Director: James Gunn
Starring: John Cena, Viola Davis, David Dastmalchain, Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman, Daniella Melchor, Margot Robbie & Sylvester Stallone
Runtime: 132 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 14/10/21
Few films have ever dropped the ball so monumentally hard as 2016’s Suicide Squad. A film that should have been an easy win, with a fantastic cast and brilliant source material, was anywhere from bad to awful in almost every single way. Following the similarly disappointing Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad almost killed the DC Extended Universe in its entirety. But Warner Bros. had faith that they would get it right second time around. Following James Gunn’s infamous firing from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, DC quickly snapped him up and essentially gave him free reign to do what he wanted. The result is one of the better DCEU films, and a significant step-up from the original film, but still has some aspects that hold it back from achieving the same highs as the best DCEU films.
Following the assassination of the President of Corto Maltese and the implementation of an anti-United States government, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) enlists Task Force X, the Suicide Squad, to infiltrate the island and destroy a weapon of alien origin.
That’s really all I can say about The Suicide Squad without giving away all the crazy plot twists. In fact, The Suicide Squad was delivering so many unexpected developments and twists that it was always difficult to tell where the film was going to head next. I loved the unpredictability of it all, within the context of the intel they have been given and how the start of the mission pans out, the fact that the squad are basically making it up as they go along was a great idea. Sometimes it works in their favour and a lot of the time it doesn’t, forcing them to re-evaluate.
There’s also a lot of angles The Suicide Squad wants to cover. You spend a decent amount of time with the squad themselves, the new Corto Maltese leaders, and Waller’s intelligence team who are keeping tabs on every member of squad.
The squad is considerably larger this time around too with an ‘A’ and ‘B’ team. The A team consists of Savant (Mickey Rourke), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), T.D.K (Nathan Fillion), Javelin (Flula Borg), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Weasel (Sean Gunn), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). The B team consists of Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchain), and Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchor). The two squads do meet up at various points in the film, and much like the premise of the Suicide Squad comics, few of them actually survive the mission. The fun of the film, much like Game of Thrones, is working out who’s going to die when, and how.
Following the assassination of the President of Corto Maltese and the implementation of an anti-United States government, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) enlists Task Force X, the Suicide Squad, to infiltrate the island and destroy a weapon of alien origin.
That’s really all I can say about The Suicide Squad without giving away all the crazy plot twists. In fact, The Suicide Squad was delivering so many unexpected developments and twists that it was always difficult to tell where the film was going to head next. I loved the unpredictability of it all, within the context of the intel they have been given and how the start of the mission pans out, the fact that the squad are basically making it up as they go along was a great idea. Sometimes it works in their favour and a lot of the time it doesn’t, forcing them to re-evaluate.
There’s also a lot of angles The Suicide Squad wants to cover. You spend a decent amount of time with the squad themselves, the new Corto Maltese leaders, and Waller’s intelligence team who are keeping tabs on every member of squad.
The squad is considerably larger this time around too with an ‘A’ and ‘B’ team. The A team consists of Savant (Mickey Rourke), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), T.D.K (Nathan Fillion), Javelin (Flula Borg), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Weasel (Sean Gunn), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). The B team consists of Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchain), and Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchor). The two squads do meet up at various points in the film, and much like the premise of the Suicide Squad comics, few of them actually survive the mission. The fun of the film, much like Game of Thrones, is working out who’s going to die when, and how.
The film takes itself considerably less seriously than its predecessor, with silly costumes for our anti-heroes, quippy and self-aware dialogue, excellent physical comedy, crazy over the top action, and an excessive amount of blood and gore. This film definitely isn’t for the squeamish as the opening scene establishes with body parts flying everywhere in graphic detail. But it’s rarely ever grim, it’s all played for laughs and makes the next crazy death something to look forward to.
But this always over the top nature can become a bit draining as the film goes on. There is a constant need for each new crazy thing to be crazier than the last, and by the last act of the film I was just totally desensitised to what I was watching and basically just checked out. I was waiting for the film to be over because there were clearly no boundaries, nothing was impossible, and with very few moments to stop and collect yourself it was just exhausting to watch.
The biggest problem I have with The Suicide Squad however is the fact that the film wastes a lot of time on developing unimportant characters, and on allowing the mission to have so many detours which often don’t lead to anything. This is where the making it up as they go along concept doesn’t work so well, because I feel like I’m having my time wasted. The film could have cut out potentially over thirty minutes of footage and very little would have changed, it would have been tighter and less exhausting, without sacrificing anything in relation to plot or character development where it matters. I mentioned the development of background characters because the story has a habit of making out like someone is really important in their introductory scene, and gives us loads of info on them, and a couple of scenes later, or even within the same scene, that person is killed off without having actually done anything. Why have them there? I got so tired of seeing people brought in and then killed off immediately, it was funny and unexpected the first couple of times, but it happened so often that it just became irritating.
The film does look and sound fantastic though. Gunn’s eccentricity can be felt in every fibre of this production with the eye-popping colours and clever cinematography. Mix this with an awesome soundtrack and you’ve got everything you need to have a great time with The Suicide Squad that managed to drag me back in every time I felt myself drifting off because of the excessive craziness.
The Suicide Squad is exactly the kind of film that the 2016 original should have been. It’s loud, its fun, and it’s bold. It’s the perfect kind of film to watch with a group of friends for some great laughs, and I would love to see more Suicide Squad films using this as its template. However, the excessive over the top nature and the constant plot diversions made me grow tired of the film, so the experience definitely could have been significantly tighter. Now excuse me whilst I go read some comics about Polka-Dot man and Weasel.
But this always over the top nature can become a bit draining as the film goes on. There is a constant need for each new crazy thing to be crazier than the last, and by the last act of the film I was just totally desensitised to what I was watching and basically just checked out. I was waiting for the film to be over because there were clearly no boundaries, nothing was impossible, and with very few moments to stop and collect yourself it was just exhausting to watch.
The biggest problem I have with The Suicide Squad however is the fact that the film wastes a lot of time on developing unimportant characters, and on allowing the mission to have so many detours which often don’t lead to anything. This is where the making it up as they go along concept doesn’t work so well, because I feel like I’m having my time wasted. The film could have cut out potentially over thirty minutes of footage and very little would have changed, it would have been tighter and less exhausting, without sacrificing anything in relation to plot or character development where it matters. I mentioned the development of background characters because the story has a habit of making out like someone is really important in their introductory scene, and gives us loads of info on them, and a couple of scenes later, or even within the same scene, that person is killed off without having actually done anything. Why have them there? I got so tired of seeing people brought in and then killed off immediately, it was funny and unexpected the first couple of times, but it happened so often that it just became irritating.
The film does look and sound fantastic though. Gunn’s eccentricity can be felt in every fibre of this production with the eye-popping colours and clever cinematography. Mix this with an awesome soundtrack and you’ve got everything you need to have a great time with The Suicide Squad that managed to drag me back in every time I felt myself drifting off because of the excessive craziness.
The Suicide Squad is exactly the kind of film that the 2016 original should have been. It’s loud, its fun, and it’s bold. It’s the perfect kind of film to watch with a group of friends for some great laughs, and I would love to see more Suicide Squad films using this as its template. However, the excessive over the top nature and the constant plot diversions made me grow tired of the film, so the experience definitely could have been significantly tighter. Now excuse me whilst I go read some comics about Polka-Dot man and Weasel.