The Suicide Squad Review!

 Alright! Today I'm reviewing the latest DC flick, the James Gunn-directed The Suicide Squad, a loose sequel to the 2016 Suicide Squad, which wasn't... great... 

The first thing (And one of the only things) I have to condone is the title. At first glance, it's unclear if the movie is a sequel or a reboot. After all, The Batman is a reboot of Batman, who already has a movie called Batman. The "The" is all that differentiates that reboot, but The Suicide Squad is a loose sequel. It probably could have been called Suicide Squad: Dawn of Justice or something. I mean, the name was suggested as a joke for crying out loud. 

What is this... some kind of suicide squad? 

But, alas, here we are with a disappointing $28 million opening weekend. That's what happens when you a) Make a sequel to a Will Smith movie without Will Smith, b) Have a five-year gap between sequels, c) Are a sequel to a terrible movie, d) Have a $185 million dollar budget, e) No bankable movie stars, f) An R-Rating, g) Are released during a rising pandemic, h) Are simultaneously available for free on a streaming service, i) Don't have a cast full of recognizable characters, and j) Have nothing to offer other than the brand. 

I don't really like Suicide Squad, but I do give it credit for a lot of things - cameos from Batman and the Flash, a new Joker, and a roster of fun villains like Katana, Killer Croc, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Enchantress. Several of those a casual fan might recognize at peripheral. The Suicide Squad, meanwhile, has Peacemaker, Bloodsport, Ratcatcher, King Shark, and Polka-Dot Man. Certainly not as "big" of a cast, yet an infinitely bigger and better movie.

It's Milton!

Because this is a good movie. It's legitimately good, full of humor, action, quotable lines, and heart. Like, I really wasn't expecting to care this much about Ratcatcher, but here I am. Ratcatcher was the heart and soul of the movie. 

I also wasn't expecting to walk out of this thing loving Polka-Dot Man. Like, I always knew Polka-Dot Man could be a great character given how weird/stupid he sounds, but here he's a legitimately likable hero. Or antihero. David Dastmalchian also gives some of the biggest laughs of the film, so that's definitely endearing. 

My man is Polka Dot Man and Piter de Vries... 2021 is a good year for him, I guess. 

Another endearing trait of the movie was the one-uppery between Bloodsport and Peacemaker. Two random characters no one's ever heard of end up as big deals because Idris Elba and John Cena have fun with their jobs. Don't you just love a group of underdogs? 

Something I absolutely applaud the movie for is actually showing the suicidal part of the Suicide Squad. An entire squad goes out in the first ten minutes of the movie, setting a very tense tone for the remainder of the runtime. These people can and will die, and that adds a lot of tension. In fact, some of my favorite characters died. I always prefer for my favorite to live, but it just worked here.  

I can't decide if Weasel was disgusting or hilarious... some combination of the two..

I also loved how it gave us a really weird and big finale. Most superhero movies lose their steam for the third act, but The Suicide Squad just keeps going. Starro is such a weird and niche villain that it's oddly suiting that he ends up here. Starro's always had the capacity to be absolutely terrifying, The Suicide Squad just had $185 million dollars to show us. 

The Suicide Squad also used that budget to show us some gore... yay... I'm not big on R-Rated content, and this was very R-Rated. But the tone is pretty light, so none of it is as disturbing or impactful as, say, Joker. It's just unexpected, graphic, and often happening to characters you like, so it's shocking. Shock violence. Only one scene really stood out to me; a character gets stabbed in the chest and the camera cuts to inside his chest where the shard pierces his heart. It was... good CGI at least? 

The perfect villain for this movie. 

I also need to give a moment of applause for Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. I always love it when I see a movie adapt a superhero so well that I know my 8-year-old self would go nuts over it (Black Panther did this extremely well). While I wouldn't have been allowed to watch this movie when I was 8, and while the characterization is more in line with knock-off Deadpool Harley Quinn than Batman: The Animated Series Harley Quinn, I still really love Margot Robbie's live-action interpretation. 

The Suicide Squad has a lot of holes in it, things that don't work as well upon a second watch (Is Harley Quinn a martial arts expert? I thought she was a psychiatrist), but it's still a load of fun. There are some pretty hilarious and memeable moments in here, and I can confidently say it was a really good time.

Overall, I give The Suicide Squad an 8/10. "The only thing that spills more freely than blood in The Suicide Squad are the excellent characters, charm, and a surprising amount of heart."

This scene made me feel things...