Name - The Suicide Squad
Director - James Gunn
Runtime - 132 mins
Platform - In Select Theatres and HBO Max
James Gunn is a deranged maniac, in a good way.
The Suicide Squad, the second 2021 offering by Warner Bros. and DC Comics, is quite easily both DC and James Gunn at their most unleashed. Now I realize that by stating that, I am alienating at least a quarter of the audience who loves Gunn for his PG-13 offerings for Marvel (Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2).
This isn't Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2, not by a mile.
If anything The Suicide Squad is Gunn's irreverence dialed up to 11, the weirdness and gross out humour of The Toxic Avenger coupled with a big budget Hollywood production, and a cast of characters who are truly expendable, because as the name The Suicide Squad suggests, not many people are walking out of this movie alive.
Looking at the above roll call, anybody would be under the misconception that this is a large ensemble and thus narrative-wise it would be a mess. Surprisingly The Suicide Squad is easy to follow. Of course, with the majority of the characters dying within the first 20 minutes, to hilarious and gruesome results, Gunn is free to work with a tapered down cast of characters, and one of the biggest positives of this 132 minute comic book irreverent movie is Gunn taking the time out to give each character a surprising amount of depth.
The heart of the story lies with Bloodsport (Idris Elba), and Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), their surogate father-daughter relationship being the emotional core. Subsequently each of the supporting characters - Peacemaker (John Cena), or Even King shark (Steve Agee; voiced by Sylvester Stallone), are given surprising amount of development, so that when the moment of reckoning comes, the audience can actually connect with the characters, one of the bigger difference with this 2021 offering and its 2016 predecessor, directed by David Ayer.
Addressing the elephant in the room here, both the 2016 Suicide Squad and this version have final antagonists who are frankly ridiculous. The difference here is the tone and treatment. Ayer's Suicide Squad was a movie at war with itself and its tone, which is why its final battle with Enchantress was a CGI bloated mess. Here in Gunn's version, the final battle with Starro, a giant starfish (not a spoiler. He was revealed in the trailer), is frankly ridiculous and beyond the capabilities of the current team, and Gunn knows it, which is why the final resolution of the battle is ridiculous as well, but also works in fitting with the irreverent and frankly trippy tone.
Structurally though, this movie is a tad bit weird. With chapter breaks added cleverly in the beginning of scenes (Savant's brain matter off his blown head spelling Warner Bros. Presents in the water comes to mind), the movie slows down and kind of spins its wheels in the second act, after a strong and decisive first act, but finally comes back with a bang in the third act. Harley Quinn's inclusion in the plot as well feels very much like a side quest which was explored just a midge too long, even though Margot Robbie is still fantastic as ever as Harley Quinn. The jokes and humor on the other hand, worked for me far better than in the previous Guardians of the Galaxy, primarily because the movie is still grounded in some semblance of realism. The politics in the movie though, felt almost unnecessary, which is a shame.
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| Image Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly |
For whatever reason we all can have in loving or hating this movie, the fact that Gunn was able to make Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and Peacemaker characters to root for, should be applauded. Cena as Peacemaker is almost perfect, and the upcoming miniseries about his character is one I am very interested in after watching this movie.
The music on the other hand is a mixed bag, ranging from surprising and pleasing additions, to sometimes stopping the narrative dead, or distracting from the visuals on the screen. The action set-pieces on the other hand are inventive. Harley Quinn's fight scene in a long corridor is mixture of showcasing acrobatics as well as the mental state of Quinn's character in as creative a way as possible.
The Suicide Squad (2021) is a mulligan in the right direction, a second chance which turns out to create one of the most distinctive comic book movies in the current arsenal of comic book films coming out today. Watch it for a humanoid shark learning to make friends, if for nothing else.
Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
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