Review: The Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad, directed by James Gunn, tells the tale of a special team of bad guys called Task Force X or the Suicide Squad, tasked with saving the world from something called “Project Starfish.” Failure to do so will result with their heads being blown off by their boss Amanda Waller (Viola Davis).
The first Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer, was remembered as being severely panned by critics, with many criticizing it as essentially the discount Guardians of the Galaxy. So naturally Warner Bros decided to fix this by getting the actual director of Guardians of the Galaxy James Gunn, fresh off from getting fired by Disney, on board to make the sequel more like his Guardians films. It pays off though, as this film is a beautiful mix of the James Gunn that made R-rated edgy comedies like Slither and Super with the James Gunn that made the audience-friendly Guardians films.
Gunn’s manic style comes on full display for this film, no longer restricted by studio heads wanting an audience-friendly superhero flick; With no need to keep things PG-13, Gunn goes all out, resulting in some of the most violently creative action sequences in the superhero genre thus far. It fits right in with all the doom-and-gloom that became synonymous with the rest of the DCEU, but at the same time it brings some of the playfulness that makes Gunn’s Guardians films such a blast to watch. There’s a lot of blood and gore, characters die left and right, and all of it is glorious to watch.
Speaking of which, the characters are all fantastically memorable. Every single one of these villains are insanely distinct in their own way, and almost all of them are accompanied with a solid performance behind them. There are one or two actors in the film that do end up being pretty aggravating to watch, however, but thankfully without going into spoilers they’re not in the film for too long.
Gunn’s screenplay is overall solid; a lot of the jokes hit their mark, there’s a ton of heart behind the story, and characters go through full character arcs. It’s basically what Gunn’s done for the Guardians, but with a little bit more freedom to what kind of story he wants to tell.
And with that we get to my only real complaint: the film’s pretty dang bloated. This film makes a lot of detours in the main story, making the pacing kind of slow overall. A good ten minutes of this film could’ve been cut out as it ultimately led nowhere. The film’s antagonists were also pretty basic, and yes that includes the giant space starfish you saw in the trailers. I know they’re not really meant to be a huge part of the film (outside of said giant space starfish), but it doesn’t really excuse Gunn from putting literally no effort into making the antagonists somewhat memorable.
Overall despite it being kind of overhyped by the critics I no doubt had a lot of fun with this film. It’s not looking to be an awards contender, its only goal is to be a fun summer superhero flick, and I can totally dig that. The film’s out on HBO Max but if you have the chance I highly recommend seeing this traditionally in theaters. Check it out and see for yourself.
Final Verdict: 7/10