Review: The Suicide Squad

 

Hello, Everybody! This is it! Here's my review of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad! I was pretty stoked and excited to watch this and let me tell you, It DID NOT disappoint! This is a James Gunn movie in its purest form! It's quite possibly his best work and I think it's better than Guardians of the Galaxy, I'm not saying it's infinitely better, but in terms of comedy and the level of violence, TSS is a successor to that in a very effective way.

When James was fired by Disney for resurfaced offensive tweets during the production of Guardians vol. 3, Warner Bros. and DC gave him an opportunity to adapt a comic book property and told him that they can give him The Suicide Squad and he was like "SWEET!" and he did that. Honestly, after 2016's Suicide Squad was complete piece of garbage, I was concerned, then I saw the cast for this soft-reboot/sequel and I was on board all the way. 

Now, to backtrack, The Suicide Sequel doesn't really pick on up after the 2016 film, it does have some returning characters like Harley Quinn, Rick Flag and Captain Boomerang. This is more of a redo of WB's mistake with David Ayer's vision but nonetheless, having James do whatever he wanted payed off in the end. This makes it the best soft-reboot/quasi-sequel ever made.

James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is written and directed by well, James Gunn, the film stars Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, Steve Agee, Jennifer Holland, Storm Reid, Joaquín Cosío and Sylvester Stallone as the voice of King Shark, with special appearances of Michael Rooker, Jai Courtney, Pete Davidson, Flula Borg, Sean Gunn, Pom Klementieff(as a dancer), Nathan Fillion, and Mayling Ng. The plot revolves around the newly formed Suicide Squad formed from a comic-accurate Belle Revue prison and go on a deadly mission to infiltrate a fortress on a fictional island called Corto Maltese, which is off the coast of South America and they have to put a stop to Project Starfish. Yes, it does involve a giant alien starfish called Starro from that two-part episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Keep in mind that this is a SPOILER review, so please watch the movie first and come back later or if you're not watching it, you can still give this a read. Y'know I don't think people should not read reviews just because that they refuse to watch it or haven't watched it yet, you can read this if you want. Just keep in mind that I'm going HAM on this review and that I'm going into every detail. Also, comment below what you thought of this movie. Also, there are some sensitivity and trigger warnings, and if this post does get taken down for graphic details, I'm very sorry.

To start off, that opening sequence is CRAZYY. You'd think that this movie is about Michael Rooker's character, Savant, but it really isn't and I will say why. Savant is joined with Blackguard, Weasel(yes, he's a humanoid Weasel, he doesn't talk tho, I don't know how to explain it, just watch the movie😂), Javelin, Mongal(who is either an alien or a god), TDK(The Detachable Kid), and Captain Boomerang with Harley Quinn and Colonel Rick Flag. And yes, as you can expect... they all die in veryy gruesome ways. I really wanted Weasel to do something wild but he just end up drowning(he's actually alive in the end but still) but Pete Davidson as Blackguard?... HOO, BOY! I already knew that this guy was going to die first and I was right!! His entire face was BLOWN. HOLY SHIT. I laughed. Javelin gets shot multiple times, TDK's arms get completely destroyed, Mongal swings on a helicopter and dies in the explosion along with... Captain Boomerang? Yeah, he's actually dead, boys. RIP. Now I want justice for Boomerang. When Savant deserts the squad he ends up getting his head exploded courtesy of Amanda Waller's bomb on the back of the skull. 

That sequence ALONE sets up the dark comedic and violent tone for the rest of the film with the song "People Who Died" by The Jim Carroll Band during the opening credits. Now we're introduced to Robert Dubois/Bloodsport who is played by Idris Elba. Admittedly, he's the same as Deadshot since that they are both mercenaries who are motivated by their daughters, but with Bloodsport, he has a pretty bad one with his daughter and scream at each other. Now, Bloodsport has to lead the new Suicide Squad so that his daughter won't go to prison for stealing a TV watch. Peacemaker, Ratcacther 2, Polka-Dot Man and King Shark join. Right off the bat, these characters are soo great! Especially Nanaue(King Shark), I have never cared for a shark until this character came along, and Christopher Smith/Peacemaker is an absolute BEAST, he's one of those characters that you'd love to hate, but he's just wickedly funny too. Cleo Cazo/Ratcatcher 2 can not necessarily control rats, but she form connections with them and use that glow stick of hers to do what she needs them to do. Abner Krill/Polka-Dot Man was actually a surprisingly great character whose abilities are actually bonkers, so he has this disease that he had since he was a child where he has these colorful rashes and has PTSD from his mother and he sees her everywhere he goes. 

Now, let me talk about its hilarious moments. There's that impressively directed scene where they kill every person for the General army in that camp with Bloodsport and Peacemaker one upping each other with each impressive kill only to find out that it's actually a rebel camp and they just killed rebels. We finally where the shorts and shirt that John Cena wore was coming from, guys! It's there where they join up with Flag to rescue Harley from General Suarez's men. 

Wait, ok. I gotta get into that Harley sequence. Oh, man! Harley looked soo incredible in that red dress. Oh, and she sleeps with that admittedly attractive President of Corto Maltese and kills him and gave one of the best monologues I've ever heard from a comic book movie. This leads up to her eventual capture and escape and she has the best choreographed and most-badass scene ever created. I just love Margot's Harley soo much! By the guys, watch the animated Harley Quinn show on HBO Max if you love this character as much as I do! 

Ratcatcher 2's backstory was veryy tragic. Like, damn. Her father, Ratcatcher, played by Taika Waititi, had incredible screentime of only 5 min. and it was perfect. Daniela Melchior gave an incredible performance and I'm really looking forward to what she'll do next. 

Now, The squad has now got into Jotunheim and here's the BIG twist. Turns out the US government was behind Operation: Starfish ALL along. Rick Flag wants to take the evidence from that hard drive back but Peacemaker won't let him and it all ensues into an incredible fight between these characters. Now, you can debate this in the comments, but let me ask you, who did you root for? Peacemaker or Rick Flag? Now, I was rooting for Rick Flag the whole time and my god. I reallyy didn't think that he was going to kill Flag. Man, I really liked him in this movie, he had awesome ZADDY energy and I'm going to miss him soo much. Peacemaker nearly kills Cleo until Bloodsport fires the final blow and the bullet hits Peacemaker's neck, thus assuming that he's dead. I also loved that moment where King Shark was befriending these "fish" and then they all actually bite. Jesus Christ, those starfish were creepy as hell. 

Viola Davis as Amanda Waller was in TOP form! She was very incredible. During that Starro fight, there's a scene that I love where Harley Quinn is inside Starro's gigantic eye and it was just soo beautiful. 

That post-credits scene now has me excited for the Peacemaker show on HBO Max which is set to come out on January 2022! 

I absolutely had soo much fun watching this, and I think I'll watch it again tonight with some friends remotely. The action? Incredible. The comedy? Outstanding. The direction? Amazing. The acting? Soo good. The cinematography? Fabulous. 

Overall, I'm giving this an 9.5/10

This might be the BEST live-action comic book adaptation ever, and probably the BEST movie of the DC Extended Universe. Is it the best DC movie? Maybe. If I did, I would forget about how The Dark Knight is also masterpiece and I don't want to get hate from that. The Suicide Squad is bonkers, wild, amazing, and hilarious in the best possible way.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment your thoughts below. Did you love it or not love it? Did you love or hate Peacemaker? Let me know.