Directed by James Gunn, The Suicide Squad is the follow up to 2016’s Suicide Squad with the return of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who once again assembles Task Force X for a new suicidal mission on the remote and dangerous island of Corto Maltese. Their mission is to search and destroy a Nazi-era prison and laboratory named Jotunheim, where political prisoners are held and mysterious experiments take place involving a project called Project Starfish that threatens the world. This time Waller has gathered a new and larger roster of supervillains to go against highly militarized opponents, guerrilla forces, and a giant cosmic starfish.
Returning members include Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) as the team leader once again, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). They are now joined by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Polkadot Man (David Dastmalchian), Peacemaker (John Cena), Savant (Michael Rooker), Javelin (Flula Borg), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Black Guard (Pete Davidson), TDK (Nathan Fillion), Weasel (Sean Gunn) and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone). The squad on the mission is also later joined by the mysterious Thinker (Peter Capaldi) and a local revolutionary named Solsoria (Alice Braga). With the promise of reduced prison sentences, this team must risk life and limb (literally) to complete their new mission or risk getting their heads detonated.
Despite the previous film being a box office hit it was poorly received by critics and fans alike for being a complete mess that was reshot and mangled via studio interference as well as having a rushed production. Rather than David Ayer returning to direct we instead get highly acclaimed director James Gunn, who takes the team of ragtag supervillains in a whole new direction compared to the previous entry, as well as giving the film the R-rating that it should have.
The result? I fucking loved it!!!
This was an insane and fun film with a bigger roster of twisted characters that are all perfectly cast, incredible direction that goes in unexpected ways, fantastic writing that has great humor as well as vulgarness and heart, awesome effects both practical and digital as well as extreme amounts of exhilarating action and gory violence as if it was ripped stripped straight from a graphic novel. There was no one better to tackle all this than James Gunn, who is perhaps the best comic book film director of our generation. You can tell he was really passionate about making this film due to the amount of effort he put into everything.
It was also really awesome to see him take great inspiration from all the Suicide Squad comic books for this film, more specifically the comic run made by John Ostrander, the original creator of the Suicide Squad. Everything from the setting, the tone, the practical costumes, and a 70s era style feels like John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad stories but with the addition of James Gunn’s type of filmmaking.
Due to major spoilers I can’t go into too much detail about the story and all the characters in this film but I can do my best to talk about them, including the major standouts, without giving away anything. The biggest thing I can say is that all the characters are excellent! They are very well written, have amazing chemistry with each other, and have all been given deeply committed performances by their respective cast members.
Let’s start off with the returning faces, beginning with the puppet master herself, Amanda Waller. Viola Davis was perfect for the role of Waller in the first film and she once again continues to be perfect in this one. But she gets a lot more excellent scenes to show how fucking terrifying she is as the handler of the Suicide Squad and how she is willing to take extreme measures to get what she wants, regardless of what lives are lost in the process. She doesn’t need powers to control these supervillains with such ease and we are given a brilliant cold-blooded performance by Viola Davis.
Rick Flag returns, and while I know most people don’t really care for his character I think people will start caring for him when they see him in this film. Talk about a seriously great upgrade from the bland shell of a character we had in the last film. Flag was less jaded, more naive, funnier, and more human compared to the first film. I found myself attached to him more than I ever thought I would and I am majorly happy with that. This felt a lot like the Rick Flag I knew from comics who felt like an actual character and not the walking talking cliche army man that we had before. Also, Joel Kinnaman is fucking awesome in this portrayal of the character.
The beloved Harley Quinn returns and once again is beautifully played by Margot Robbie as the true catalyst of chaos in the team. Out of her three appearances in the DCEU, this for me was the best one next to Birds of Prey because she was just absolutely amazing in this film. She has a lot of new layers added to her while also maintaining the same crazy character we know and love that gets some spectacular action sequences. And with so many new faces, she gets to really have fun chemistry with everyone she interacts with and we really get to see more sides of her. And of course, Margot Robbie completely owns the role of Harley Quinn and can seriously do no wrong as the character.
Captain Boomerang is the same shitbag liability we knew from the first film and was again given a great performance by Jai Courtney and had more thrilling boomerang action compared to the first film.
And now we move to newer faces to join the squad who I feel include most of the biggest standouts in the entire film.
Idris Elba takes a strong leading role as Bloodsport, a deadly mercenary who can craft numerous weapons from a technologically advanced suit and was imprisoned for the shooting down of Superman. And before you ask, no this character is not a replacement for Deadshot nor is he the same character as Deadshot. They may both have weapon-based skills and both have daughters but they hugely differ in their stories and their personalities. And no offense to Will Smith’s Deadshot but I actually ended up loving Bloodsport a lot more for his story, his relationship with his daughter (Storm Reid), and his development in the film.
Idris Elba beautifully delivers a very cold and gruff individual that seems to really lack any humanity but does show that he may have some of it still there that makes its way to the surface throughout this film and does take a leadership role with this squad. He felt very complex and while he does deliver some really funny scenes he absolutely fucking nails the dramatic scenes, both in the intense sequences and in the smaller moments. He felt like a really gripping character for me and he also shows how he can truly be a deadly assassin with his abilities.
Ratcatcher 2, who has the ability to control rats, I felt was definitely going to be the heart of the film in some way and I was right. Out of all the villains on the team, she feels like the more innocent one of the group as she has a big heart, tries to look for the best in others, and ends up connecting with most of the other team members, especially Bloodsport and King Shark. She was a wonderful addition to the cast, being given a great performance by the beautiful Daniela Melchior and really has some stand-out scenes that I found to be very emotional. Her ability to control armies of rats is very interesting and is used effectively but by far the best part was her little sidekick rat, Sebastian. I normally despise rats in real life but with how adorable Sebastian is I am willing to make an exception. He truly was a star of the film in his own way and I feel some people may end up having a new appreciation for rats after seeing this film.
Polkadot Man, one of the most infamous and ridiculous comic book villains in history for his costume and powers based on polka dots, is possibly the most unique and interesting character of the entire Squad, having perhaps the most twisted and saddening story. He is essentially the big underdog of this film, suffering from great pain both physically and mentally, yet manages to pull off great acts to help the team. Through the combined effort of David Dastmalchian’s fantastic performance and James Gunn’s direction for the character, they turned one of the biggest joke characters in comic book history into a very beloved character that I don’t think anyone will expect to get so connected to.
But he wasn’t the only character that ended up being such a big surprise in this film, the other being Peacemaker played by John Cena. I know for most people John Cena has never really been taken seriously as an actor but I have always held out hope that he would end up having a breakout role that would defy expectations and really show what Cena can actually do. And that breakout role has come at last in the form of the insanely patriotic and murderous Peacemaker who is willing to achieve peace at any cost no matter how many people he has to kill along the way.
Cena himself has often described the character as a douchey Captain America and he is definitely right about that as it feels Peacemaker truly symbolizes the modern face of America and the worst parts of it. There are definitely going to be a lot of comparisons to John Walker from The Falcon and The Winter Soldier but I will say this character is more comedic and probably even more unhinged than Walker. Cena delivers the comedy perfectly and while his character occasionally is a punching bag for other characters (as you would expect with the way he dresses) you do actually end up taking him seriously. He had such intense and dramatic scenes that were beyond anything I expected, and for most of the film I just saw the character Peacemaker and not John Cena playing the Peacemaker. He was all in on this role and he really got to show what he is capable of with this film. He is set to have his own spin-off series and I for one am now very excited to see it, based on all that was presented to me in this film.
If there was any character that was going to be the most important one to please me it had to be King Shark but my god did he very much please me. Being given the perfect voice by Sylvester Stallone, King Shark is a big stand-out that will truly win your heart but will also show that he is the most dangerous member of the team. With great strength and an appetite for human flesh, he could very easily chomp down on or rip apart anyone that gets in his way, which can also include his own teammates. However, since he wants to belong he eagerly tries to help his new friends and does all he can to try helping, even though he isn’t all that bright. I love the way he keeps trying to connect with other characters and kind of ends up being successful with some of them. King Shark was hands down my favorite character of this film and will probably end being a lot of people’s favorite too.
With so many other characters involved in this team, there are definitely going to be some that will end up being someone’s favorite due to having their own times to shine in the film. This includes Nathan Fillion’s TDK, who I swear has probably one the most useless powers I’ve ever seen a comic book character have but it is truly hilarious. We also have Alice Braga’s Solsoria who was definitely a great inclusion to the film and has her own great moments as she is forced to work alongside a group of what she considers “American freaks”, which to be fair she isn’t wrong.
Some characters I can’t really get into without spoiling such as Peter Capaldi’s Thinker and the villains, which include the military leaders of the Corto Maltese and the great Starro. I can definitely say that Peter Capaldi does an excellent job as the Thinker and the Corto Maltese villains are effective for the story and are also given great performances by their respective actors.
As for Starro, well next to Thanos, Kang, and Darkseid, Starro is one of the best and biggest villains in comics that I have always wanted to see adapted to the big screen. We finally see him in full glory and he doesn’t disappoint. For spoiler reasons I can’t get too much into what Starro does in this film but I can definitely tell you that he looks amazing and his battle with the Suicide Squad is truly an epic one.
The story feels like a gritty hyper-violent war film from the 1970s that is combined with brilliant heart, bold direction, and vulgar comedy that gets balanced with great drama. The emotional stakes feel just as high as the stakes of the mission, which is exactly what I was hoping for, and the humor is absolutely fucking hilarious. And while there is really great comedy it never undermines the emotional weight of the film but rather adds on to it, which I was expecting but not in the way it was done here.
But the thing I loved most about the narrative is how the characters are handled. The way the characters are explored in this film is so much better compared to the first installment as we get to switch between their perspectives and they are given an emotional depth that gives us a reason to care for them, whether we end up really loving them and wanting them to survive or hate them and wish for a violent death. This was a much more compelling film that really gets you emotionally invested in all the characters in various ways. There are a lot of characters in this film, featuring the largest ensemble we have had so far in the DCEU and as you’d expect most of them do die in horrific or hilarious fashion. Some of the deaths you could predict may happen but others are extremely surprising and emotionally impactful.
Unlike the first film where the few deaths we had felt meaningless and there was little to no tension at all, this film does the exact opposite. You are constantly at the edge of your seat as these characters are put into deep shit as they face multiple odds. They risk being killed by their enemies, by Waller if they fuck around, and they are even at risk of killing each other. After all, you have a bunch of villains together who are not so willing to cooperate for various reasons and will not hesitate to kill one another at any time. Some of them do get along but others won’t, which is mostly due to their own personalities or morals. It is done so masterfully and it’s all because of James Gunn’s excellent writing and of course the fantastic cast he has picked out.
The other thing I loved about this film was just how unpredictable it is. You think you know where something is going to go and suddenly BOOM! Things can go absolutely crazy within a second, keeping you on constant edge throughout the film especially in the major action sequences like the absolutely bonkers third act that has become another one of my favorite third acts in comic book films for the emotional stakes, intense action, and fantastic visuals.
However, the film does manage to have small and calm moments in between the insanity, allowing the true heart of this film to surface. Whether it is just small moments where certain characters bond or even a fun party scene where we get to see the characters wear civilian clothes and just let loose, it’s all done extremely well and adds to the story and characters. The action is absolutely fun and awesome, earning the film its R-rating. It feels so huge and hard-hitting not only because of the stakes but also because it features some of the biggest practical set pieces and practical effects ever used among in the DCEU.
CGI is obviously used when it needs to be, including for certain characters and their unique abilities, but for the most part everything else is practical. This makes the action far more engaging and feels much more tension-filled because of how real it all feels. And even when CGI is used it all looks really damn great and nails down such amazing textures as well as create very visually satisfying sequences. Every major sequence feels like an epic yet bloody visual spectacle that is so unhinged that you can’t help but have an absolute blast. And with that R-rating they are able to go all out with the violence, featuring some truly gruesome and detailed gore that can range from being hilarious to downright disturbing. This honestly might be the most graphic comic book film I’ve ever seen.
The cinematography for this film is absolutely outstanding, with a vast array of beautiful shots that flesh out everything from the smallest details to thematic sequences to the bloody action. Most of the DCEU has featured stellar cinematography in the past but this might honestly be my favorite of all of them, especially with just how much it absorbs you into everything going on in the film, feeling grounded and gritty yet also larger than life.
Since the film was made with specialized IMAX cameras I went to see it in an IMAX theater and holy shit was it totally worth it. The looks and sounds of everything in the IMAX experience honestly make this one of the best theater experiences I’ve had in a really long time. It makes the film feel so huge in scale and adds to the intensity in so many ways. I also love how certain shots feel like actual comic book panels brought to life and bring out so many great colors. It definitely felt like James Gunn’s style and vision was allowed to freely roam on-screen in fantastic ways.
The film features both a killer score and soundtrack that definitely make this film stand out amongst all the DCEU films. Composer John Murphy delivers an intense and epic score that fits this film and feels unique. It added to the excitement of the mission and I love how it was hugely utilized in the film way more than I expected. James Gunn’s hand-picked songs for the soundtrack are very different from the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks yet still absolutely fit the style and tone of this film. And if they end up releasing the full soundtrack just like with the Guardians films you can totally bet I’m buying it.
There is also a post-credits scene at the very end of this film as you would expect and I can honestly say when it comes to post-credits scenes this is probably the boldest one I have ever seen. And that’s all I’m going to say.
The Suicide Squad was everything I hoped it would be but gave me much more than I could have imagined. It has not only become my new favorite DCEU film but also a new favorite comic book film of all time. James Gunn was allowed to bring forth his full vision to life and it has lead to great success. Hopefully this has shown the studio the huge error of their past ways of meddling with the visions of their artists and will prevent them from causing future damage to other creators. I’m going to give The Suicide Squad an A+.
You can find more of my writing on instagram, and check out my channel on YouTube!