What do you get when you put together a team made up of DC’s bottom of the barrel characters, such as Polka dot man, an anthropomorphic shark/weasel and a girl that controls rats?
Apparently a wildly entertaining, sometimes funny, sometimes insane but far superior to its predecessor depiction of, The Suicide Squad.
Directed by Guardians of The Galaxy’s James Gunn, after he was unceremoniously sacked from the next instalment of the Marvel franchise only to then be re-hired by Disney in a strange “sorry we ever doubted you” type of way. The Suicide Squad allows him to play around in the DC sandbox and he utilises this to full effect, incorporating many of the weird and wonderful characters that DC has at its disposal, while also using his signature style and humour to bring them to life or in some cases an abrupt death.
The Suicide Squad ultimately feels like the genuine vision of a director/writer not restrained by studio interference and instead trusted to make whatever crazy scenarios they could dream up, which in today’s comic book saturated landscape is a rarity.
The Suicide Squad is a sort of reboot/sequel to the 2016 film that the less said about the better, this time following a new group of anti-heroes along with a couple familiar faces such as Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. This time the team must infiltrate a small island nation and discover the secrets of so called ‘project starfish’.
The film opens vibrantly with a big action set-piece that provides a lot of genuine laughs. The film also uses time and a non-linear structure quite effectively at times to fill in the back story of many of the main players, as well as interesting/quirky titles that look like they were ripped straight from a comic book and interesting cinematography, again something rarely seen in such a big budget comic book adaptation.
The use of violence is also a welcome but gory surprise as from the opening scene you understand the type of humour that James Gunn is going for which more often than not does work, even if it’s a little gratuitous at times. It’s a very stylised, fun and loving depiction of these goofy larger than life characters that needed a director with a flair for the zany to breathe new life into, rather than the dark, gritty, boring version we got in the 2016 film.
The Suicide Squad is packed with familiar faces, but the standouts are Idris Elba as Bloodsport, Sylvester Stallone as King Shark and newcomer Daniela Melchior as Rat catcher 2. Elba shows off his more comedic side here but also has that signature charisma and likeability even though he is basically playing Will Smith’s character from the 2016 film. Sylvester Stallone as King Shark was a genius piece of casting, his line delivery is brilliant and was usually the source of most of the gags with shades of Groot but goofier. Daniela Melchior is great as Ratcatcher 2, she serves as the moral center of the film providing a light-hearted less villainous perspective to the team.
Overall, The Suicide Squad is an entertaining ride with some good humour and fun characters that manages to separate itself from the usual mediocrity that plagues most comic book adaptations today. With such a distinct style and passion for the weird and wonderful, James Gunn has injected some much-needed flair and creativity into the DCEU and was the perfect fit for The Suicide Squad. While it can’t be considered DC’s best film (its got stiff competition from greats such as The Dark Knight and Joker) it is well worth checking out on the biggest screen possible.
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