The Suicide Squad
Rejoice, for the cinemas have re-opened! And what better way to return then by watching The Suicide Squad. A sentence I’m slightly surprised to say given how mediocre I thought the first film was, but one thing enticed me back. James Gunn.
If you don’t know who James Gunn is, he’s the director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2. Which hopefully gives you an idea of the flair, creativity, and madness to expect going into The Suicide Squad. And much like what Taika Waititi did for Marvel with Thor Ragnarok, James Gunn has really given DC a good shake up and created a gem.
The Suicide Squad is a DC comic book original, and the idea behind it? Take expendable prison inmates with powers, team them up, assign them missions and send them on their way. If they live or die, it doesn’t matter as long one of them gets the job done. Each member of the team is implanted with an explosive in their brains so that the woman in charge, Amanda Waller, can detonate the bombs if they disobey her.
In addition to the returning cast of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman as Colonel Rick Flag and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. We also have new commers Ratcatcher 2, brilliantly played by Daniela Melchior, who can control rats. A shark with a lower-than-average IQ, who walks around in a pair of shorts and has developed a taste for human flesh – voiced surprisingly well by Sylvester Stallone. The emotionally vulnerable and compelling Polka-Dot Man, who, you guessed it, literally shoots polka dots – played by the always excellent David Dastmalchian. Idris Elba as the mercenary Bloodsport, and John Cena as The Peacemaker, who does the same thing as Bloodsport and is another bit of surprisingly successful casting. Their mission? To break into a facility and kill a starfish.
Considering how much is going on here. It’s a mark of Gunn’s creative skills, both as a director and as a writer, that he’s able to successfully balance the telling of an erratic but well-orchestrated story, create emotional depth in its characters, never lose the film’s darker comedic elements and mix it all together to create a specular action film with music to drive it all forward.
This is a bonkers film, it’s silly, it’s dark and seriously good fun. From the first scene to the last, the film feels more like the climatic third act of a solid action film. Gunn’s able to control the pace, peppering the story with humour and deliver both huge action set pieces and smaller introspective moments. Giving the key characters memorable backstories in a way that’s creative and connects and engages us to the story.
Like Guardians of the Galaxy, Gunn brings the weirdest and most creative characters to life by humanising them. With Guardians, we had Groot and Rocket, a tree, and a racoon, who become in some ways the centre pieces of film. The Suicide Squad does an equally ambitious and successful job of humanising characters like a shark, and a starfish. And yet, the film never loses its horror element, it’s edge. Yes, he’s a shark with the mind of a child who is trying to blend in, makes us laugh and who we feel empathy for, but he’ll also rip someone in two or eat them in a matter of seconds, and so is character you remain wary of. And that is Gunn’s skill. He’s able to create very human characters out of the weirdest concepts, so that we empathise with them, connect to them and in turn engage with the story, without losing who they are and reminding us why they’re in their current situation.
Tonally, the film is spot on, it’s mix of dark and silly humour with some heart-warming moments that pull you in. From start to finish we we’re treated to laughs, shocks, gore and the looming threat of death from the bombs inside the team’s heads and the mission they were sent on. It’s by far one of the most adult superhero films I’ve seen, probably second only to Zack Snyder’s Watchmen. And every moment landed for me.
Some of my standout characters include Harley Quinn, a character Gunn seems to really understand. I’ll admit, I’ve not seen her solo film ‘Bird of Prey’, but for me, this is the best depiction of Harley Quinn. She’s insane, skilled, funny, and most importantly, independent. One of my favourite moments from this film is Quinn’s big solo action sequence. It’s perfectly executed.
Although not as identifiable to me as the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, the music in The Suicide Squad still struck me. Much like Edgar Wright, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese. Gunn loves his music and knows how to use it to great effect. The action scenes in this are massively bolstered by well-timed rock songs that I looked up the moment I left the cinema.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Suicide Squad, it’s loud, incredibly funny, with plenty of gore, dark humour, and violence that I found incredibly refreshing for a mainstream superhero film. It seems Gunn was given creative freedom to do as he wished, and for the most part and it’s a wild ride, one I’m excited to experience again.
One final comment from me. Trailers are obviously a large part of the PR for a film. They’ve also become something of an event in themselves. Nowadays we see so many trailers for a single film that sometimes it seems as though we’ve already watched film on the trailers alone, or at least the biggest set pieces. And sometimes that’s because the film isn’t that good and so the best bits are in the trailer to draw you in. The Suicide Squad has done an impressive job of showing attractive trailers and kept a lot of things secret, which speaks to the calibre of the film. It’s certainly not a one trick pony.
5/5
It’s dark, witty and full of imaginative characters that that feel faithful to the comic books and in some cases, feel surprisingly human. Given how bonkers the story is, Gunn has done a superb job of telling it. Unlike the first film, I’d happily sit down and watch it again.