Movie Review: The Suicide Squad

 

Since Warner Brothers underwent a regime change in early 2018, the DCU has looked a lot different. The failures the previous studioheads-who became notorious for their extensive meddling in the creative process-experienced in trying to build a Marvel-esque interconnected cinematic universe inspired the new bosses to go in a completely different direction that emphasized standalone films/franchises and becoming a home for filmmakers who wanted to have their respective visions for a superhero project fully realized without having to adhere to the strict guidelines that Kevin Feige and Disney make their collaborators follow. This change in approach has yielded mostly positive results with Aquaman, Shazam! and Birds of Prey being much better received than the majority of their prior projects and Wonder Woman 1984 going down as the only real misfire thus far. 

DC's revitalization efforts received its biggest boost to date back in the fall of 2018 as some good fortune allowed them to hire Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn to make a new Suicide Squad project that was neither a sequel or reboot of the 2016 installment. That film-which later became titled The Suicide Squad-isn't just the grand slam home run the DCU needed to push them another step closer towards a full blown image rehabilitation, it's a boldly creative, singularly focused vision that subverts the increasingly calculated superhero movie formula by only being concerned with what's on the screen at that exact moment in time.

At first glance, The Suicide Squad appears to just be an R-rated riff on Guardians of the Galaxy and in some ways, it is. The protagonists are a group of criminal misfits that are banded together against their will to perform a mission where they're expected to act as heroes despite lacking the demeanor to do so and a good chunk of the jokes are just more obscene takes on the immature sex/toilet humor that Gunn has sprinkled throughout both Guardians films. However, upon really digging into what lies underneath its familiar exterior, The Suicide Squad reveals itself to be one of the most dynamic, ambitious mainstream blockbusters to be released in recent memory. 

This is a movie that applies old school grindhouse staples (healthy doses of practical sets/effects/prosthetics, over-the-top gore and seriously dark comedy) to a blockbuster superhero project that features some of the biggest, most badass action setpieces and elaborate CGI imagery to ever come out of the genre. A movie that leans into the colorful, hyperactive maximalist nature of its source material while still allowing plenty of opportunities for its characters and an unexpected emotional core to slowly develop throughout. A movie that directly takes shots at imperialism along with the checkered history of the United States government conducting harmful covert operations on foreign soil involved without ever losing sight of the fact that it's still primarily a story about oddball antiheroes trying to stop a coup in a small South American country where the military is planning to unleash a killer giant alien starfish on unsuspecting countries across the globe in order to gain power.      

The Suicide Squad wouldn't have been possible without Gunn's knowledge of both B-movie and blockbuster mechanics or the maturity and confidence he's picked up after being in the industry for over 20 years, and it's incredible that a studio actually allowed him to make a nearly $200 million film with a such a fearlessly brutal, unique voice. 

Allowing Gunn's twisted, complex vision to really sing is the efforts of the Squad members themselves Not a single actor here from the leads all the way down to those who only have a few minutes of screen time is anything less than perfectly cast (I sincerely can't single out any standouts, everybody crushes), which is a great testament to Gunn's ability of knowing what actors will help bring his vision to life. Everyone brings something different to the table with their performance (examples: Daniela Melchoir's Ratcatcher II radiates a surprising amount of compassion for a bank robber who controls an army of murderous rats, John Cena's Peacemaker is the physical embodiment of America-loving meathead chaos, Idris Elba's Bloodsport is a grumpy, arrogant mercenary with a deep disdain for everyone and everything) and that helps contribute to selling the dysfunctional yet secretly loving dynamic that binds this group together. Sure these people are largely reprehensible individuals, but they're still capable of caring about others under the right circumstances and their ability to unlock the humanity within these characters provides a level of depth that antihero ensembles don't tend to receive in the cinematic format.

The Suicide Squad is the most fun I've had with a movie since John Wick: Chapter 3. Everything about this crazy, hilarious, dark, sweet, gory and perfectly acted old school B-movie meets blockbuster spectacle is wonderful, and I can't wait to figure out if it's one of my favorite superhero movies or my absolute favorite upon repeat viewings.          

Grade: A