The Suicide Squad (2021) Review

The Suicide Squad might not even exist if it wasn’t for James Gunn being fired by Disney as Guardians of the Galaxy 3 director.

James Gunn stuck the landing with The Suicide Squad

DC quickly jumped to offer Gunn the chance to do whatever movie he wanted (and after his Guardians success, why wouldn’t you?), with the filmmaker surprisingly choosing the antihero team of miscreants and villains. If you’ve seen Gunn’s earlier work though, you’ll know it was a perfect choice.

Blending the big-screen spectacle of Guardians of the Galaxy with the bloody violence and dark humor of Gunn’s horror work, The Suicide Squad is sure to end 2021 as the year’s most entertaining blockbuster. It’s Gunn let off the leash to do whatever he wants creatively – and he definitely does some weird shit.

Disney might have rightly reinstated him as Guardians 3 director, but you’ll end up grateful that they let him go in the first place. Otherwise we could have had a world without a human-shark hybrid devouring humans, and that’s just not a world we want to live in.

The setup is relatively similar to 2016’s critically-derided Suicide Squad, but fortunately that’s where the similarities end. In Belle Reve prison, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles a bunch of inmates for the secretive Task Force X to tackle a threat on the remote island of Corto Maltese.

Reboot brings back some familiar faces including Margot Robbie

Among them are familiar faces like Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), as well as newcomers including Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) and, of course, King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone).

Their mission? Well, that’d be spoiling things, but it’s safe to say that even with Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) keeping the Squad in check on the ground, things won’t exactly go to plan. Gunn has been warning not to get too attached to anyone and for once, that’s not an exaggeration.

In fact, it’ll only take the explosive and shocking opening sequence to make you realise that this take on the Suicide Squad isn’t messing around. Blood and limbs fly as they make their entrance onto Corto Maltese in a hilarious and outrageous set piece that will leave you astonished. For most movies, it would feel like the climactic sequence, but this is just the amuse-bouche and Gunn is only getting started.

What’s impressive is that with carte blanche to “kill anyone”, Gunn hasn’t gone for the cheap, shock kill. Yes, some deaths are inherently funnier than others, but there’s also genuine emotion in some of the exits that few comic book movies manage. Gunn cares about these characters and spends time with them to make sure that you care too.

Don’t get too attached to the characters

It’s quite tricky to single anybody out in the cast without giving unintentional hints as to which characters are in it for the long haul and which ones aren’t long for this world. What we can say is that most viewers will have their favourites and pretty much every character gets a moment to shine (or not, as the case may be).

King Shark feels like an obvious fan favorite, but there’s every chance Weasel (Sean Gunn), Javelin (Flula Borg) or Polka-Dot Man will be an equal favourite for other fans. It’s a terrific ensemble with a wide range of characters and varying levels of villainy, and proves to be an enormously fun time hanging out with them – however brief our time together.

In terms of the established stars, Margot Robbie continues to prove to be perfect Harley Quinn casting. Harley gets arguably the stand-out sequence of the entire movie with a ridiculously bloody escape, backed with a classic Gunn needle drop and superb fight choreography.

While there’s no Birds of Prey references, this is definitely the new, improved Harley and she’s a much stronger character for it. In fact, there’s not really any wider DC references and The Suicide Squad is pleasingly standalone, freed of any need to set up future movies or fan service nods to what came before.

James Gunn allowed to tell his own story

It allows Gunn to tell his own story and he throws everything at it as though it’s his one-and-only DC shot (it won’t be though, surely). Not everything works as well as other elements and there are times where the movie meanders a bit, but you can be sure that something unique will be just around the corner.

Whether it’s in some truly surreal imagery (Polka-Dot Man’s ‘therapy’ is unforgettable) or a witty action set piece, such as Peacemaker and Bloodsport trying to outdo each other’s kills, there’s so much to enjoy. Gunn even manages to put his own spin on the classic superhero sequence where something massive is collapsing to the ground, with more practical effects used than in comparable movies.

And this is all before we get to the giant starfish which is not only glorious to behold in an ‘am I really seeing this?’ way, but also comes complete with some subversive twists that few other mainstream comic book movies would go near.

We totally get if you’ve approached the release of The Suicide Squad with some trepidation as we felt the same, especially in the wake of the previous version. But you won’t be thinking that within minutes of stepping into James Gunn’s take on this world.

Not everything will work for you and that’s fine because it’s exactly what we want from a blockbuster: a genuinely unique movie that’s the product of a filmmaker, rather than a committee.

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