Movie Review: The Suicide Squad (2021)

The Suicide Squad (2021) written and directed by James Gunn

While on an involuntary sabbatical from The Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn took on a DC Comics property that involves a group of ne'er-do-wells who more or less inadvertently save the world. The DC group is much darker than the Guardians, as can be seen by their name--The Suicide Squad. The squad is recruited out of a prison for supervillains and goes on secret government assignments to get their sentences reduced. An explosive chip is put in their heads to keep them from just going off and causing their own sort of mayhem (rather than the government sanctioned mayhem). Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), director of the Squad, puts together a group to attack the South American island Corto Maltese. Their beach assault is a horrible disaster with most of the team getting killed in the opening sequence of the movie. This first team is actually a cover for a second team that is after the same objective. Since all the Cortese military is at the other beach, the second team has a relatively easy time making it to the interior of the country. Through a combination of smarts, violence, and mayhem, they might just accomplish their mission. Maybe with some help from one or two survivors of the botched invasion!

The movie leans into the ridiculous premise with its over the top characterizations (a natural place for Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie)). One of the villains is King Shark (voice by Sylvester Stallone), an eight-foot humanoid shark that's maybe a genetic experiment, maybe an ancient shark deity. His main interest is eating and he's not particular about whether his snack is friend or foe. Most of the characters are unfamiliar, giving the filmmakers a lot of freedom to develop them and to surprise the audience in delightful ways. The R rating is very strong--again, the makers have a ridiculous amount of gore and violence throughout the movie. Also the body count is very high, and not just the no-name characters in the background. Death is a frequent visitor to the Suicide Squad.

This movie is at least a million times better than the 2016 disaster.

Recommended, if you have the stomach for the gore and the moral ambiguity.