It doesn't say anything good about the current state of commercial filmmaking that we have yet another comic book film that is really a second try at adapting a popular franchise, after the first one failed to impress. Five years after David Ayer's "Suicide Squad" was a cinematic trainwreck, but made a lot of money, we have the James Gunn helmed "The Suicide Squad." It is a considerably better movie all around, but thanks to COVID and streaming, it's on track to somehow make less money. Frankly, it just doesn't seem right.
With this in mind, I can happily recommend "The Suicide Squad" for all your R-rated comic book punch-em-up needs. Gunn happily embraces the most ridiculous conceits of the DC universe, giving us characters who shoot deadly polka dots at people, throw deadly boomerangs, or are half-sharks, or are humanoid weasels. A few characters are brought over from the 2016 "Suicide Squad," including headliner Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), evil administrator Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), and the upstanding Captain Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman). Joining them on their latest mission to infiltrate and shut down an enemy weapons projects, are super assassin Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) who can control rats, fanatical soldier Peacemaker (John Cena), and the aforementioned King Shark (Sylvester Stallone) and Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian).
In addition to being better conceived, better written, better shot, better designed, and much better edited, "The Suicide Squad" is better than its predecessor because it actually understands the assignment. This is not a gritty adult film in the trappings of a kiddy comic book. This is fundamentally a kids' power fantasy with a rather heartwarming moral center that is told through a joyously profane and gory lens, full of sick humor and naughty subversions. There's nothing thematically or aesthetically that really pings as grimly adult, the way something like "The Boys" does, and everyone is staunchly asexual throughout. Lots and lots of characters get killed off in all sorts of goofy, splatterific ways, but Gunn does the work of getting us to care about a surprising number of them. All the main players have little moments of character building that make the movie an eye-watering 132 minutes, but also results in making everyone truly memorable. I never thought I'd empathize with a giant man-eating shark mutant, but there it is.
I also appreciate "The Suicide Squad" for being an unapologetic comic book movie that takes place in a full throated comic book universe. There are some truly wild and wonderfully weird visuals here, from silly costumes to giant monsters to Harley having a fight scene where gushing blood is replaced by sprays of Sion Sono-esque animated pastel flowers. While the base level reality is fairly bleak and washed out, in keeping with the Zack Snyder style, there are also wonderful blasts of color to contrast against this, especially in the various fight sequences. A great little touch is the intertitles, which declare act breaks or new settings, being designed to pop up from the environment in eye catching ways. A lot of the gags and jokes rely on carefully designed shots and composition. The zip-pan to John Cena in tighty whiteys is a personal favorite.
You can tell that Gunn is a dyed-in-the-wool DC fanboy from the characters he chose to spotlight and the references he sneaks in. Superman is the only superhero who gets a quick shout-out, while all kinds of minor baddies with obscure powers get roped into the fun. I won't spoil all the cameos and callbacks that come up, but I will just say that "The Suicide Squad" gets extra points from me for putting one the most ostentatiously monstrous DC villains onscreen at last in all its Lovecraftian glory. Also, the film includes what I think might be my favorite genre trope of recent years - the gaggle of lowly office workers who creep around the edges of the story in support roles, and eventually help save the day.
I really hope James Gunn and company find some way to score a win out of this, because I want more DC films that are willing to be this nutty and this much fun. I also want to see these characters again, but Harley aside, sadly that doesn't look likely.
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