Review: The Suicide Squad

FULL FRONTAL NUDITY??!!  In a SUPERHERO movie??!!  Director James Gunn seemingly has FULL creative control in The Suicide Squad, the 10th movie in the DC Extended Universe.

Whether that control benefits the viewer remains to be seen, however.  One thing that’s certain: The Suicide Squad takes on James Gunn’s unfettered imagination and style without any constraints or limits.

The Plot

The Suicide Squad’s plot feels ripped straight out of an 80’s Action film.  If that film included superheroes, aliens, and a horror element, that is.

An American Special Forces Unit made up of expendable has-beens and never-was’, invade a foreign country to cover up the United States’ involvement in a decidedly shady operation.

Task Force X

The premise follows the original Suicide Squad: Amanda Waller recruits super-powered prisoners for the mission in exchange for time off their sentences.  Except, this film gets to the team up in the first three minutes.

Michael Rooker‘s ‘Savant’ takes the reins of a group that includes Jai Courtney‘s ‘Captain Boomerang’, Nathan Fillion‘s ‘T.D.K.’, Flula Borg‘s ‘Javelin’, Pete Davidson‘s ‘Blackguard’, Mayling Ng‘s ‘Mongal’, Sean Gunn‘s CGI ‘Weasal’, and Margot Robbie‘s ‘Harley Quinn’.  Again keeping the ragtag group of convicts on point is Joel Kinnaman‘s ‘Rick Flag’.

If that lineup sounds like a group of B-List Actors playing a group of C-List characters, you’d be correct.  So, you can imagine how well that mission goes.

Unbeknownst to our Task Force X, another team of Suicide Squaders ALSO lands on the shores of Corto Maltese, except this group finds no resistence.  In fact, the group led by Idris Elba‘s ‘Bloodsport’, John Cena‘s ‘Peacemaker’, David Dastmalchian‘s ‘Polka Dot Man’, Daniela Melchior‘s ‘Ratcatcher 2’, and the Sylvester Stallone voiced ‘King Shark’; hear explosions in the distance, but make landfall without a scratch.

Amanda Waller STILL In Charge

Viola Davis‘ ‘Amanda Waller’ again pulls all the strings, including sacrificing one group to further the purpose of another.  However this time, we meet Waller’s team of underlings doing the actual button pushing in the control room with her.

After an opening credits sequence that specifically eschews an expensive CGI montage, in favor of a bunch of quick camera movements with Waller’s team lip syncing along to an Indie Rock 70’s song; we jump back in time three days to see ‘Team 2’ being recruited for the mission.  Turns out Robert DuBois, aka ‘Bloodsport’, fathered a child who needs his help.

Bloodsport’s daughter Tyla got caught, and Amanda Waller plans to leverage throwing a child in adult prison for a misdemeanor to get Dubois to lead the Suicide Squad.  Even Waller’s Control Room staff seem shocked by her brazen power play.

Waller’s Mission Brief is clear, infiltrate a highly guarded military base and destroy an alien threat to the United States.

The Good

Director James Gunn makes it plainly obvious that his The Suicide Squad, will not make the same mistakes as it’s much maligned predecessor.

Substance Over Style

While 2016’s Suicide Squad bent over backwards to look, sound, and even pose it’s way to a ‘cool’ vibe; Gunn goes the other way.  The overly long character setups and mission recruitments of the first film don’t happen.  Three minutes into this movie, Savant meets his team and gets on the plane.

Most of the conversations in this film have zero music underneath them.  When the characters talk, they use a much more conversational, natural tone, and avoid competing with a cool soundtrack in the background.  This allows us to get to know the characters much better in much less screen time.  And, given the abnormally large size of the cast and story being told in just two hours and ten minutes; it helps.

Hyper, Cartoonish Violence

The Suicide Squad embraces being one of the few Superhero movies to be Rated-R, similar to Deadpool.  And, takes great care crafting particularly cartoonish and bloody deaths, also like Deadpool.

However, this film also sacrifices many of our main characters along the way, unlike Deadpool.  No character is safe, and Gunn takes particular care in disposing of our main characters as creatively as he does the countless foreigners opposing the Squad along the way.

Captain Boomerang, in particular, gets impaled by shards of Palm trees, before getting filleted from behind by a helicopter.  Slight spoiler, but a demonstration of the creativity used to dispatch the ‘bad guy’ protagonists in this flick!

The Control Room

There’s no formal name given to Waller’s underlings, so I’m simply calling them ‘The Control Room.’  A combination Greek Chorus and audience proxy, the crass junior members bet on which Task Force X members will die, but also provide context to the extreme nature of Amanda Waller’s behavior.  

While used to the cavalier loss of life during these missions, the Room provides a baseline for what should be considered appropriate tactics and behavior for Waller.  The Head Bomb briefcase that ensures the Squad take part in the missions isn’t used lightly, but a clear protocol prevails. 

While they callously bet on the Squad’s deaths, they do pause when triggering the head bomb to end their life.  We see how far Amanda Waller can go, but we also when she’s out of line.

The Bad

This is where the full frontal nudity comes in.  YIKES.

As Team 2 continues through the Corto Maltese countryside, they’re also tasked with retrieving Rick Flag.  Bloodsport and Peacemaker can’t stop competing to prove who is better at killing.  They one-up each other’s killing techniques against mostly unarmed victims, including a guy who literally gets caught with his pants down.  This is where we get our full frontal.

A Step Too Far…

It may be only one out of a dozen or so kills, but it’s right there.  Peacemaker shoots a pantsless man taking a sip of his morning coffee.  Why the revolutionary wanted to start his day with his barn door opened before he even opened the front of his tent is a mystery.  Why James Gunn wanted to include that shot in the movie is an even greater mystery.

I fully believe any storytelling device or trope can be used to further a story, even if the device is just there for the sake of being there.  But, when using violence and nudity, there usually is reason and purpose in better films, especially ones aimed at a wider audience.  The bloody and extreme violence in this film directly informs the reality of our characters’ lives.  The full frontal nudity does nothing to further the plot, establish our characters, or even wow the viewers.  It’s just sort of there.

The Review – The Suicide Squad

As the members of Gen Z like to say; The Suicide Squad ‘is… A LOT.’  James Gunn throws every idea he has at the camera.  

The ‘Guardians’ Director has never been shy about taking risks before, but usually has a well defined sense of the story he wants to tell.  The Suicide Squad lacks his usual definitive vision and focus.  All the usual tricks are there, but the overarching clarity isn’t.

James Gunn

Gunn’s Directing style in The Suicide Squad is Tarantino meets Matthew Vaughn meets Robert Rodriguez.  While I love all three of those Directors, this film FEELS like Pulp Fiction meets Kick Ass meets Sin City.  It does not, however, feel like a distinctive ‘James Gunn’ film.  I would hope The Suicide Squad would feel like it’s own unique thing, but instead feels like many parts pulled from other movies.

While Gunn experiments with non-linear and parallel storytelling, and has creative locators/script notes worked into the film itself; the film does not exceed the sum of its parts – even if the parts are well conceived.

The Suicide Squad Vs. Starro The Conqueror

The final battle appropriately titled “The Suicide Squad Vs. Starro The Conqueror” jumps off the screen and is a ton of fun to watch; but lacks a strong throughline with the rest of the film.  There’s no clear ‘Why’ that unites the picture.

There’s no clear character motivation for Starro.  If he’s sentient and can speak, why doesn’t he say what he wants?  OR, if he’s a force of nature like Godzilla, where is it going and/or what does it want?  Because Starro is just sort of there, the resolution of the film lacks impact.

Director James Gunn feels like he got full creative control of the film and an almost unlimited budget.  While I usually mock studio interference, James Gunn being reigned in slightly may have produced a better final product.

This film stuns visually and is a ton of fun to watch.  However, the lack of clarity leads to a lack of impact. 

The Suicide Squad won’t be long remembered in the Summer Blockbuster world.  Avengers: Endgame and The Dark Knight this is not.

Additional Information

Cast and Credit Information IMDb Page

Ever wonder where The Suicide Squad Cast got their start? See their First Credits below!

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