The reviews for The Suicide Squad have rolled in, and it’s time to see how the next DC film is going to fare. Lets take a look and see.
“The Suicide Squad,” make no mistake, is a grand-scaled down-and-dirty throwaway. James Gunn has directed it like a bad boy, though that was his mandate. In fulfilling it, he’s proven himself to be a good boy (which is why he was rehired by Disney for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”). But he knows how to dip into the gutter with style.
Gone are the charcoaled-up primary colors of Zack Snyder’s logy DC superfriends, and gone, thank Jor-El, are references to that world. Superman’s name is dropped once (Bloodsport put him in the ICU with a kryptonite bullet), but references to Joker are indirect, and nobody else is even worth mentioning. That’s only one of the welcome surprises in The Suicide Squad — a movie whose biggest surprise is that it deserves to exist at all.
I had a blast with all this, and if you are a fan of the original comic book, this squad is the real deal. Interestingly, the film’s title makes no reference to the previous movie, which means there is no “2” next to it. Arrogant as it may sound, Gunn is well within his rights to simply call it THE Suicide Squad, almost like he has erased the first one from our memory. This is indeed the smart take on the Suicide Squad comic book, and it isn’t a surprise coming from Gunn, who is also responsible for Guardians of the Galaxy, a refreshingly similar collection of oddballs in the MCU but much safer PG-13 versions. This one goes for the jugular(s).
The Suicide Squad is a magnificent masterpiece of mayhem. I loved every single minute of James Gunn’s bold new entry into the DC Cinematic Universe. Every single actor fully embraces the brazen insanity without holding back. The laughs are consistent. And the creature design is impeccable. Do I even need to mention that he once again brought together a gloriously impressive set of songs to enhance his feature? Sure, if you aren’t a fan of Gunn’s outrageousness with a heart, you may not find the gleeful enjoyment of this feature. Yet that’s also what makes this film so damn batshit entertaining. It is Mr. Gunn’s voice here in every scene, in every blood-soaked encounter, every brilliantly placed song, and every moment of humor and heart it’s because of James Gunn – as well as the incredible talent he brought with him. The Suicide Squad arrives in theatres and HBO Max on August 6th, and my oh my, does it look fantastic in IMAX.
By the psychedelic finale — whose stompy shenanigans fall somewhere between Godzilla and Ghostbusters on the jumbo scale — Gunn is fully leaning into midnight-movie camp, and subdividing his motley crew of antiheroes into Bad and Better. Those endgame loyalty tests (and the inevitable post-credits scene that follows) do the groundwork of setting up a sequel, if another one should be deemed worthy. Unless of course they choose, as it now a Suicide prerogative to do, to wipe the slate entirely and start again. Grade: C+
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.
And it also helps that The Suicide Squad is also just so entertaining as a result.
The Suicide Squad is due to hit theaters and HBO Max on Aug. 5, 2021 in the U.S. It will be in theaters in the U.K. on July 30.
