The Suicide Squad (2021) Review

 

The Suicide Squad (2021)

The Suicide Squad follows a new Task Force X, as they are sent to Corto Maltese to destroy evidence of Project Starfish. 

The latest outing for the Squad, which isn’t really ever classified as a reboot or sequel, was Gunn’s way of quite literally and figuratively killing off David Ayers Suicide Squad to make way for a new generation of baddies turned good. And I’d say for the most part, he accomplishes that feat, killing off members by the plenty, giving us outrageous villains like Starro, and turning the remaining members of B-list supervillains into badass, household names. Most of what this movie gets right naturally hinges on Gunn’s specific style filmmaking, this goofy mix of familial themes, ridiculously fun and bloody set pieces, and loads of well-timed comedy (though there was also a lot of unnecessarily forced jokes thrown in, aka every fucking scene with Steve Agee). 

As I mentioned before too, I was happy Gunn didn’t shy away from taking risks, as this is pretty much all this movie was, is one gigantic risk. He kills most of the cast in the first scenes and even from there, doesn’t hold back on killing fan favorite characters liberally, the toughest of all definitely being Rick Flag’s murder at the hands of Peacemaker (an absolute gut punch, as Flag was the one genuinely good dude on the team). 

We get an all-star cast for this villainous team-up, starring Viola Davis, Peter Capaldi, David Dastmalchian, Sylvestor Stallone, Daniela Melchior, Joel Kinnaman, Margot Robbie, John Cena, and Idris Elba. Melchior and Elba had a terrific father-daughter type of relationship that really drove those themes of family I’ve come to expect from a Gunn film. Cena was also utterly hilarious as Peacemaker and really stole every scene he was in (can’t wait for his HBO Max show). 

The Suicide Squad, directed by James Gunn, while a bit disjointed in it’s storytelling method, crafts a cool and fun story that is only made better with its gratuitous R-rating that makes this a bloody good return to form the Suicide Squad and for DC. 

7.9/10