The Suicide Squad: Is It To Die For?

I feel bad for 2016's Suicide Squad. I was so excited for it. It had all the makings of a fantastic movie: Will Smith was Deadshot, Margot Robbie was making her debut as Harley Quinn, and it just looked great. The first trailer from Comic Con was honestly one of the best I've ever seen. You can watch it here. The preview was haunting, dark, and honestly made me more excited to watch it than Batman v. Superman. I was stoked. Then the movie came out. It wasn't nearly as bad as some have made it out to be, but it wasn't a masterpiece either. The final product was a far cry from what was shown a year before. For years the director, David Ayer, took hit after hit from critics and fans about the film. Along the way he would offer little bread crumbs about the situation. The bottom line was this: The version of the movie we saw was not Ayer's original vision. The studio heavily meddled with it. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he revealed a lot of what happened. The iffy reception to Batman v. Superman worried the higher-ups. Ayer elaborated by saying, "It's frustrating because I made a really heartfelt drama and it got ripped to pieces and they tried to turn it into Deadpool, which it just wasn't supposed to be... I made an amazing movie. It's an amazing movie, it just scared the s--- out of the executives." To read the full interview click here. Then, just a few weeks ago, around the time of the new movie's premiere, Ayer took to Twitter to go on even further. He wrote a very personal piece about how he felt and the toll the process took on him. It seemed to have really opened people's eyes to what happened behind the scenes. To read the statement in it's entirety, you can check it out here. I really hope Warner Bros does what they did for Zack Snyder and let Ayer release his cut of the film. It would benefit everyone. It seems they have (kind of) learned their lesson from the first film because they let director James Gunn do whatever he wanted with this movie and it shows. Now, let's move onto the review!

The Suicide Squad is directed by James Gunn and stars Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Daniela Melchior, Joel Kinnaman, and David Dastmalchian. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) tasks the Suicide Squad with a top-secret mission located on the island of Corto Maltese. Once there, the team must learn to co-operate with each other, not only because of the military, but because of the explosives embedded in their heads. With all of that out of the way let's dive into the review!

This movie is great. Plain and simple. James Gunn has, yet again, taken pretty obscure characters and made audiences care about them. If you told me a few years ago I would give a crap about someone named Ratcatcher 2 or King Shark, I would've laughed at you. The characters are easily the best thing about this movie. Everyone brings their A-game and I don't think that there's a bad perfomance. Each member of the team brings something valuable to the table and they each get their own moment in the spotlight. The best part is, the movie never skips over any of them. My favorite has to be Nanaue A.K.A. King Shark (played on-set by Steve Agee and voiced by Sylvester Stallone). He's exactly what he sounds like: A giant walking, talking, anthropomorphic shark with a dad bod. He's absoulutely adorable (even when eating people). He steals the movie every scene he's in. What's really funny about him is that, even though he looks menacing, he's not the brightest. When we're introduced to him, Nanaue is reading a book upside and he says, "Book read." I'd do anything for him. I also really liked Bloodsport (Idris Elba). When the movie was being made, there were reports that he was replacing Will Smith as Deadshot. After seeing the trailers, I was worried that he was just going to be pretty much the same character all over again. They both have daughters and they had similar abilities. Luckily, I was wrong. Elba did a great job as Bloodsport. Like the Suicide Squad, we see him develop as a leader over time. There's a lot of layers to him that weren't evident in the trailers. He's not monotone either. I was worried that he would be this stoic, hardass but he wasn't. He'd have fun sometimes and laugh a bit too. It also helps that his powers are really cool. He can take pieces of his suit off and turn them into different weapons. There's a really funny scene where him and Peacemaker (Cena) are showing off and we get to see it in action. I really hope to see more of this character in the future. Even though all of these characters are essentially villains, there's one that's pretty much "good". Her name is Ratcatcher 2 (Melchior). Her ability is that she can control rats. I didn't think I'd really care for this character because she, y'know, controls rodents but I really liked her. I'd heard in other reviews that she's one of the best parts of the movie and that's true. Melchior does a really good job with her and it's even more impressive since this is the actress' first time in a major American movie. Ratcatcher 2 (or Cleo Cazo) has a real innocence and heart to her that the other members don't really have. She's one of the first to try to befriend Nanaue and she's kind of the moral compass of the team. I look forward to seeing Melchior in other films and, hopefully, seeing more of Cleo. Another surprise was Peacemaker A.K.A Christopher Smith. Peacemaker is a vigilante who will do whatever he has to in the name of peace. He does so while wearing a ridiculous outfit. James Gunn said in an Instagram post, "John is one of the best overall talents I've ever worked with- he's capable of dramatic depths I don't think any of his films have yet shown- and he's the BEST improvisational actor I've worked with by a country mile." When I read this, I thought it was just a director hyping up his project. As an actor, I haven't seen Cena in much, only Bumblebee and Fast 9. He was ok in them and I like him for more funny reasons. I didn't think he was the best of actors. The Suicide Squad, however, has changed my mind. He's hysterical here. Cena delievers the jokes in such a deadpan way that made me crack up. I'll give you an example. There's a scene where Nanaue tries to eat Cleo and the team wakes up to stop. They all walk over and Peacemaker is in his underwear. They're all arguing with each other and Bloodsport says, "Tighty whities? Really?" Smith replies, "Now that's just racist." I was dying. The way he was able to deliver that line in such a deadpan way was hysterical. When it comes to the dramatic stuff, Cena brings it, too. There's one scene in particular, in the third act that really comes to mind. I won't spoil it for you. Margot Robbie, as always, does a fantastic job as Harley Quinn. It's been really interesting to see her evolution as a character over the past few films we've seen her in. In 2016's Suicide Squad, we saw her as completely dependent on the Joker. In Birds of Prey, we saw her as kind of in a transitional phase, having just broke up with him. Here, she's her own woman and completely independent. She doesn't feel the need to impress everyone. Robbie's performance reflects this. One last character I'd like to talk about is Rick Flag (Kinnaman). In the original, he was kind of a boring character. It's a very different story here. He's joking around, having fun, and has a personality. It was pretty cool to see. What's really great is that all of these characters have great chemistry with each other. They're able to bounce off one another with ease and it's completely natural. The action is cool and all, but this movie excels when the Squad is just talking with each other. That's pretty important since this movie is about a team.

Another thing that I loved in this movie was the humor. It landed most of the time. There was one scene involving a leaf that almost had me in tears. Idris Elba says a line in such a way that it's hysterical. I like that Gunn decided to have fun with these characters because a lot of them are pretty ridiculous. In typical Gunn fashion, this movie has a lot of heart and really makes you feel for the characters, even though they're a bunch of villains. Gunn said in an interview, "There's an innate tragic element to supervillains who aren't even that good at being bad." It's true. Most of these guys are kind of pathetic, but you feel for them, even for Bloodsport, who shot Superman! I really liked that. The movie is also shot quite nicely too. There are several scenes that deserved to be framed. Just like in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Gunn uses music quite well here. It never felt tacked on like in the original (which Ayer also said was corporate meddling). This doesn't take away from the score, however. John Murphy does a great job composing. There's a part with King Shark and an aquarium where the music really kind of completes the scene. It gives the audience a sense of wonderment. The action is also well done too. It never felt repetitive like in the first one. We get to see the Squad using their abilities in unique ways. There's a sequence with Harley that's amazing and so over the top. It's in a lot of the trailers, but I won't give too much of it away. She's fighting guys in a hallway and whenever she hits them flowers, instead of blood, flies out of them. It was really neat to watch. One final thing that I really liked were the visual effects, particularly with King Shark. There are several moments where the camera is really up close to him and you can see the texture of his skin. It looks like a real shark. The main villain (who I won't spoil) also looks really good.

There's not really a lot to dislike about this movie. Even though I love Robbie as Harley, there's a subplot with her that felt a little too dragged on. It seemed like they were just trying to get her from point A to point B, but I felt there must've been a quicker way to do it. Luckily, we got the action sequence that I mentioned earlier. The middle of the movie kind of drags on a little bit because of the Harley situation, but other than that, it moves at a good pace. This movie kind of has an identity crisis as well. It doesn't know if it's a full blown sequel or a reboot. Even the producers have said it's kind of it's own thing. It can't really be a reboot because some of the actors from the first one (Robbie, Kinnaman, Viola Davis, and Jai Courtney) are in it. At the same time, it really doesn't feel like a continuation of that story. On the flip side of that coin, however, it's heavily hinted that Flag, Harley, and Captain Boomerang (Courtney) have history together. It's revealed through the dialogue. It's just kind of confusing. The title of the movie also doesn't help things. Both titles are pretty much the exact same, with the exception of this movie having "The" in the title. I get why audiences could be a little confused with the marketing. I kind of blame that on the studio, though. I'm also kind of bummed some things got a little spoiled for me because, since it's also on HBOMax, HD clips were available the day the movie came out. I waited to see it in IMAX (the best way to watch it, I think). However, that's not really the movie's fault. I mentioned earlier that most of the humor works. There's one running joke involving a mom that was funny at first but kind of wore thin after a while.

To wrap everything up, The Suicide Squad is a bloody (literally) good time. At the time of this writing, I have seen it twice and it's held up both times. The characters are fantastic (particularly Bloodsport and Ratcatcher 2), it's hysterical, it has a lot of heart, the music is great, the action is awesome, and the effects are really good. The movie is held back a little bit because of Harley's sub-plot, the movie has a bit of an identity crisis, and some of the jokes don't work. I was really excited to see this movie and the wait, mostly, paid off. I really hope to see more of these characters in the future. If I were to rate it, I'd give The Suicide Squad an 8.5-9/10. Be sure to stick through the credits too!