The Suicide Squad (2021) Review

The Suicide Squad (2021) Review

Dir. James Gunn 

 

The director of Guardians of the Galaxy proves that the best superhero movies are as unapologetically zany as they are unflinchingly brutal. 

 

 

The Suicide Squad is the most fun I’ve had in a cinema for a long time. 

James Gunn has constructed the most James Gunn movie to date, now free of the shackles of Disney's family friendly facade, he is able to mix his irreverent and comedic comic book deconstructions with his ultra violent and gore infested roots. 

 

Taking a fresh slate approach to the Suicide Squad formula, only a handful of the 2016 film's cast return, and those that do have found out how to take themselves way less seriously and accept the reality of their surroundings. In this new Suicide Squad adventure, Idris Elba's mercenary Bloodsport, Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and a handful of Z List DC characters are among the expendable squad sent to a hostile island to infiltrate an experimental weapon. 

 

What’s refreshing about The Suicide Squad is its absolute lack of predictability. Superhero movies are bemoaned for their lack of stakes in recent years, hence why Marvel's Avengers Infinity War and it’s shocking ending was so effective in 2018. This movie makes it clear from the get go that nobody is safe. This is a film where everyone is in peril at all times and even when you least expect it. It’s vital to have such stakes for a film called The Suicide Squad, but it’s commendably brave of an approach for a comic book movie. 

 

A wonderfully contrasting mix of disturbing, gory violence and absurdist comedic comic book nature; James Gunn has taken what made Slither and Guardians of the Galaxy so effective for him and combined them into the ultimate Gunn experience.

 

A stellar comedy ensemble, perhaps the best in recent years, with faces and personalities galore. Everyone from Idris Elba to John Cena gets their laughs and times to shine (the latter of who is quickly become a surprise comedy staple). It’s also especially good to see Britain’s own Peter Capaldi in a big Hollywood blockbuster such as this. His role isn’t huge, but he gets to ham it up with the rest of the crew and hopefully kickstart a renaissance of his own in Hollywood. 

 

The action is superbly choreographed, with a perfect blend of practical and digital effects work, which also shines in the design of some characters and creatures with a lot of screen time. 

 

You’ll come out of this film with new favourite characters from the DC universe, and they are characters that would never have gotten such a spotlight in their entire history of publication. James Gunn embraces the ridiculous, the stupid, the inconceivable, and tells us as an audience to accept them, to care for them, and in many cases to even emphasise with them. He does so with absolute success.

 

The Suicide Squad is laugh out loud fun, with some of the most memorable and enjoyable sequences I’ve ever seen in a superhero film. In the same way that he elevated the MCU with Guardians of the Galaxy and it’s hilarious, silly , yet heartfelt team, James Gunn has breathed life into the other side of the comic book pond by allowing DC to embrace its zaniness and the humour within its long history of characters. 

 

The greatest strength of The Suicide Squad is that it’s the most “like watching a comic book come to life” that I have ever felt in cinema. With its episodic structure, use of titles and colourful design. It’s like seeing a limited comic series on the big screen. A feat that cannot go unrecognised. 

 

The Suicide Squad proves there is still room in the superhero genre for self aware, postmodern fun, while simultaneously being balls to the wall insane and visceral. If you’d told me years ago that I’d one day watch a film that made me care about Polka Dot Man and Ratcatcher, I’d call you insane, but I’m pleased to tell you that The Suicide Squad is that film. Heart, blood, sweat, tears, guts and belly laughs aplenty.

 

9/10

 

Review by Elliott Thomas Griffiths