Back in 2016, Warner Bros. was trying to catch up to Disney/Marvel’s superhero films by creating the DCEU and Suicide Squad was one of the many films they scheduled to be part of that canon. When the film hit theaters in summer of 2016, it was a financial success, but met with terrible reviews by critics and most DC fans dismissed it. Now five years later, the DCEU is in kind of a mess. So, Warner Bros. decided to bring in writer/director James Gunn for a redo of the same film. Ignoring the previous version, Gunn aimed for livelier take on the lesser villains in the DC world by including graphic violence, vulgar language and stay as true to its comic book form as much as possible.

Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) represents American interests around the globe, and she’s being tasked by her bosses to take control of a South American Island called Corto Maltese (fans of Tim Burton’s Batman will recognize that name) from the military leaders that overthrew the country. There’s a prison structure known as Jotunheim, which contains the mysterious “Project Starfish” and Waller doesn’t want Corto Maltese’s newly named president Luna (Juan Diego Botto) and his right hand man General Mateo Suarez (Joaquín Cosio) to take control of it. 

To do this, Waller restarts the Task Force X program and assembled a new Suicide Squad for action, including T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Savant (Michael Rooker), Javelin (Flula Borg), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Weasel, a grotesque creature ready to hit the beaches of Corto Maltese and take the island. The leader of the group is Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). Once they landed on the shores of Corto Maltese, Flag and his retag of would-be heroes were attacked. Unbeknownst to Flag, Waller sent another group of Suicide Squad that consist of Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), and King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) to another part of the island and Flag’s team was a decoy. Waller directed Bloodsport and his team to find The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), a scientist who can provide access to Jotunheim. But the team struggles to work together, finding egos clashing and violent tendencies getting in the way of any plans and turning Corto Maltese into a war zone.

Written and directed by James Gunn, the film is full of graphic violence, foul language and probably the most comic book-ish looking of any DC or Marvel films that I’ve seen. The plot is generic, but he was able to give enough screen time of each of the characters for the audience to care about and some of the dialogs were hilarious. I don’t remember the last time I laughed this much watching a movie. Gunn and his cinematographer Henry Braham decided to shoot the film with Red IMAX certified cameras, and it looks spectacular.

I enjoyed all the performances by the actors. Robbie looked like she had a great time playing Harley Quinn again. I love the bickering between Elba’s Bloodsport and Cena’s Peacemaker; the two alpha males always tried to better one another. Dastmalchian appeared in a lot of movies and TV shows as a minor character, but he got a lot of screen time here and his Polka-Dot Man is kind of sympathetic character. Melchior has some good moments with Bloodsport, who became a father figure to her. And the gag throughout the film about Bloodsport’s fear of rats is hilarious to me. As with many superhero or action films, the villains were pretty weak here. I think they should’ve made Capaldi’s The Thinker into a more sinister character and have him be the main villain. He didn’t really have much to do and by time we find out what Project Starfish was about, he’s out of the picture.

I don’t know where things are when it comes to the DCEU but if they decided to make another Suicide Squad or Justice League film, I want Gunn to be the man in charge. I had a lot of fun with this film and hopefully we get to see more hard R-rated super hero films like this in the future. 

So have you seen THE SUICIDE SQUAD? Well, what did you think?

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