The Suicide Squad
Synopsis
James Gunn provides a much-needed facelift for 2016’s Suicide Squad in The Suicide Squad (yes, the title is a bit confusing). The squad of villains is still controlled - through bombs implanted at the base of their necks - by the unsympathetic director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and led by the heroic Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). However, this time it sports a very different cast of characters, including Bloodsport (Idris Elba), a returning Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Peacemaker (John Cena), Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone). Waller tasks this chaotic group with entering the Corto Maltese, the site of a recent military coup with now pronounced anti-US sentiment, to destroy all traces of the mysterious project “Starfish”. They may hate heroes and hate each other even more, but this unlikely band of villains must come together if they hope to save the day, or at least to avoid having their heads blown off.
Analysis
The attention to characters is one of the film’s best aspects. Unlike 2016’s Suicide Squad – and much more like Guardians of the Galaxy – each character feels truly fleshed out with a unique set of skills that makes them an asset to the team. Having grown up in the slums of Portugal with a loving father who taught her how to use a rat-controlling device, Ratcatcher 2 is a kind soul who tries to see the good in everyone around her but can overwhelm enemies with swarms of, well, rats. Bloodsport, a mercenary trained since birth and proficient at using a wide range of advanced weaponry, is a morally conflicted man who’s unsure whether there’s any good left in him. (Even though she’s technically not a member of the team, I’d still like to talk about Amanda Waller. Davis steals every scene she’s in by showcasing Waller’s absolute ruthlessness. And her performance isn’t strictly straight-faced either; her sardonic way of talking to others and constant smirks reveal how much Davis is reveling in her role.) So each character brings an exhilarating set of powers to fights, and their personalities humanize them by making them more relatable.
I also enjoyed the squad members’ unique interactions and how the squad felt more cohesive as the movie progressed. For example, given how strikingly similar their skills are – which the movie makes a point of in a moment of 4th-wall breaking – Bloodsport and Peacemaker are constantly mad-dogging each other in a comical attempt to “out-assassin” each other. On the other side of the spectrum, Flag and Quinn’s friendship feels comical due to how different their personalities are, but the movie also demonstrates how much they both mean to each other. And while the squad plays like a loose coalition of villains at the beginning, they grow closer as a group as the story progresses. This transition is evidenced by an improvement in how they interact both on and off the battlefield. Creating a good group dynamic was thus essential for the squad to feel natural and effective.
Two more departments the film excels at are comedy and intense action. More so than almost any other superhero movie, Gunn never shies away from pointing out how genuinely ridiculous some of the characters and their powers are. For instance, Bloodsport is incredulous when he discovers that Peacemaker is on the team because they have the exact same backstory and skillset. This is clearly a meta-reference to how interchangeable bottom-tier comic book characters are. And take Nathan Fillion’s TDK, who can detach and control his arms from a distance in a fight. How effective is that power, you may ask? Well, about as effective as you’d expect. As far as action goes, a combination of imagination and gruesome violence makes sequences all the more interesting and entertaining. There’s a great variety of action sequences; the flavor varies from pseudo-psychedelic to grandiose, the setting from close quarters to wide-open spaces, and the level of mayhem from discreet to bombastic. In combination with the use of mostly practical sets, this variety makes every scene strong enough to stand on its own. The film dispatches enemies and allies alike in multiple ways, from being burnt alive to javelined to disintegrated to crushed to eaten alive by shark or rat. However, the gore never feels excessive; it’s more so geared towards injecting humor, ferocity, and realism into scenes. So rather than simply embracing the R rating for shock value, Gunn used his creative freedom to deliver action sequences that feel unique and immersive.
Another element that makes Suicide Squad stand apart from its peers is its abandonment of plot armor. The fact that the film was willing to off any character at any moment increased my engagement because the stakes were real. Since the movie does a superb job of getting you emotionally invested in the squad members, you’re forced to watch with bated breath as you start fretting over what will happen next to the squad. And when the deaths do arrive – this shouldn’t come as a surprise given the movie’s title – they come with a brutal emotional punch, which is an effect that almost no other superhero movie can evoke.
The few complaints I have about the movie didn’t massively detract from my enjoyment, but they’re still worth mentioning. For one, I felt that the squad decreased in numbers far too rapidly. Had more members stuck around longer and gradually been picked off, it would have fleshed out more of them and made their deaths feel much more meaningful. Second, although Gunn seemed interested in framing the film as a critique of the US’s notorious interventions in South America during the latter half of the 20th century, the commentary felt shoehorned since it wasn’t the movie’s primary focus. This lackluster attempt also made the Corto Maltese military and rebels feel superfluous. Finally, there were a couple of times when a joke felt like it went on for too long. So while at first I may have been enjoying a comedic scene, I would get bored when the film refused to move on.
Conclusion
All in all, The Suicide Squad is hands down one of the best superhero – or should I say supervillain – movies I’ve seen in a while. While it’s not without its faults, it has much more hits than misses. The dynamic cast of characters, excellent comedic and action beats, and high stakes make for an excellent execution of a simple concept. The Suicide Squad is also the latest example of DC doing what I love most: having a standalone story where a director has free reign to realize their vision entirely. Fingers crossed that there’ll be much more hits from DC’s ongoing relationship with James Gunn going forward.