The Suicide Squad (2021)

Starring: Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, Sylvester Stallone, Peter Capaldi, Jai Courtney, Michael Rooker, Pete Davidson, Alice Braga, Nathan Fillion, Taika Waititi, Storm Reid, and Sean Gunn, with a cameo from Pom Klementieff
Grade: A+

This was worth the hype. James Gunn is a genius.

Summary

A supervillain named Savant (Rooker) is seen in the Belle Reve penitentiary throwing a ball around, eventually killing a bird with it. Opening the door to his private cell is leader of the Task Force X program Amanda Waller (Davis). As you know, Task Force X is nicknamed “The Suicide Squad”, and it consists of imprisoned supervillains that carry out missions for Waller in exchange for lighter sentences. Savant says he has another fifteen years, but Waller says she will take ten years off his sentence if he successfully completes the mission. An explosive device is then implanted in his head in case he abandons the mission or doesn’t follow direct orders. The same is the case with everyone who joins. Waller is in possession of the remote control that can set the bomb off to kill them. The commanding officer of the team is Col. Rick Flag (Kinnaman). Flag takes Savant right away to meet his other team members. They consist of Captain Boomerang (Courtney), Blackguard (Davidson), an alien named Mongal (Mayling Ng), Javelin (Flula Borg), T.D.K. (Fillion), Weasel (Gunn), and of course, Harley Quinn (Robbie).

All of Waller’s employees take bets as to who will die first after the team takes off.

Following some discourse on the plane, especially with what the hell Weasel is, they fly to an island named Corto Maltese. They all jump out of the plane and into the water below. Immediately, Weasel drowns. It turns out, he couldn’t swim, and no one checked beforehand. The rest of the members get into position on the shore, but Blackguard walks into the open, giving up their position. He calls for the Corto Maltese Army aloud, telling them where everyone is because he made a deal to sell the team out. The Corto Maltese Army don’t care and shoot and kill Blackguard where he stands. Then, they start attacking the rest of Flag’s squad. They are completely outnumbered. Flag suggests a retreat, but Waller refuses because of the importance of the mission. They reluctantly go through with the fight, but they are decimated. Mongal, T.D.K., Javelin, and fan favorite Boomerang are all killed. Seeing the horror in front of him, Savant retreats by himself. Because of this, Waller activates his bomb implant, and he dies too, leaving just Flag and Quinn alive. Waller then asks how “Team 2” is doing. They are on the other side of the island, and they are completely fine. “Team 1” was actually just a distraction, so Bloodsport (Elba) and his team could go on their mission. His team consists of The Peacemaker (Cena), Ratcatcher 2 (Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (Dastmalchian), and King Shark (Stallone).

Three days earlier, we see Bloodsport doing chores in prison (without gloves oddly enough). Blackguard comes by and takes a piece of toilet paper off of his shoe, laying it there for him to clean up. Robert DuBois, better known as Bloodsport, is a world-class marksman, can use anything as a weapon, and was trained by his mercenary father in the art of killing since he was born. He’s been imprisoned for putting Superman in the ICU with a Kryptonite bullet. Despite his talents, he already tells Waller his refusal to join the Suicide Squad after she interrupts him. As a response, Waller tells him he has a visitor. It’s his 16-year-old daughter Tyla (Reid). Tyla is a troubled kid and has been caught stealing. Bloodsport argues with her, saying she should’ve had another person with her as a lookout. She yells at him for being a terrible father, but that doesn’t faze him because he makes it clear he never wanted to be one. They get into a shouting match that stops after Tyla says her court date is coming up and Waller said he could help. Bloodsport flips out on Waller for sending his daughter to juvie, but Waller reminds him that in the state of Louisiana, you can be tried as an adult at 16. She could even be sent to Belle Reve with him, a place where they have the highest mortality rate in the entire U.S. prison system. He grabs a pen and threatens to kill her, but she tells security to stand down. She stresses the importance of the mission and says that based off of his psychological profile, he has what it takes to be a leader. Basically, he’s forced to join and is named captain of the squad.

Even though he insists he’s not a leader, Waller says she will make him one.

She then takes Bloodsport and introduces him to the members of his team. First, there’s Peacemaker, a man who does virtually the same thing as Bloodsport, but he’s a bit of a dork. Second, there’s King Shark, a dimwitted talking shark that eats humans. Thirdly, there’s the daughter of the deceased Ratcatcher (Waititi), known as Ratcatcher 2. She has the power to control rats, complete with a pet rat named Sebastian. Rounding out the team is the depressed and quiet Polka-Dot Man (Dastmalchian), a man who quite literally throws super-powered polka dots at people. Calendar Man (Gunn), of all fucking people, calls him a pussy when he’s released from his cell. As the team is collected and leaves the room, Bloodsport sees Weasel licking the window of his cell on the way out. Waller then debriefs the collective on what the mission is. They have to infiltrate the island of Corto Maltese, a small country off the coast of South America. Apparently, the Herrera Family used to run the country for a hundred years or so. However, a week ago, the anti-American General Silvio Luna (Juan Diego Botto) and his righthand man Mayor General Mateo Suarez (Joaquín Cosío) took over the country in a brutal coup d’état. They hung the Herrera Family in a public execution. Inside Corto Maltese is Jotunheim, a scientific experimentation and research facility. Jotunheim contains Project Starfish, an alien lifeform. Waller says it is very dangerous in the hands of Luna and can be used against America and the world. Their mission is to infiltrate Jotunheim and destroy “every trace of Project Starfish”. To get in, they have to find The Thinker (Capaldi), the lead scientist of Project Starfish, and force him to help them get inside the facility. After hours, he’s found at a gentlemen’s club called “La Gatita Amable”. They have to force him by whatever means necessary to get the team to Jotunheim.

We then jump back to the present on the Corto Maltese island. Bloodsport’s crew is already arguing as they trek through the jungle, with most of the heat stemming from the power struggle between Bloodsport and Peacemaker. On the other side of the island, Javelin gives Harley Quinn his javelin before he officially dies from his wounds. Quinn is then captured by enemy soldiers. Flag is captured by a group of resistance fighters, led by Sol Soria (Alice Braga). That night, Bloodsport’s team sets up camp. As everyone sleeps, Polka-Dot Man’s face swells up with rainbow-colored polka dots, and he has to puke it out to return to normal. Bloodsport watches as this happens. Ratcatcher 2’s rat Sebastian alerts Bloodsport to Ratcatcher 2 about to be eaten in her sleep by King Shark, forcing him to shoot King Shark several times to subdue him. Ratcatcher 2 tries to give King Shark the benefit of the doubt, but Sebastian tells her the truth. She brings hundreds of rats nearby to surround King Shark, but Bloodsport freaks out because he has a rat phobia, something Waller’s team again didn’t know about. Once the rats leave, King Shark admits he was hungry. He then says he has no friends, so she asks if they can all be friends with him. He agrees. Now, they don’t have to worry about him killing them all and eating them in their sleep. Back in the office, Waller’s team locates Flag, so Waller adds saving Flag to their mission. Back in the day, Bloodsport and Flag both served on the special forces team in Qurac that took down Avral Kaddam. In fact, Flag was the one who recommended Bloodsport for Task Force X. Waller tells him to kill anyone surrounding Flag. They have to save him before they move on to the city.

They storm the camp Flag is being held at and kill everybody. King Shark gets to eat some people, and we get to see Polka-Dot Man in action. This is where he admits he doesn’t like killing people but when he imagines they are his mother, it’s pretty easy.

Anyway, they find Flag with Sol Soria, but they’re hanging out and drinking tea. It turns out Soria is against the current regime and her team actually saved Flag’s life. Soria asks why her team didn’t alert her of their arrival. Realizing they made a mistake, the squad tries to downplay the fact they killed everyone, but Polka-Dot Man and King Shark let the cat out of the bag. Flag tries to calm things down with her and talks about how they can help because their goals are intertwined. If what they know about Jotunheim is true, what is used there can be used on the people of Corto Maltese as well as Americans. They need her help to get into the city to stop them. Because Luna and Suarez murdered her entire family, Soria would make a deal with the devil to stop them. The Suicide Squad is a close second, so she agrees to help them get to Thinker, a scientist working directly under the evil regime that can spell doom for everyone. This is where we get a glimpse of Starro the Conqueror, and how it can make Luna and Suarez’s plan for world domination a reality. As Thinker presents the powerful alien creature to them over at Jotunheim, Luna is told about the prisoner he wanted captured: Harely Quinn. Turns out, Luna is quite fond of Quinn.

Join the club.

Things only get crazier from here regarding Project Starfish, Quinn, the regime in charge of Corto Maltese, and the Suicide Squad. It may be difficult to see it, but the fate of the world is in Bloodsport and company’s hands.

My Thoughts:

As you know from my review of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, I thought it was solid. However, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad was phenomenal. This is not only one of the best films to ever come from a DC property, but it’s right up there with a lot of the MCU movies in terms of quality. Very rarely do you hear this about a non-Batman film, but I’m dead serious. Letting Gunn write and direct this standalone sequel changed the game.

No offense to David Ayer, but Gunn fixed almost every major issue the first film had back in 2016. The pacing was great, all of the characters had well developed arcs and were engrossing as can be, newly introduced characters felt important, and all had their moments to entertain, it felt unpredictable and brutal from the jump, and the villain was one of the craziest, most bizarre bad guys you’ll ever see in a comic book film.

Starro was genuinely terrifying.

Plus, all the elements of Ayer’s film that worked were retained for this movie, with a few exceptions. Margot Robbie returned as Harley Quinn (which was essential), as did Viola Davis’s diabolical Amanda Waller and Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang. Idris Elba’s Bloodsport replaced Will Smith’s Deadshot, and though Bloodsport is more of an asshole, this wasn’t the drop off I thought it was going to be. Elba did a great job. He hit the “cool guy” factor Deadshot had, but he turned it into a careless and ruthless individual that has to re-learn what it means to be a leader. At first, I thought he was going to be a complete copy of Deadshot’s whole story with his daughter, but instead of having a soft spot for his daughter and showing her love, we see Bloodsport basically telling her he doesn’t want to be her father. Plus, she’s on a track straight to prison too. As soon as we have this father/daughter visit, and we see the true nature of Bloodsport, I knew I was in for a totally different character than the one I was expecting. Then again, I should’ve known we were in good hands right after the shocking opening where 90% of “Team 1” dies. This earlier scene introducing us to who Bloodsport is was raw, especially him saying “fuck you” to his own daughter. Compare that to Deadshot acting like an actual father to his daughter and downplaying his real job, and you’ll see why both of these characters are similar but also worthy additions to two very different films.

The afterthought that was Killer Croc became Sylvester Stallone’s King Shark in this film, and he was a show-stealing, hilarious addition to the team that would’ve been handled incorrectly by anyone not named James Gunn. Then, you have Joel Kinnaman returning as Rick Flag. As I said in the review for its predecessor, I wasn’t a huge fan of him in the first film. The character seemed very basic, and I didn’t believe in the supposed credentials Flag is supposed to have with the way Kinnaman played it. With The Suicide Squad, they fixed a lot of the issues I had with him and to my surprise, he became one of my favorite characters coming out of the film. They finally gave him a personality and gave a much better representation of his skills to show us why he’s the finest officer the American military has ever produced. This time around, his character arc and conflicting interests revolving around his job and doing what’s right added a lot of tension to the movie, making it a thousand times better than the predictable “forbidden love” storyline of Ayer’s film. Kinnaman was game for the better screenplay and seeing this side of him showed me it was more of the writing’s fault the first time around. Would Tom Hardy have been better from the start? Without question he would’ve, but Kinnaman did a good enough job this time around where I wasn’t thinking about Hardy the whole time and that shows you how good he did in making Rick Flag a character worth seeing. The improvement was as clear as day.

Shades of Guardians of the Galaxy are definitely evident, but don’t pass The Suicide Squad off as a copy. This is one of the most imaginative and creative team-up movies I’ve ever seen. It’s got the perfect amount of violence without getting gratuitous, an interesting mission that continuously evolves to keep you guessing at every turn, and it has the most eclectic group of characters you may ever see. I will say that in true James Gunn fashion, his humor is sprinkled throughout but some of it does feel a bit forced. It stems a lot from unnatural and unneeded banter, especially evident with Peacemaker. It seems that anytime John Cena is casted in something, they make him say or do the most ridiculous things possible just because we don’t normally see someone like Cena doing it. Since he’s so willing to make a fool of himself on camera to prove his worth as an actor, I’ve come to expect this with almost every character he’s played since Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck. Now that he’s established himself in Hollywood, this novelty of Cena doing and saying the corniest things possible for comedic effect has worn off. His acting is the only thing that stood out to me as slightly irritating. Even so, the character of Peacemaker is written well enough that I was still highly interested in what his motives were throughout the story, making him a valuable addition to the film. His presence was needed to create an extra sense of danger when that third act comes around.

The idea behind Peacemaker is wild too. Technically, the idea of the character wanting peace at all costs is a heroic trait. However, his ideology is so laser-focused he will kill anyone or anything (including women and children as he so proudly states) to preserve this peace. It’s a very compelling character to watch develop over time as the mission gets bigger.

He was a great part of the “big three” in this film that consisted of himself, Bloodsport, and Rick Flag. This is why one of my favorite scenes in the film had the three of them locked in the back of some armored van after they’re arrested. The red lighting, and the visual of the three-on-three look with the soldiers opposing them was so striking. Now that we’ve learned so much about Bloodsport and Peacemaker and their skills, and Flag looking like their equal with how well he did here, along with fans knowing what he went through in the 2016 film, it was very cool to see them all work together in close quarters for one separate scene. Gunn knew who his three strongest characters were, and this couldn’t have been a better moment to showcase these three badasses in their element and on the same page. The lighting in this scene was such a great touch to add to the tension. In general, the imagery and brightly colored cinematography were noticeable throughout especially in Harley Quinn’s scenes, and it was a great representation of the colorful characters of this comic book adaptation.

These characters are something else though. The group they put together is the exact opposite of what you would expect a comic book film to be, and this is what makes The Suicide Squad such an unforgettable experience. The visionary that is James Gunn decides to take some major risks with his inclusion of so many stupid characters from deep within DC Comics lore to make an impact and for the most part, it pays off. Killing off so many characters in the opening was another major risk. Thankfully, they put together such a great cast of characters to lead “Team 2”, we weren’t mourning the deaths of “Team 1” like we would in a regular film. At the same time, we still remember the eventful opening sequence for what it was, and all the enigmatic characters thrown at us in such a short time span. It’s an example of storytelling at its finest. I can’t think of any other director that could’ve pulled this off in a satisfactory manner like Gunn did here. The new additions were appealing, and I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of them, but I was at peace with this decision. This very rarely happens. With this risky creative decision paying off, our attention is hooked for the rest of the film because you get the feeling that you should in a film about the Suicide Squad and that’s that anything can happen.

Let’s be honest, we’ll never see these types of characters ever on the big screen and in a serious movie. The Suicide Squad gives us this opportunity though, and since the studio didn’t bother Gunn in his goal of creating one of the craziest comic book films ever made, he opens up a world of possibilities. For a big budget film, when would we ever see someone like Polka-Dot Man or Weasel? This is our only chance to reach into the depths of DC to give a chance for the diverse, highly creative characters that can be described as “borderline idiotic” to shine. If we ever get sequels for this film in the future, I would love for this to be a regular thing for the franchise. Much like how Ethan Hunt is given his next mission in the beginning of each Mission Impossible film and heads out, each Suicide Squad should begin with a new assortment of outlandishly random villains that would never see the light of a day in a serious DCEU film being added to the team. For instance, can we see Calendar Man’s role be extended in the future? His whole shtick of only attacking people on holidays is the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever heard! Can you imagine if he pushed back the mission until it landed on St. Patrick’s Day or something? I’m telling you, the potential humor and entertainment value is bursting at the seams. In the right hands (and James Gunn’s hands are made of gold in this scenario), pushing The Suicide Squad into a full-on saga would be must-see madness. The Suicide Squad gives us this chance, and the possibilities are endless.

The studio should give Gunn another shot at a sequel too. The box office totals aren’t fair. The pandemic decimated this movie’s potential earnings. Any other year, this would’ve made a killing.

The only thing that irked me enough to say something was that I did not like the decision to kill Captain Boomerang. He was one of the very few cool characters of the first film and though he’s not as important as Rick Flag or Harley Quinn, he didn’t deserve to die with randoms like T.D.K. and Mongal. At the very least, he could’ve been captured with Quinn and dealt with much more torture when she was being treated like a princess, just so he can get some more amusing screentime. Then again, you could’ve easily had him get captured with Flag by Sol Soria, so he could join the rest of Bloodsport’s crew until he died later in the film. I don’t know. It just felt disrespectful to kill him off so early because he was one of the highlights of David Ayer’s film. Speaking of character deaths…

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I wholeheartedly disagree with the later deaths of Polka-Dot Man and ESPECIALLY Rick Flag. Flag was the heart and soul of the first and second film and was integral to the dynamic of the team. He was the only one who was a good person throughout! I loved him being the only level-headed member of the Suicide Squad. He kept everyone on track in both films but in this sequel, he felt like the hero he always should’ve been. In this film, he was more important now than ever. With an improved characterization to boot, I enjoyed his presence too much onscreen for him to get killed in action. Sure, it was a heroic way to die, but he was the unsung hero of this movie. He needed to stay alive in case future films were developed. Unofficially, he’s the franchise of the team. In potential sequels, Flag should be the only consistent mainstay in a cast that is ever changing due to increasingly dangerous missions and deaths coming left and right because of it. It wasn’t until this movie where I realized how important Rick Flag was in making this series work. This was an unfair end to such an evolved character, and that’s saying something because as I said before, I wasn’t a fan of his casting in the first Suicide Squad.

I also ended up loving Polka-Dot Man. James Gunn was able to take one of the stupidest characters in the history of the DC Universe and make him into one of the most underrated all in one film. Him going from this depressed and disrespected villain into this lovable antihero that just hates his mom, was easily my favorite character arc of the whole film. There’s a good chance it will be for you too when you watch the film. His backstory and powers were really cool with the way they were presented on screen too, as was his polka dot swelling and subsequent vomit. He’s filled with such inventive details, you can’t look away, despite how strange everything about him is. For Gunn to just kill him off in the climax in such a half-hearted, joking way was such an unnecessary gut punch. It felt a little “too much”, especially with Flag’s death happening right before it. He actually becomes an important piece to the puzzle of this visionary masterpiece. The fact that we’ll never see him again actually angers me. David Dastmalchian worked too hard to make that character work, and James Gunn pissed it away for joke. These shock value deaths were a big part in taking the final product inches away from my coveted “Classic” grade. This is where I think Captain Boomerang’s prolonged life could’ve came in handy. He could’ve easily been the guy to last that long only to get taken out in the climax without us fans losing it.

Now, I don’t want this review to end on a negative note because this was still great. As I said, I loved the cast. Having such a huge star like Sylvester Stallone play a moronic shark was absolutely hilarious to me. His minimalistic lines are carefully crafted and hit every time. The hardest I laughed in the film had to have been the debriefing scene where Waller answers the stupid questions from Bloodsport’s team. When King Shark raises his hand, he just points to his hand and says, “Hand”. Once Waller concurs, he just smiles proudly and leans back like he said something smart, and it’s hysterical due to Stallone’s voice performance and the simple expression of the shark. I was dying at some of the shit he was saying. His relationship with Ratcatcher 2 is very cute, as is the innocence of Daniela Melchior’s portrayal. Though she has the energy of a heroin addict, I can’t see her as someone that belongs in Belle Reve. She seems way too delightful for that sort of thing. In fact, they never show a mean streak in her, nor say what she did to belong in such a rough penitentiary. Then again, I didn’t even mind it. Her sweetness was such a nice touch to the brutality of the rest of the team, and she had this soulful quality about her that screams “star in the making”. By the end of the first act, you start to fall in love with her. She’s that good. I hope the rest of Hollywood sees her potential. She’s got “star” written all over her.

Viola Davis is also great again, just as she was in the first film. Even with a cast of like 25 characters, she still stood out as one of the better parts of the movie, and she’s undeniably evil as the unethical government official in charge of the supposed worst villains in the world. She’s worse than them and she doesn’t even have to use a gun. That’s a testament to how good Davis is in her role. In future sequels, she needs to be in every one of them. There’s no one better to set the tone. I just wish Rick Flag was right there with her.

There’s a reason I didn’t spend too much time going over Margot Robbie’s performance as Harely Quinn. By this point, she has the character down to a “T”, and I hope she continues to play the character for as long as she can. Side note, I loved her fight sequence containing Louis Prima’s “Just a Gigolo” playing in the background. Can we have more Louis Prima on film soundtracks? I feel like this is something I shouldn’t have to ask for. We should know this by now. Also, Starro is horrifying. What a magnificent, left-field choice for an antagonist. Seeing this thing shoot starfish out of its fucking armpit, so it can attach to your face and possess you is one of the craziest things I’ve seen in A WHILE. It’s like something out of The Twilight Zone. At that point, I would’ve just called the Avengers and said, “Fuck this”.

Overall, The Suicide Squad was a vast improvement over the first film and is easily one of my favorite DC live-action productions to date. In a perfect world, I’d love for a sequel to be produced where they combine elements of both films. David Ayer does have a good relationship with James Gunn and Gunn is running things over in DC at the moment, but the future is still unclear. Seeing Jared Leto’s Joker and Will Smith’s Deadshot in a future sequel with this current cast would be absolutely electric though. Watching Deadshot and Bloodsport one-up each other would be cool enough for me to officially forget about Rick Flag. Sadly, we have no idea what’s coming next. As fantastic as this movie was, it still bombed at the box office. I’m hoping Warner Bros. takes the pandemic into account, but it’s hard to say what they’re thinking. Regardless, it remains to be seen where this squad will go from here.

I’d like to hope that James Gunn’s creativity and crazy imaginative filmmaking ability didn’t go unnoticed by the people that matter, but if it did, just know that The Suicide Squad is still one hell of a legacy to have.

Fun Fact: James Gunn originally wanted Dave Bautista to play Peacemaker, but he couldn’t because he was filming Army of the Dead.