The Suicide Squad

"It's not a toilet seat it's a beacon of freedom!"

     Hold on to your seats everyone, because this is the proper Suicide Squad serving that we initially deserved. While director of the original David Ayer goes on and on about how he never got his chance, he's preaching to a crowd of crickets. James Gunns iteration is everything that Ayers isn't: funny, quirky, grotesquely violent with odd characters on a more focused, somehow less grandeur adventure compared to the first. It hits a proper tone without taking itself too seriously. It'll leave you laughing and grimacing all at the same time. Don't listen to the review bombers: this is the superior title.

     The beginning gives us a nice mishmash of info dumping and paying tribute to some of the originals cast during an outrageous beach raid. Convict Savant (Michael Rooker) is dragged into "Task Force X"- Congresswoman (?) Amanda Wallers (Viola Davis) secret group of supervillains on a top secret mission. Succeed and you get 10 years off your sentence. Go AWOL in anyway and the chip implanted in your head explodes. Joining us are familiar faces Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and fan favorite Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). New faces include Javelin (Flula Borg), TDK (Nathan Fillion), Black Guard (Pete Davidson), Mongal (Mayling Ng) and Weasel (Sean Gunn).

Source: CNET

     Through dire circumstances we're introduced to "team 2"- our main cast of misfits: Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Rat Catcher (Daniela Melchoir) and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian). As "team 1" serves as a distraction, team 2 makes it way through the flora and into the territory of the corrupt military regime where they have to stop whatever evil experiments are being conducted in a project called "Project Starfish". This whole beginning serves as an appetizer of things to come- this movie is gory. Plenty of blood, decapitations, mutilations, et cetera. This is an appropriately rated and approached super hero movie (seriously. Fillions TDK takes the personal top cake for the weirdest and most hilarious sequence). It's also pretty refreshing because of it. Imagine Gunns Guardians of the Galaxy style cranked past where the knob can go. It's crass, brutal, and pulls no punches. Here's hoping we get a slight taste of this in GotG3.

Source: Vulture

     The cast this time does a great job doing what they do. I find it sort of funny how Kinnaman reprised his role as Flag, but in an entirely different direction. Rather than the "Hoo Rah" military type, he's another figure who's in over his head, and plays secondhand to Elbas Bloodsport. For Margot Robbies third outing as the unpredictable Harley Quinn, it seems to be the best balance she's found of emotionally longing and emotionally damaged. Bloodsport and Cenas Peacemaker are gritty and straight to business, providing a good amount of humor in their rivalry of who can...kill better. Rat Catcher strikes up friendships with King Shark and Bloodsport, a nice parallel to his relationship with his estranged daughter. She's the heart of the film, and does so rather well. Even Polka-Dot Mans obscure sort of ability and ailment is given context. Every character has something to offer, either through backstory monologues or subtle physicality via King Shark, which compared to the original, really only had Will Smith and Margot Robbie to care about (also, no Jared Leto shoved down our throats). 

     It helps too that the story is kept grounded in sci-fi military espionage. Their mission is to take down a corrupt regime and stop a crazy science experiment. That's it. No melodramatic lovey stuffs or grossly over gratuitous apocalyptical cgi. It of course devolves into predictable superhero madness, but it's kept within scope and doesn't feel overly done. It knows its style and sticks with it, never derailing the ride to deliver a half-baked emotional moment. On a side note, the film also utilizes title cards for the different sections of the movie, which I thought was a nice Tarentino touch.

     This is as close to a directors cut as we're going to get. If you need a palette cleanser for superhero overload, it's finally here. A nice addition to the growing adult themed dome of comic book material, and I hope it keeps the trend going. It would be nice to see a whole corner of R-rated content, where Deadpool, Punisher, Daredevil, and The Suicide Squad can run free.

9 nom-noms out of 10

But that's just my opinion. What do you think? Comment below and be a part of the conversation!