The Suicide Squad

 

Score:  B

Directed by James Gunn

Starring Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Viola Davis

Running time: 132 minutes

Rated R

Long Story Short:  James Gunn moves from Coke to Pepsi - er, Marvel to DC - in helming this new film adaptation of The Suicide Squad, a team of comic book villains coerced into fighting for good.  It's certainly more stylish than its predecessor, and the first part of it promises a truly wild, fun new approach.  But it steadily moves back to the well-worn genre approaches, leaving a less satisfying taste by the end.  

When an island nation's government is overthrown, a secret advanced weapons facility is suddenly under the control of hostile forces.  To prevent its use, American agent Waller (Davis) recruits a team of the most dangerous - and bizarre - criminals to destroy the facility, in exchange for reduced sentences (and other coercion).  What this strange team of misfits finds on the island is indeed something far beyond what a usual commando mission entails - and they must rely on each of their unique, powerful talents just to survive.

The Suicide Squad, first of all, is a part-sequel, part-reboot of the 2016 film Suicide Squad (no "the"), and it modestly improves on its predecessor.  However, it still doesn't do enough to distinguish itself from either Deadpool's R-rated shock style, nor comic book convention.  As a "superhero" movie that in fact stars villains, the most important element is collecting a cast of charismatic, bad-in-a-good-way, and just plain old fun characters.  That is also a very similar objective that director James Gunn faced when he made the Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy (a MUCH better movie).  Margot Robbie reprises her Harley Quinn from the 2016 film, and is once again the true star if not the main character.  Idris Elba essentially takes over Will Smith's part, a slight enhancement in more of a fatherly role.  Others, like John Cena's Peacemaker and Daniela Melchior's Ratcatcher 2, are fun early on but gradually become more vanilla.  Still, this film gets much more creative with its convict cast than the previous Suicide Squad.

The first part of The Suicide Squad is easily the best part, seeming eager to set itself apart right off the bat. Very little time is spent - though it is spent wisely - on introducing the characters and premise before launching into the mission.  And the mission... does not go as planned to start, with a number of both famous new faces and returnees from the 2016 version finding an early demise.  A bit later, Gunn lets his star, Harley, take over.  She gets her own little subplot, falling in love with yet another sociopath; while it's a diversion, plot and tone-wise, it's well done and gets a bit more development for Quinn, the veteran character in this film (it's her third).

Unfortunately, these good things begin to fall by the wayside as the film goes on.  The characters, as mentioned, become tamer in concert with the plot becoming standard issue.  Yes, the "final boss" is suitably ridiculous, but, particularly in the final act, it all proceeds too much by the book (and drags on too long), where a film like this really should zig where you expect it to zag.  The action, after the opener, is also just too predictable and, for all it tries to ramp up the blood and gore, increasingly numbing and even dull.  Harley's escape from captivity in the middle of the movie - and right after the good, development parts - is a perfect example, as she single-handedly cuts down dozens of henchmen and emerges from it with a smile.  It was just unnecessary - to the plot, to adding action to the film (didn't need more), to showing us Harley can kick ass (we've seen her do this several other times - and more entertainingly - in previous movies).  It's a shame that Gunn and co. didn't stick to the obvious strengths that they showed early in the film.

***

While I'm not sorry to have seen The Suicide Squad, I came away fairly disappointed, particularly when seeing it get 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.  Would it make the experience better or worse to have not seen the 2016 Suicide Squad first?  Or Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy, or Robbie's solo film Birds of Prey starring role for Harley?  Again, I was quite pleased with the first part of this one, promising a fresh approach, but it also increased my disappointment with the ending.  Maybe my reaction is simply my getting tired of this sort of film - I certainly have seen a lot of superhero movies in the last 10 years!  Partly true, at least, but I loved Black Widow - which shows just how well Marvel has done to both build development and attachment for its characters and world, while also providing new perspectives in its individual projects.  You can do worse than The Suicide Squad for a trip to the movie theater, but if you really want to see it, HBO Max would be just fine, too.

* By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67214291