Review: The Suicide Squad

No-nonsense Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) gathers up a ragtag selection of incarcerated individuals with super-powers who are sent on a dangerous mission fronted by Col. Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman). Storming a South American island, the majority of them are swiftly and violently wiped out by the enemy. Thankfully, Waller also selected another time at the same time, including the grumpy Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and an idiotic mutant shark named King Shark (voiced by Sly Stallone). After rescuing the surviving Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Flagg from the ill-fated first team, our second team of ragtag ex-cons set out to complete the mission: Destroy all evidence of Project Starfish, a mysterious project that is apparently a danger to U.S. national security. Part of the plan is to find the project’s creator ‘The Thinker’ (Peter Capaldi) and force him to get them to the lab where the project (which is really a captured alien) is housed. John Cena plays metallic helmet-wearing Peacemaker, frequent sparring partner of Bloodsport, whilst Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, and Pete Davidson play ill-fated squad members. David Dastmalchian plays the oddball Polka Dot Man, whilst Alice Braga turns up as a local of the fictional South American island.

 

The first “Suicide Squad” movie was a noisy collection of character introductions and action poses set to popular music, as director David Ayer took (too much) inspiration from the Zack Snyder style of superhero movie direction. The result was a total mess, repetitive with absolutely no forward momentum whatsoever. Margot Robbie’s energetic performance was one of the few bright spots (though I think Jared Leto’s Joker is a touch underrated). Sadly, someone came up with the unwise decision to give Robbie’s Harley Quinn the centre stage for her own spin-off “Birds of Prey”. That film was more of the same only ten times worse, and showed that a little Harley Quinn goes quite a long way. Now here for surely financial reasons alone, we get this 2021 second crack at the popular DC anti-hero collective and at best it’s better than “Birds of Prey” I guess. As written and directed by James Gunn (“Slither”, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”), it’s also perhaps a bit less monotonous than the first “Suicide Squad”. At least Mr. Gunn (who got his start writing Troma’s fun spoof “Tromeo and Juliet”) holds off on the Snyder-esque pose-y action montages until after an hour into the film. Still, this is…not good.

 

I like that the film tends to play things with a comedic tone, with John Cena and more briefly Nathan Fillion working well in that arena. Cena in particular is having fun, though the late development involving his character seemed a head-scratching choice to me (particularly when you realise he got his own TV spin-off that goes in a different direction). Especially funny – and bizarre – is the idiot CGI shark voiced by a perfect Sly Stallone. I don’t know who came up with the idea, but it’s a genius one. I also like that we open with a literal suicide mission that kills off most of the characters we’re initially introduced to. I was much less impressed with Idris Elba’s rather boring killjoy character and whatever that rat chick was all about, though David Dastmalchian’s polka dot dude was certainly unique and interesting. Elba just swears a lot and I definitely don’t see James Bond in him at all. I liked Alice Braga here, she gets to play a relatively normal, real world person. I’m not sure why we have much more Joel Kinnaman in this film than we get Nathan Fillion or Michael Rooker, much better and more interesting actors. So that was a shame.

 

The film is much more violent than the previous film, and definitely isn’t for kids. However, that doesn’t really make the film any better. And it’s not. It’s more coherent, has less pacing issues but somehow still comes out just as boring and it’s still a structural mess. For instance, Peter Capaldi plays an interesting-looking character who isn’t actually interesting. Robbie’s Harley Quinn meanwhile, is a one-trick pony and I was done with that trick after the first “Suicide Squad” film. After about an hour, I’d pretty much checked out mentally and emotionally from this film. Judging by her pissed off performance, I get the feeling Viola Davis had checked out too. I don’t think it was a character/acting choice. After about 90 minutes, the film – which should’ve been pretty much over by this point – just gets plain stupid. It’s like an ADHD-afflicted 12 year-old has subbed in at the final quarter for the writer-director. One who loves SpongeBob or something.

 

Interesting and amusing work by Sly Stallone, John Cena, and Peter Dastmalchian does not result in a good film. It’s a little better than the first film, a considerable bit better than the Harley Quinn spin-off, but still a boring mess for the most part. Maybe the source material is the issue, I dunno. I just know I’m done with this franchise.

 

Rating: C