The Suicide Squad (2021)

James Gunn’s take on DC’s band of misfits and oddities sees him attempting to bring the comedic style he implemented with Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) to the so far so dark universe of DC. Gunn had great success with both his Guardians films, and he’s set to now helm the third again after briefly being fired, snapped up by DC for this; and now back on directorial duties for Marvel’s part three of Guardians. Gunn throws a lot at the wall with The Suicide Squad, and I mean a lot. There’s an interesting fake out in the movies’ opening; I won’t give too much away but it’s safe to say the expendable nature of the comic book characters isn’t ignored here. That opening itself is a better piece of cinema than anything we saw in David Ayer’s truly appalling and almost unwatchable Suicide Squad (2016). Ayer wasn’t entirely to blame of course, the studio made plenty of cuts, but it’s still hard to try and work out how he would have improved the shockingly poor final cut. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag are two that managed to extract themselves from the rubble of Suicide Squad, along with Viola Davis, who many have praised for her reprised role as Waller; I just found the character irritating and simply didn’t care. Davis is one of the finest actresses working today, but a patchy script poorly serves her, and she’s mainly working in a room of people I found extremely redundant. There’s so much made of the comic effect in The Suicide Squad, and so much is thrown at the wall in this department that you worry that none of it will stick. Thank goodness then for John Cena, as Peacemaker. Cena is excellent, consistently hilarious, and boy does the series need this sort of comic injection. The plot is utterly ludicrous; essentially there’s a giant starfish alien that’s being kept locked up in a war torn country and the US governments’ involvement in this secret is one they want kept under wraps. At least, it’s something like that. I have to say I was impressed by the special effects especially in the final quarter, but the fact that I was focusing on the intricate design of the starfish says a lot about where my head was at otherwise. Idris Elba is pretty unengaging as Bloodsport, and by the time he starts barking orders towards the end I’d lost interest. There is enjoyment to be had here, don’t get me wrong. The Suicide Squad is far from a bad film; it’s just that because Suicide Squad was so poor, a redo, a rehash, a sequel or a sidequel or whatever you want to call this, it needed to be better than it is. 5.9/10