The Suicide Squad Movie Review

Opens in theaters on August 5
Also available for streaming on HBO/Max

“The Suicide Squad” is the full-barreled, R-rated, no-holds-barred Love Child resulting from the combination of Writer/Director James Gunn and D.C. Comics. The D.C. Extended Universe of comic-based movies just got a kick-start with a cattle prod to the nether regions. But rather than resulting in a painful experience, this ‘Squad’ takes off at sixty-miles-an-hour into a Gunn-designed world of magnificent mayhem. The gore and violence comes with equal measures of hilarity and movie magic.

Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis) is prison warden of the meanest and most despicable criminals ever. But she also is secret Government agent responsible for taking a group of these scumbags and sending them out on super-secret missions. The thugs might get time off their sentence, that is — if they survive. There is a special mission on her plate, and she rounds up the worst of them.

This includes Robert DuBois — known as Bloodsport (played by Idris Elba). Waller is holding his daughter as bait to join up. There is Christopher Smith — known as Peacemaker (played by John Cena). There is also Dr. Harleen Quinzel — known as Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie), and Nanaue — King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone). King Shark is a half-man and half-shark combo, known for eating some of his fellow team members. Other members include Ratcatcher 2 (played by Daniela Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (played by David Dastmalchian), Savant (played by Michael Rooker), Captain Boomerang (played by Jai Courtney), and even a beast called Weasel (Sean Gunn).

There is trouble afoot in the island country of Corto Maltese. A long-ago Nazi-built installation holds a terrible weapon, and the mission is to terminate anyone involved. This team is unruly and unable to be led by anyone. So naturally, Waller sets them up with Colonel Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) as the leader. There are two groups that secretly land on the in island, and most of them are slaughtered by the Military. Some break through to find the main rebel stronghold, so they can regroup and locate the target. Bloodsport and Peacemaker have a little contest to see how many people they can kill at a camp, but then they find out they were all the ‘friendly’ rebels. Opps!

There is an alien being that is held in a massive tower in the main city on Corto Maltese. The mad scientist named ‘The Thinker’ (played by Peter Capaldi) since the early days. The Military Coup that has taken over the country wants to use the alien starfish, a giant telepathic creature, to take the world hostage. Starro, the alien starfish, only wants to take over the world. The Squad needs to get into the city undercover, and take The Thinker hostage so they can get into the tower. They get separated a few times and some of them get captured by the Military. No worries – the folks in the ‘Squad’ will leave no stone unturned and no body left breathing to get what they want.

Harley Quinn gets captured, but then falls in love – and falls out of love and starts her own escape plan (with beautiful flower arrangements). Bloodsport promises to take care of Ratcatcher 2 and make sure she gets out safely – just like he would do for his daughter. Peacemaker will stop at nothing to make sure all the people are safe and in peace, even if he needs to kill them all to make that happen. Polka-Dot Man has dangerous polka dots that he can use to destroy anyone who reminds him of his mother (and everybody reminds him of his dear old mum). Ratcatcher 2 is able to call up armies of rats to do her bidding, and they are all ready to help out to eat some sushi. King Shark is able to — well, nobody is quite sure of what he can do, but you know not to stand next to him when he is hungry. Take note: King Shark is always hungry…

The (somewhat) good guys of ‘The Suicide Squad’ have a knock-down drag-out fight. And that is only amongst themselves. They also have to face off against the Corto Maltese Military and then against Starro. There will be bloody battles and some of the group will not survive. Waller is attempting to watch everything from back in her prison fortress, to make sure everyone in the group stays on task. They all know that alien beings are not to be taken lightly. They cannot be killed off to quickly or easily. But there will be justice in the end — well, maybe not for most of the population of Corto Maltese. Most of them are dead. But they all die in such an entertaining way!

‘The Suicide Squad’ has been a unique take on the Superhero genre. They have special abilities, but they are normally up to no good. In this movie, the nasty and despicable nature of this group of people is placed into a spectacular light. The badness of these crazy weirdos is used in a fantastic way. The Writer/Director (James Gunn) was given a free rein to take this beast out for a wild ride.  And in this case, it works really well.

The casting is excellent, even if a few of the stars appear in not more that a cameo. The bluntness of the violence is played off the real humor of slapstick situations. The ways that the group interacts is both hilarious and scary at times. The story flows smoothly and the action scenes are shot with a lot of energy. It is always easy to track where all the members of this ensemble are at all times. That is sometime not that easy to keep straight in many other movies.

Does it need to be so violent? Perhaps not, but then again – then it might also not be as funny. If you can – see it in a theater that has a big screen with a crowd of like-minded comic book geeks!

Opens in theaters on August 5
Also available for streaming on HBO/Max