The Suicide Squad
Ten Second Review: To call it an improvement on the old, would be an insult to this iteration and compliment to the former. The Suicide Squad really hit the mark that the original couldn’t even see.
It seems like there are 4 main groups of successful “superhero film”. The fun but well made Iron Man bracket, The Dark Knight bracket populated by dark and gritty story-telling, the nostalgia sub sector filled with your Batman nipples and early noughties marvel, and the Deadpool revolt. This last section that includes films like Guardians Of the Galaxy, Thor: Ragnarok and now The Suicide Squad. I’m sure it’s also the bracket that Suicide Squad (2016) was also aiming for but it missed the mark by quite some distance.
This time round we see Harley (Margot Robbie) and our Deadshot replacement, Bloodsport (Idris Elba), on a new mission to shut down a threat to the US. They are joined by a host of new and old faces with some of the most rogue superpowers a rouges gallery could have.
You can’t hep feel that The Suicide Squad is a realisation of what Suicide Squad had envisioned itself as. It serves to prove that there’s more to the Deadpool bracket than a bit of gore and telling a few crude jokes. Juggling humour, pacing, storytelling and character presence is a balancing act that takes quite some skill.
It’s something I try not to do, but I went into this film expecting to not like it. The first one was so badly written that I couldn’t imagine how it would pull itself out of that trench, but I was also hoping to be wrong and I’m glad to say I was. This film seems a lot less concerned with building a large crew of characters for a host of sequels, but instead focuses hard on a couple of main squad members while giving everyone their moments to shine and enough story for us to emotionally invest. It also isn’t afraid to get weird, like actually weird. I think the choices this film makes would leave a director like David Ayer scoffing and scribbling it out of script suggestions. It seems that Gunn understands what Ayer doesn’t; not all superhero properties have to be treated with genuflection so long as there’s love for the material. The Suicide Squad is evidence of being able to make a DC property that doesn’t take itself overly seriously while maintaining a distinct aesthetic from a Marvel film, which seemed to be the studio’s fear.
I will say, it is vey interesting to now have three very different interpretations of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. While this is certainly closer to her solo film outing, there seems a distinct difference in men writing Quinn and Women writing her. It’s a small note, but a weighty one all the same for director’s going forward.
It is undeniably bold move to admit that your film was so bad that you are just going to strike it off and try the same idea again. It’s even bolder to admit where you went wrong the first time and correct each of those mistakes in a way that not only answers critics but delivers for the audience. The Suicide Squad really is a rare example of a film that uses it failures to actually grow it’s premise. If you like the Deadpool revolt bracket, this one is for you.
