The Suicide Squad
Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Summary:
Meet The Suicide Squad in The Suicide Squad: Bloodsport is the leader of the team. Although he is a cold and calculating man, he has a soft spot inside his rock hard exterior. Raised as a killer since he was a child, Peacemaker is a fighter for peace at any costs. Everybody knows Harley Quinn, and if you don’t, you will soon get to know this wild card. Ratcatcher is a teenager who has the power to control rats. She has the uncanny ability to sleep no matter the situation. Polka-Dot Man is a mysterious guy who uses polka-dots as his weapon. Colonel Rick Flag joins the group after his squad falls in battle.
Characters
The Suicide Squad follows a group of villains that are being used by Amanda Waller and the United States government as a task force used to complete missions where they are expendable and they are known as task force x or “the suicide squad”. This time the squad’s mission is to find destroy a scientific complex on the island of Corto Maltese. Once there, the Suicide Squad gets more than they bargained for with extra objectives and detours that they must complete or risk their heads being blown off for not doing the mission.
Nathanyal – 9.5/10
Review:
I never watched the first Suicide Squad, so The Suicide Squad was my first exposure with this group and its roles. In a nutshell, I enjoyed this movie. In the past during Marvel reviews, I mentioned I would like some blood to give some of the fights more weight, but in The Suicide Squad’s case, they take it up to an 11 and have gore up to Invincible levels. Either way, fun movie, not for the squeamish though.
Critique wise, I think I only have two points. For one, I think they over done the blood and gore. I know I’ve said in the past that some of the superhero content we consumed needed a bit more grit, but in this case, there was a lot. Felt like I was watching a live action Invincible movie with the amount of red on the screen. Now, by that same token, there are instances where I enjoyed watching the blood and gore. It fit the movie. But there were other instances where there was just too much, and these are the areas that you should be wary of. Besides the blood and gore, the storyline felt a little too simple. Granted, there isn’t much you can do with these characters without breaking anything, but it would’ve been nice to have a bit more.
Onto the positives, the first thing I want to mention was the comedy. I can’t speak for the first movie, but The Suicide Squad was hilarious. There were many different styles of comedy all in play and every joke landed. By the same token, the comedy never took away from any of the serious moments. Another area I enjoyed was that the movie had a good balance of action and development scenes. I enjoyed watching some of the slower moments and watching all the characters interact and be themselves. I loved the interactions between Bloodsport and Ratcatcher, because those interactions helped develop Bloodsport as a whole. Besides Bloodsport, all the characters were fun to watch. Slight spoilers here, so don’t read if you haven’t seen the movie, but I felt all the deaths in this movie. Each character was given a moment to shine, which was great. Finally, the action and fight choreography were on point and captivating. Watching all the characters fight in their own styles and the slight stylistic changes depending on the character was a great touch.
Overall, The Suicide Squad was a fun watch. From the action, to the blood, to the tender moments, the movie felt balanced and was a fun experience. If you want a grittier superhero-esque with some nice comedy, then The Suicide Squad is the place to go.
Favourite Moment (Spoilers):
My favourite moment in The Suicide Squad was when Milton dies and there was an argument over the existence of Milton. I loved seeing Bloodsport being annoyed that he came along, Harley not knowing who he was, and Polka-Dot was anguished over his death. The different reactions and the interactions made for a pretty funny scene during a tense time.
Austin – 9.3/10
Review:
The Suicide Squad is really, really good. If it fought the last one, it would be more lopsided than Poirier vs. Mcgregor 3. The long list of characters in this movie are fantastic, even if some of them last 2-3 lines of dialogue. The gore was a lot more intense than expected, but I thought this movie needed that R rating. The comedy of having a bunch of villains come together to try to be decent people needs a good F*ck every once in a while.
Margot Robbie and Idris Elba were fantastic in this movie. Harley Quinn is far and away the best semi-villain we have in this DCEU, and her character seems to improve every time we see her. Margot Robbie is perfect for this role, and there are a few surprises in this movie that even further develops her character. Bloodspot is a character I had never seen before, but I thought he was awesome. He had some really cool gadgets and tech, paired with a really intense helmet, and a kid to influence those evil tendencies. We have a ton of other weird, wacky, and cool villains, but Harley Quinn and Bloodspot were my favourite without a doubt.
They play a huge role in this plot too. This whole movie takes a slightly weird direction, there are a ton of twists and turns, and the big bad is a little bit weird. I really enjoyed that it didn’t feel predictable. I would have liked to see some more plot for the characters that were killed nearly instantly, but the time spent diving into the control room behind the control room made up for it. The other part of The Suicide Squad that I really enjoyed was that James Gunn didn’t travel too far into the past or spend too much time recruiting the squad. That was a very small portion of the opening, and it saved us from a slow start. We got nearly 2 full hours of action, action, action, and it was a lot of fun. The idea behind a suicide squad is bad people doing a semi-good thing, it doesn’t really matter where they were fished from.
All in all, this is so much better than the first one. The characters are so much better, the plot is sensical, and the action is beyond gory. It’s a little bit much, but I found it so entertaining that the gore was a non-issue. It’s not very often I say this, but DC has made a good movie.
Favourite Moment (Spoilers):
My favourite moment has to be when Squad A jumps off the plane into the water. Weasley drowns, the comedy is thick, and it is pretty much mayhem for 5 straight minutes. We lose a lot of characters at the expense of comedy, but I thought it was beyond entertaining. A little gross, but entertaining.
Sebastian-9.2/10
After watching the 2016 Suicide Squad when it came out and not really enjoying it this film was a breath of fresh air for this franchise. For one this is definitely a franchise that should be R-rated as it literally following a group of supervillains mots of whom are mass murderers. What really makes this film work is its characters especially the members of the squad who are all really funny and even though they are terrible people somehow make you care for them. My favourite was Idris Elba as Bloodsport as he was the eye-rolling leader who tried to be stoic and soulless but had enough good in him to make him a character to root for. Harley Quinn played once again by Margot Robbie is as interesting and energetic as ever with her character being off on her own for large chunks of the film but always stealing the spotlight when she was in a scene. Ratcatcher 2 is our most sympathetic villain as she is quite young and she only was arrested for armed robbery not mass murder like the others. She tries to see the best in her teammates and even tries to be friends. Nanaue, Polka Dot man, and Rick Flag were my other three favourites due to their comedy and general charisma. The story itself could be quite complicated but it is told in a straightforward way that explains most things quite well so as to not leave the audience guessing while still letting the audience figure somethings out on their own. This film definitely had a distinct style as well as they use title cards to show the passing of time and what our characters are thinking of. James Gunn also uses tons of stylized violence to make some of the gruesomeness more tolerable because sometimes this film gets a little too grotesque.
All in all, this is a really fun and action packed superhero film that is the best DC has done in a while. So if you’re looking for a new movie to check out and you’re over 18 and would definitely recommend it.
Favourite Moment (Spoilers):
My favourite moment is when Bloodsport steps up and takes charge fighting Starro knowing how to utilise all of the characters to win this fight together. It also shows the fulfilment of Amanda Waller’s promise to make him a leader.
