Suicide Squad by name, Suicide Squad by nature. We see the return of Colonel Rick Flag, Harley Quinn, and Captain Boomerang in the latest addition to the DC movie franchise. The story is pretty much the same as it's predecessor, but what makes it so enjoyable? Read on to find out what I thought about this entertaining anti-hero movie!
Once again Amanda Waller calls upon some of the most hardened criminals in the prison system to do her bidding, seeing as they're expendable and all. Waller seeks out the worst of the worst, some of whom we're meeting for the first time, and boy do they make a tit of themselves! The goal for the team is to infiltrate an enemy's facility and destroy their work and any evidence of it's existence. We start with a GOTG style prison line-up and, let me tell you, it's far from impressive.
The team must travel together to a heavily guarded, hostile location and gain the trust of (and/or torture) someone who can help them to gain access to the facility in question. They don't know what's at the site, but they do know it won't be an easy mission, with some extremely dangerous foes to face. They're called the Suicide Squad for a reason!
I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of actors and actresses I recognised from starring in the Marvel superhero movies, but it did feel like a little dig at Disney from the director.
The soundtrack is phenomenal - so well put together and every little snippet of music made such a difference to the scene it was paired with, I can't compliment this enough. For those of you interested you can actually have a look at other songs that James Gunn was going to use and their placement in the movie if you search online for James Gunn's Not In-The-Suicide Squad Playlist.
In terms of the plot of the movie I found it was a little bit samey for me - Waller pulls together a team to do her dirty work, with their only incentive being reduced prison term for everyone who takes part AND survives. Of course we lose characters along the way again, surprisingly more than last time, and there will always be some who get more screen time *cough* Bloodsport *cough*, but what I thought was interesting was how much more enjoyable I found this sequel and the characters to be. I would have rated Suicide Squad at probably a 4, but this gets a 7 from me. I really didn't expect to be giving such a high score, but I found so much of the movie to be so funny that I actually felt my face aching from the smiling and laughing.
Let's talk about the characters and their chemistry, because Idris Elba and John Cena as Bloodsport and Peacemaker were perfect together. It gave me the same vibes as The Rock and Jason Statham in Hobbs and Shaw, with two people who think they're the best at what they do competing with one another every step of the way. Now, I know Sylvester Stallone didn't have to try too hard voicing King Shark, but can we just take a moment to appreciate how good of a job he did? He worked so well and I actually prefer his dim version of the character to the TV show version. I thought it was odd that David Dastmalchian, who portrayed Abra Kadabra in the CW Flash tv show and Dwight Pollard in Gotham, starred as Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad. It seems that he is to DC what Chris Evans is to Marvel! Margot Robbie reprises her role as Harley Quinn whose writing has only gotten more maniacal since we last saw her on screen, with some action packged fight sequences and some typical Harley sass so make sure that everyone can enjoy her in all of her glory. So the next character there's a question looming around: Did we need Bloodsport for this movie, or should it have just been Will Smith reprising his role of Deadshot in this movie instead? They have the same skill set, they're both masked characters with a child that can be used against them by the oh so cruel Amanda Waller... I don't know that we needed to change lead characters for this movie personally. Idris is pretty funny and I don't think he did a bad job by any means, but the chemistry between Bloodsport and Harley was exactly the same as that of Will Smith's Deadshot and Harley.
Let's discuss the villains. I don't want to give much away, but from the trailers you might have seen Thinker is involved in this movie. Whilst he is sort of a villain, I don't think he's the biggest enemy the team have to face; no pun intended. Again, being a fan of the Flash TV show I found that I drew comparisons, and for this character I actually preferred the TV version. Capaldi was a little bit OTT for me, with the writing taking away his sophisticated, suave mannerisms that made him such a good baddie in his other incarnation.
I hope you can find the time to head to the cinema and enjoy this movie because it is absolutely the movie which I think will revitalise the UK cinema industry throughout the summer. I'd love it if James Gunn could pick up the next movie where he left this one...
Review by CB
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