The Suicide Squad

Once this film was announced, I was a little sceptical due to the previous Suicide Squad adaptation and the history of that film. But then James Gunn was announced as the director and then I was all for it. It sounded like the perfect film for him for his sense of humour and he always seems to do a great job at bringing together huge ensemble casts and using them really well.

Starting with the positives for this film, easily the best thing about The Suicide Squad is it is not your everyday traditional superhero film. There's no sentimentality, no hard hitting speeches about family, there's betrayals and back stabbing, this film basically avoids almost every superhero cliche there is. This film also earns its R rating with how brutal, graphic, gory and unapologetically crass it can be and I love it for that. This is how the Suicide Squad should be.

The cast here is really strong. There's too many cast members to mention but all of them feel perfectly cast, get their chance in the spotlight and not one actor gives a bad performance. Their characters are also more fleshed out and developed as the film goes on.

James Gunn does a really good job at directing the action as it is handled and choreographed really well whether that's the fight sequences or the stunt work and alongside that, the production is just incredible especially in the 3rd act where I just started thinking how they possibly filmed it. I love it when I watch a film, I don't see actors on a set or behind a green screen. I see characters in believable environments.

James Gunn also does something that I love that directors are able to do; make me fall in love with animals no matter how small their screen time is. I feel in love with a rat and I never thought I'd say that in a film review.

And finally this is a very funny film. I laughed at almost every single punchline, comedy moment and one liner.

However it's not perfect and I did have some issues so let's move onto the mixed aspects and the first thing is I struggled to feel the chemistry from the group when they were together. By the end of the film, I finally did but the characters seemed to work better on their own or with other characters than the team they're supposed to be.

Next mixed aspect is the main villain of Starro. Now on one hand, you feel this villains presence and what a threat it can be and that is the best thing about this villain. It's also nice to just have a villain that is just there as a threat. No hard hitting motivations, no deep backstory, it's just there to serve a purpose. However, it's a very odd choice to adapt into film and looks very goofy when the 3rd act plays out.

And finally the 3rd act itself I feel will divide viewers because it becomes intense and gripping to watch but then at the same time, it feels extremely cartoonish and goofy to watch. I enjoyed it for what it was but I do feel some viewers will feel how absurd it is.

Onto my main negatives now and first of all, this film never lives up past its opening 10/15 minutes. It feels like James Gunn throws everything at the opening sequence then the rest of the film never feels as exciting as it should be until we get to the 3rd act but that also feels a little lacklustre in comparison to the opening act.

There's also one character I never felt connected to and that is King Shark. Now I don't know what it is about this character but I never liked or cared for him as much as I wanted to and that is very disappointing to me.

Finally there's one action sequence that I thought looked awful. It's all light filtered, has a huge contrivance to make it work and just looks bad to watch.

So overall I don't think it's as good as so many people have made out it is but at the same time, I do think this is a very good film with great performances, good characters, and a great example of a R rated non traditional superhero film.

⭐⭐⭐