The Suicide Squad 2021 Review: Everybody say: Thank You, James Gunn
In a pool of formulaic and underwhelming superhero films and series, we get a fresh take on this year's The Suicide Squad (not the first one, obviously) directed by James Gunn, who was behind Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movies. This movie is absolutely interesting and will give you edge-of-the-seat kind of vibes. Days after watching it, I can't stop thinking about it and I'll probably watch it again soon.
To be clear, I am not privy to the process of Gunn's specific directing but after watching GOTG which I really enjoyed, some elements of those movies were actually seen here. Now, I'm not here to compare the two movies but I will mention some similarities in passing.
In this review, I'll tackle how much I enjoyed this movie because of the jokes, the story, musical score and a lot more.
PLOT THICKENS A LOT
I am not a DC Comic fan nor a fan of their movies. I see DC movies as darker and more boring kind of preachier sister of Marvel. The only DC movies I've seen were the first Wonder Woman film, Shazam, first Suicide Squad movie, Superman first movie, and this one. So far, this year's Suicide Squad had more depth and surprising elements in the plot.
At first, I wasn't sure how James Gunn was gonna pull off a story-telling technique with a pool of characters in this film. It was easy in Guardians largely because they were only five but in here it's like two groups.
In the first few minutes of the movie, most of the characters died which made sense to me. Apparently, Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis) sent two teams for her mission, which wasn't explained at first. I was getting nervous at first because I thought this is going to be a deja vu of the movie where the villains were just being sent there for a task that was about to happen. But it was later explained in a flashback.
The team, led by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), was very interesting, weird, and a lot of heart-wrenching backstories. They are the main cast in this movie while Colonel Flag's team which has some of the characters in the previous movie, majority of them had to die. Flag and Harley Quinn remains in this film.
Though short-lived, I like how in the first few minutes of the movie, we get the sense of jokes about the chaotic elements of characters. How it is completely difficult to make a team of evil and crazy people. This also depicts the insanity of Suicide Squad story.
While it is still darker like most DC movies, Suicide Squad had more relieving moments for viewers to understand dramatic elements of each characters. For instance, there is this scene wherein Bloodsport, King Shark, Peacemaker and Ratcatcher 2 are sleeping in a jungle and we get a sense of an introduction of King Shark's backstory. We already know that he likes eating humans but James Gunn made it more dramatic in a sense that Ratcatcher 2 has a kind heart to let King Shark become their friend.
There was also a scene that while they were walking, Polkadot man had to open up his past story that his mother had to make experiments on them. This is actually like the scene in GOTG wherein Rocket the Raccoon briefly explains how scientists made experiments on him without his consent. James Gunn is really good at making people laugh then hitting them hard with heart wrenching back stories of characters. It's very tastefully done too.
Moreover, we also see a glimpse of Harley Quinn's eventual trauma from her breakup with Joker. How she is not used to getting kind men to do things for her.
NO MARVEL FORMULA HERE
Some fighting scenes of Marvel movies are just not epic enough. It's full of close ups and the lighting is bad so sometimes you don't know what the fuck you are looking at. Here in The Suicide Squad, the fighting scenes are really easy and fun to watch. There is this behind the scenes video wherein James Gunn describes how he made a Superhero video the way he wanted too. He used very precise camera angles and some actors actually found it amazing how things are realistic despite being in a green screen. There is a wide range of angles so you can really see everything. You will enjoy watching this in cinemas and I hope they re-air this in cinemas.
PEACEMAKER IS REALLY PISSMAKER
The ultimate plot twist in this film is the part when Peacemaker is actually in cahoots with Waller. I like how John Cena portrayed this fishy and kind of the soldier type who just follows orders. He betrays his group and still follows the mission despite knowing the evil twists of Project Starfish.
Then, of course, the part when the group had to save Corto Maltese even as their mission was already over. I also like how the side characters or Waller's underlings decided to betray her too and help Bloodsport's team rescue innocent people from Starro.
I like how Bloodsport chose to do a selfish move by not showing the controversial tape to the public or the press. He had to use the tape as a leverage, which I already expected, in exchange of her daughter's detention. I kind of like how it lets Flag do the job (as what was shown in the end credits scene).
All in all, it is really a good plot with endless surprises and quirkiness. This is truly one of the best Superhero films I have ever watched.
MUSIC CHOICE
The musical score in this movie is much like the previous film as it also featured some indie rock music as well. It's nice hearing The Fratellis after so many years. Including K Flay's Can't Sleep during the drinking scene was actually a nice touch, adding humane effects to the characters. I also keep listening to the "Rain" by "grandson" which is very very good and encapsulates the movie's complex mood of sadness and weirdness.
What's wrong about the previous Suicide Squad, however, is that the musical scoring is too mainstream and a staple for too many movies. If you shuffled someone's Spotify playlist, those songs will be featured in this film.
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