James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad doesn’t ignore its predecessor but somehow it still pretends like David Ayer’s commercially successful but critically panned R-rated superhero movie doesn’t exist. There are many of the same characters and elements in The Suicide Squad, like Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, but this is ultimately an entirely different movie. Its identity meshes more with the styling of Gunn, whose work prior to Guardians of the Galaxy revels in mixing R-rated bombast with slapstick comedy. There’s also a great heart at the center of The Suicide Squad, another talent that Gunn has refined over his career, making for a DC Comics film that feels all its own. For as much as The Suicide Squad carries so much baggage into theaters and HBO Max, it’s as if the simple addition of “The” makes all the difference.
The Suicide Squad picks up with a new, deadly mission and a large cast of characters. Gunn has hand-picked a cavalcade of DC Comics anti-heroes not to make a stylish, beautiful prestige picture but in the service of delivering evocative, unexpected art. Much like few could understand how a film featuring a talking tree and raccoon could work, The Suicide Squad dares to up the ante with characters so absurd they make someone like Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) feel mundane. Sure, many of the DC Comics characters are merely there to set up a joke or to be cannon fodder, but it establishes the rules of Gunn’s Suicide Squad early on. Not only is this film as R-rated as a DC Comics film can get; it is one of the funniest and best to release under the umbrella in some time.
Robbie’s Quinn is still the star in The Suicide Squad but she’s allowed to shine so brightly it’s blinding. Her depiction of the comic book anti-heroine will certainly stand the test of time, and Gunn reinforces her talent with both comedic, emotional, and an exceptionally kick-ass solo action sequence. Idris Elba’s Bloodsport is the lens through which the audience comes to meet this underbaked A-Team. He is the closest thing to a hero that The Suicide Squad has to offer and while he’s easily overshadowed by the likes of Peacemaker (John Cena) and King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Elba still makes the role his own. Gunn treats his core characters carefully enough to make sure that all have their moment to shine; he never lets the larger-than-life circumstances of a DC Comics superhero movie take away from an opportunity to build character.
Dastmalchian’s Polka-Dot Man may seem like the stupidest character on paper (and in the pages of DC Comics he may be), but the script and the performance meld to make him an indelible and essential piece of the jagged, blood-soaked puzzle that is The Suicide Squad. Newcomer Daniela Melchior is another standout as Ratcatcher 2, bringing a totally different flavor to the demented ice cream sundae without tipping the fine line the film walks between over-the-top and oddly compelling.
The Suicide Squad is weird, and that is either its greatest quality or an instant turn-off. The film is unabashed in service of delivering a movie that is both fun and surprising, all while never pandering to the expectations of mainstream audiences. Marketing has certainly pulled a fast one on viewers who jump into The Suicide Squad expecting DC’s version of Guardians of the Galaxy – this is the furthest thing from that.
And yet it feels like the success of Guardians of the Galaxy is what allowed The Suicide Squad to exist as it does now - uncompromising in its choices, far and wide, and electric in the way it pushes an ensemble storyline forward without leaving any key characters behind. Regardless of box office performance, the film highlights what tends to make for the best comic book adaptations: a filmmaker who respects the material and knows how to leverage its unique strengths to make something fresh. James Gunn landed on The Suicide Squad out of a bad situation but like his off-brand band of unlikely heroes, he found a way to take something that sounds awful on paper and make something exceptional.