The Suicide Squad

The first time I watched The Suicide Squad it was with a number of other people and I have to admit that I really didn't get much from it. It was just OKAY to me.

A couple of months later, my husband and I watched it and I really listened and paid attention, and I thought it was excellent - apart from the dumb / gratuitous harm to the birds (what the heck was that about, anyway?) and the ridiculous villainous "thing" (I won't say more in order to avoid a Spoiler tag). The 'twist' early on, and the comedic flow, especially between Elba and Cena, was fantastic.

The thing is, although I normally do not find many movies to be rewatchable, we just got through watching it (for me, a third time) with family, and if anything, I found it even funnier than the last time! My rating of 9, is for the times I laughed just today.

This movie is surprisingly fantastic. Much has been said about it so I want to just add my two cents about universe building in movies. From the very first scene, Suicide Squad made it clear what it was. You understand the world you are in and the rules in place, or lack there of. It then follows those defined rules throughout. Comic book movies can take many forms from gritty realism like Joker all the way to off the wall zany like we see here. As long as the movie follows it's own rules, viewers are willing to go wherever the director wants. What an absolute blast of a good time this one is.

I am in two minds about this film.

On one hand, I really did enjoyed it well enough.

However, I'm in no rush to see it again and it was rather... dull... in places.

Not something I thought I'd ever say about a James Gunn movie.

The beginning is great fun, and I don't know where else they can take the Harley chatacter after this (other than maybe a prequel?), and there are plenty of funny moments with some great action beats.

It just felt a little... I don't know.

Maybe because Gunn was clearly let off the leash he didn't have to restrain himself and so moments that may have been handled with more care were allowed to simply explode?

There is a lot of blood and gore, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

As I said, I enjoyed it, and I will watch it again someday, I'm just in no big rush to revisit it.

A generous seven out of ten.

I've read the Suicide Squad and DC comics for a very long time, and all the low reviews with the 'restore the Snyderverse' hashtag can go away.

"I cherish peace with all my heart. I don't care how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it."

The first thing that came to mind in the opening sequences of the film was wow there is a lot of gore, especially compared to the first film. I feel like the film makers took on criticism from the first movie and put improvements into this. To me, this was basically like an Avengers movie aimed at adults with violence, gore and swearing.

The film is filled with a great cast who all do a terrific job, especially Margot Robbie, I couldn't see anyone else doing the role of Harley Quinn. She is to Harley what Heath Ledger was to the joker. The movie is filled with funny one liners and never takes itself too seriously. I felt the first Suicide Squad was bordering too much pretty humour and seriousness and wasn't sure what it was. This reboot blends humour and seriousness perfectly. Some of the scenes between John Cena and Idris Elba were hilarious, as well as the lines from King Shark.

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this to be honest based on the first film, but this delivers exactly what you would expect from a team of anti-heroes, it's funny, entertaining and aimed at a mature audience, and for me it's an 8/10.

Before I talk about the film, let me talk a bit about DCEU. The difference between DC and Marvel (and why Marvel is more successful than DC) is the people behind them. The people/company behind Marvel (Disney) know and plan everything. They even planned this whole MCU thing ever since 2008's Iron Man. They know what they are doing, where they are heading with their characters, stories, and films, and how to do them and write them right. That's why their Universe is more successful. But, for DC the people/company behind it (Warner Bros.) are ruining this beautiful universe that's filled with great characters by bringing the wrong people to direct/write their movies which brings chaos to the films and world of the DCEU. Or they create issues with the right director like Zack Snyder (which we all saw how he was building that big/creative universe in Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and where it was going). However, this time DC choses James Gunn to write & direct this film which if you're not familiar with, he directed Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 (2014) and Vol. 2 (2017). And this is the second proof (after Snyder's) that when having the right person/people behind a film, they will kill it. And THIS IS HOW "The SUICIDE SQUAD" STORY SHOULD LOOK LIKE. And that's all thanks to James Gunn.

So happy that the film got an R rating because the suicide squad story should be like that. It should be full of blood, comedy, craziness, violence, disgusting action scenes, and curse words. Thank god they didn't care about the film being PG 13+ or whatever so more people could see it. And I feel like James Gunn was behind that part. It's not a suicide squad film if there were no sexual, bloody, violent, and disgusting content.

The cinematography was beyond amazing and the film presented some new ideas. Like, in one scene (dw no spoilers) two characters were fighting and we were seeing it through the reflection of a helmet. Or in a specific fight scene, instead of "blood" coming out of the bodies, it was "flowers" which made the 3 or 5 min action sequence very colorful and fun to watch. The camera movements were also great and felt that they sometimes were steady handheld which was so unique. Also loved how the film picks slow motion in certain times only to show the chaos that's happening around and they were very limited which is a good thing.

For the third time, Margot Robbie proves that she is the best portrayal of Harley Quinn and I cannot imagine anyone other than her as Harley Quinn. She presents the beauty, craziness, and wildness of the character. Idris Alba really surprised me. His character was very well written and Idris played it so right. The real surprise was John Cena. Personally, I don't like Cena's acting. But, in this film his acting was alright and the thing that helped him is how good his character (Peacemaker) is written. Especially that Peacemaker has a huge impact on the story of the film and the future of DCEU. Daniela Melchior gave the film such a warm/soft vibe and her acting was well done especially in the emotional scenes. The whole cast was just amazing and each actor/actress played their role perfectly.

Really loved the music in the film. And if you have seen Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) you'd know that it has the same style/vibe. The costumes were brilliant and loved how James kept the original costume of each character from the comics which made the film/character even more special & real. Also, loved how the film jumps back in time suddenly to explain where a specific character is or how things ended up that way and there was something different about it which I can't tell what it is.

My rating is 8/10 WATCHED: in an IMAX Theatre.