DCEU Review Series
The Suicide Squad
2021
Director: James Gunn
The last good DCEU film. It’s as if the film does everything it can to be the opposite of the first film while also mocking how to do right everything the first one got wrong. The opening wastes no time like the first film. It introduces the characters fast and entertainingly. It then kills them all off quickly. A great bait and switch. The team we meet in the opening are a decoy team and the film is actually focused on a second team of villains forced to work for the government.
We then meet the real team lead by Bloodshot. After character introductions they are sent to save Colonel Rick Flag (one of two survivors of team 1). The team kills an entire team of freedom fighters thinking they are bad. It takes some great writing to have characters still be likeable after accidentally killing good guys. The Suicide Squad pulls that gag off fairly well.
We then learn about the big bad Starro which the government of Corto Maltese wants to harness for evil stuff. Then we cut to Harley Quinn (the second team 1 survivor) who’s being wooed by the leader of the country. Harley kills the leader of the country because he’s a douchebag. She busts herself out of captivity just as team 2 comes to rescue her.
The plot is fairly simple, as it progresses it takes its time to develop each character. Good characters make-up for any lacking in plot. James Gunn makes a point to develop the characters organically which is something the first film failed to do on multiple levels.
With everyone reunited they bust into the enemy stronghold. Action ensues. They come across a bunch of people possessed by Starro. It turns out the US government was in on a bunch of terrible experiments and Amanda Whaler sent the squad there to destroy the evidence. Flag wants to expose the government but Peacemaker is a blind follower and wants to stop that from happening. Starro bust lose during the turmoil and everything gets amped up exponentially. Peacemaker kills Flag to get a hard drive of evidence. As he’s about to kill Ratcatcher 2, Bloodshot stops him.
Starro bust out and starts taking over everyone on the island. Whaler orders the team to leave but they all decide to save the people even if it means she’ll blow them all up. Her staff knocks her out and then assist The Suicide Squad in stopping Starro. A bunch of action goes down. Ratcatcher summons a ton of rats to attack Starro which allows Harley Quinn to launch a magic javelin in its eye, killing it. The city is saved. Bloodshot leverages the hard drive for their freedom.
A solid soundtrack with songs that actually fit the narrative. The soundtrack fit so well it almost seemed like a giant middle finger to the first film which just ham-fisted songs into the movie for no real reason. They couldn’t even argue product placement for the song choices in the first film.
This entire review seems like a comparison to its predecessor. That’s because the first film was so wrong and the second film works so well. Look at Bloodsport’s tense relationship with his daughter. It is a mirror of Deadshot’s relationship with his daughter in one. But it failed to garner anything other than cliché. Two gets that relationship right. The Suicide Squad succeeds everywhere Suicide Squad film failed. Somehow adding “The” to the name changed the entire narrative for the better.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com
