Rating: 3 Stars
The following review contains spoilers.
Overview:
Because it went so well the last time, Amanda Waller has continued her program of recruiting imprisoned supervillains to run black ops missions in America’s interest, offering them reductions in their sentences… if they survive! Which they might not! Because Suicide Squad!
This time the Squad, officially known as Task Force X, is tasked with locating and neutralizing a mysterious WMD on the island of Corto Maltese, which has recently destabilized, following a military coup. Unknown to the squaddies, two teams were actually sent, with one serving as a distraction so the other could get in undetected. Their mission is to infiltrate the town, get close to supervillain The Thinker, and somehow force him to get them into the base where the WMD is being held.
If you’re familiar with DC Comics, as soon as you hear “Project: Starfish” it’s pretty much a done deal that the Suicide Squad is going to be dealing with Starro. There’s a whole lot of stuff in the middle that’s basically just plot dressing, comedy scenes, “action” scenes, and character work for the ones who will survive the longest, but in the end there’s not really that much actual plot here. They really do just go into the town, get The Thinker, go to the base, find Starro there, and then fight Starro.
The important bit here is that Amanda Waller was more interested in covering up the American government’s involvement in placing Starro in Corto Maltese in the first place and the terrible experiments conducted there than she is in actually neutralizing it. So when the Squad decides to stay and help the people, she screams, “Off with their heads!” She then suffers a revolt from her own team, who have suddenly realized that their boss might be an amoral psychopath (maybe they should’ve asked what happened to her last team). She must’ve mellowed in recent years, or at least had to endure a good talking to from Task Force HR, because she doesn’t murder all of her employees this time, just gives them some real dirty looks.
Anyway, somehow a handful of people who at some point must’ve been beaten up and imprisoned by the Flash or Cyborg or whoever manage to defeat Starro, and we end with them saying they’ll upload evidence of America’s involvement to the whole Internet unless they’re allowed to go free. Are we glad they’re going free? They are a bunch of unstable murderers, but I guess we’re happy because they’re also cute and funny, and in the end, that’s truly what matters (in a James Gunn movie).
Best Parts:
It is a fun time, mostly. It’s all a lark! A romp, if you will. And there are funny scenes, like when Rick Flag is lecturing the Thinker on how things are gonna go if he wants to survive this, and Harley Quinn is pacing behind him adding her own rules, like “If you have a personalized license plate, you die”. Another scene I thought was funny was the briefing scene near the beginning, especially when King Shark raises his hand, and then just points at it: “Hand.”
The performances are generally strong, and go a long way in generating any kind of emotion you might almost feel for these characters. John Cena, Idris Elba, and Margot Robbie all do very well, Sylvester Stallone as a barely-sentient King Shark was pretty funny, and David Dastmalchian and Daniela Melchior have real break-out star potential.
On a purely visual level, it looks fantastic. It’s cool seeing so many colorful superhero costumes, and also seeing a character like Starro brought to life and seem legitimately frightening.
I liked Harley’s runner with carrying the javelin around everywhere, and that it actually paid off. Harley in general was less annoying here than she often is.
Worst Parts:
Like Deadpool, this completely succeeds in what it’s trying to do, and like Deadpool, what it’s trying to do doesn’t hold a lot of appeal to me personally. I’m not sure what it is about R-rated superhero movies, but for me they come off as way more childish than your standard PG-13 fare. This is a very edgy, very try-hard movie. Much of the humor does not work. Somewhere in the world there are a lot of 14-year-old boys with a new favorite film.
Boy, James Gunn sure loves having a character walk down a long stretch of path and effortlessly murder a ton of people. He loves it even more than Joss Whedon loves have dopey guys stumble and fall into a woman’s cleavage. Gunn did it in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and to my memory he does it twice here, first with Bloodsomething and Peacesomething at the rebel camp (and boy was that “twist” telegraphed about three miles away) and then later with Harley Quinn escaping from her captors. I guess Gunn thinks it’s badass, but I think it’s boring. I like it when my action heroes (or antiheroes) get their asses kicked a little bit but still somehow pull it through the end. Also, I know this not exactly a moral universe they’re portraying, but the amount of apathy that everyone, even the rebels themselves, has for the entire rebel camp being murdered really took me out of it for a bit.
For as comic-book-y as this whole thing feels, it’s also pretty far from the comics in a lot of ways. Most of the characters they throw in are just names and costumes and the rest of their power sets and personalities are wholly created for the movie. The Thinker doesn’t even seem particularly smart!
You could probably cut the whole subplot of Harley being romanced by the new president of Corto Maltese and lose absolutely nothing. The idea of her being some folk hero in their culture is either him just lying for some reason or it’s a wasted idea with no follow-up in the many times she’s later outside and running around the city.
“I love the rain, it’s like angels are splooging all over us!” SO EDGY
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