‘The Suicide Squad’: A Superhero War Movie with Gore

by Conan Simmons – August 6, 2021 – 7:05 am

Director James Gunn’s latest comic book movie adaptation has arrived and it’s a solid entry into the genre.

After elevating the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014 with the space opera adventure ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and its 2017 sequel James Gunn, who began his film career at schlock shock studio Troma, found himself fired by Marvel parent company Disney after sick humored sarcasm was discovered on his Twitter feed dating back to several years before Disney ever hired him. As is typical with social media, especially on Twitter, the mostly faceless, nameless, masses felt the need to express how offended they were and with that Disney let go one of their best directors. Turned out it was a boon for Warner Bros., the parent company of rival comic book publisher DC, as they hired him to take over the newest adaptation of ‘The Suicide Squad’. Disney rehired Gunn to return for Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’, but due to their letting him go had to wait for Gunn to complete this rambunctious outing for DC.

Warner Bros. originally introduced the merry band of supervillains in 2016’s David Ayers directed ‘Suicide Squad’ which introduced audiences to Margot Robbie in the role she’s most famous for, Harley Quinn, the Joker’s girlfriend. The film did well at the box office but is critically derided to this day, mostly because the studio interference noticeably chopped up the movie making it a sort of watchable mess. Some characters from that previous entry return here including Robbie, returning to her role after playing the part in last year’s ‘Birds of Prey’, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, the stern government operative who selects the ill-fated team members, Jai Courtney as outspoken Captain Boomerang, and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, the government agent who supervises the ragtag team of supervillains.

This new film isn’t a reboot nor a direct sequel. The characters from the previous film clearly already know each other from that adventure and the audience does not need to have seen the previous film to follow along here. ‘The Suicide Squad’ is just another installment in the ongoing franchise known as the DCEU, or DC Extended Universe, a name given it by fans to directly compare it to the MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe. James Gunn is the first director to make films for both franchises.

There are several other characters added to the mix this time around. The film opens with Michael Rooker as imprisoned supervillain Savant who is quickly recruited into Task Force X, which includes Flula Borg as Javelin, named for his weapon of choice, Mayling Ng as Mongal, an orange skinned warrior who may be an alien, genre fans favorite Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., the most absurd character amongst a cast of truly absurd characters, ‘Saturday Night Live’ comedian Pete Davidson as Blackguard, a mercenary with a lot of guns, and the director’s brother Sean Gunn as Weasel, a wide-eyed human sized weasel.

All of these supervillains and more are sent to invade the South American island of Corto Maltese to destroy a secret lab holding an experiment called Project Starfish. The film wastes no time setting up the war movie vibe showcasing inspiration from films of the genre including ‘The Dirty Dozen’ and ‘Patton’. The beachhead invasion at the beginning of the film plays out a little like a superpowered D-Day with only brief references to films like ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘The Big Red One’ and ‘The Longest Day’. Being that ‘The Suicide Squad’ deals with superpowered characters it plays out a whole lot different than those movies. The main point of the opening is to let the audience know that no character is safe from being killed off, there ain’t no Superman or Batman here.

Idris Elba enters the picture through a flashback as he literally keeps his head down scrubbing the floors and toilets of Belle Reve, the prison for supervillains like himself. As Bloodsport, a good-with-a-gun type of villain, he’s serving time after a fight with Superman that is only mentioned in passing. When Amanda Waller threatens to imprison his daughter, played by Storm Reid, Bloodsport reluctantly agrees to do Waller’s bidding. The father-daughter relationship is more contentious than the one Will Smith’s character of Deadshot had in the 2016 film though it does more or less feel the same.

Unlike all of those Marvel movies, ‘The Suicide Squad’ is able to stand out in the genre by showcasing a healthy amount of gore. It is a war involving supervillains so there are plenty of death scenes to go around, though it does seem to lean a little too far on just simple gunshots. Especially a scene involving a kill-contest in a guerilla camp as Bloodsport tries to outdo Peacemaker, played with straight face by John Cena. The gore isn’t off-putting as it fits perfectly with the tone and war genre the film aims for. Perhaps the best frame of the movie is the gore scene involving King Shark, a humanoid shark god with limited intelligence voiced by Sylvester Stallone, ripping a soldier in half as lightning strikes the background.

The abundance of characters naturally means not all characters are going to be more than two dimensional. The dictatorial government of Corto Maltese are strictly that as is the leader of the freedom fighters Sol Saria, played by Alice Braga, and many of the cannon fodder that make up the supervillain invaders. While the dim-witted King Shark is the films standout that will surely become an instant fan favorite, there are two other characters that make notable impression. First, the Polka-Dot Man, played by David Dastmalchion, an awkward quiet type that suffers from an interdimensional disease that causes his body to emit light filled polka dots. It is a dumb idea even for a very obscure character yet surprisingly comes across as probably the coolest superpower in the whole movie. The second, Ratcatcher 2, played by Daniela Melchior, who of course has the ability to control rats. Ratcatcher 2 is also the friendliest amongst the villains making her a very nice counter-balance to the many brooding, mostly pessimistic, psychos. Why is her name Ratcatcher 2? Because she’s the daughter of the first Ratcatcher, played by Taika Waititi.

A lot of hype surrounds ‘The Suicide Squad’ as being a “very hard R-rated movie”. I guess if you’re 14 years old and never seen an R-rated movie before you may be overly wowed. Otherwise, there’s a lot of gore and foul language but nothing that other comic book superhero movies haven’t already included, e.g. the ‘Deadpool’ and ‘The Punisher’ films. The gore is better executed here though. As for sex and nudity that has been way overhyped. There is very brief nudity in a nightclub the characters find themselves in as they try to capture superpowered enemy agent, the Thinker, played by Peter Capaldi. And there is a very brief scene of Harley Quinn and an aristocratic villain jumping on each other that barely gets close to pants-on sex, though in the aftermath the aristocrat does appear pants-less.

As expected from a James Gunn movie the soundtrack is filled with popular songs ranging from the inspired “People Who Died” by the Jim Carroll Band to the almost predictable use of “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash.

The highlight of the film is the real villain, Starro the Conqueror, an alien starfish grown to gigantic proportions with the ability to send out smaller versions of itself that attaches to a victims face thereby controlling them. Brightly colored purple with hues of blue and a giant eyeball in the center, the filmmakers were smart to keep the character as it has appeared in comic books since the monstrous villain made its first appearance in issue #28 of The Brave and the Bold dated March 1960 as it fought against the Justice League of America who likewise were making their first appearance in comics.

The humor in ‘The Suicide Squad’ can be hit or miss at times. The first real funny scene comes when Davidson’s Blackguard becomes scared of the Weasel after Harley Quinn suggests it might be a werewolf. A moment of meta humor involving a character named Milton doesn’t quite land as it should. All the actors play their parts well even when their characters are underdeveloped. The special effects are the main thing that helps the movie and will likely be nominated for an Oscar, as were Gunn’s previous outings in the superhero genre, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and its sequel, both nominated in the category.

‘The Suicide Squad’ does address some subjects a little more than most films in this genre normally do, most notably how the United States gets involved with foreign countries. The movie doesn’t really offer any solutions to the issues it brings up, keeping it firmly in line with the usual output of superhero fantasy. There is a light jab early on at the current cultural climate when Rick Flag explains that the group is being called Task Force X because Suicide Squad may sound insensitive. The name is comic book accurate as Task Force X is what the team is often called, though all the characters in this movie refer to themselves mostly as the Suicide Squad.

Everyone who sees ‘The Suicide Squad’ will have their favorite character, mine is Ratcatcher 2. For fans of the comic book superhero fantasy genre ‘The Suicide Squad’ is highly recommended. For those who groan “not another superhero movie”, ‘The Suicide Squad’ probably won’t change your mind though, if you’re not adamantly against the genre, it’s still worth a look given its emphasis on non-Superman-like antiheroes in the midst of war.