The Suicide Squad (2021)
3.5/4
My favourite kinds of movies are ones that take risks. Take a movie like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, for instance. It took a lot of guts, both figuratively and literally, to make a movie that showed someone getting their heart ripped out from their body in that time in movie history, where the rating system was not fully created yet. With The Suicide Squad, James Gunn’s latest dive into the superhero movie world, Gunn takes a risky concept—the bad guys are the heroes—and translates it into a great comic-book movie.
The key aspect that really works about this film is its great script. From delivering funny jokes that work—even though they have potential to not always deliver, Gunn takes the risk and it pays off—to making sure each and every Suicide Squad member is not only well developed but has their own stand-out moment, this script has everything you can possibly want in it.
Much like Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films, Suicide Squad makes you root for all of the characters even though they are not very likeable, and that’s thanks to the actors that Gunn cast in these roles. John Cena is very funny as Christopher Smith/Peacemaker, basically a twisted version of Captain America who will do anything you tell him to if he thinks it will achieve peace for his country.
Idris Elba also does a great job showing off his new character Robert DuBois/Bloodsport. Both his comic scenes with Cena and his more dramatic scenes with his daughter Tyla (played by Storm Reid) add humour and heart to the film and make it interesting.
But my favourite character in the whole movie has to be the current interpretation of Harley Quinn. Margot Robbie continues to bring her A game and is fantastic as this antihero. What makes Robbie’s interpretation so intriguing is not only her ability to make the character somewhat reliable despite all of the terrible things she has to do in these films, but also how she manages to come up with a brand-new version of the famous Quinn for every DC movie she is in.
Now, for the bad. The film’s main weakness is its over-reliance on humour, particularly with some of the main characters’ death scenes. When a main character dies, the viewer is usually supposed to have an emotional reaction, not a comical one, because you have—hopefully—grown to like that character and are sad to see them go. Here, most deaths are written off as comical risks, and while some of these risks pay off, the vast majority of them don’t lead anywhere.
Overall, Gunn’s Suicide Squad is a rocking good time at the movies and is sure to entertain comic-book fans everywhere.