The Suicide Squad

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: A-

               I wasn’t writing reviews yet when the first Suicide Squad was released in 2016, but that’s probably for the best as I’m not sure if my vocabulary could adequately describe my hatred for that loathsome piece of shit. The Suicide Squad doesn’t exactly have an inspired title, but otherwise feels like a long apology for the 2016 dumpster fire. As we left the theater, a friend turned to me and asked “what the fuck did I just watch?” It was a legitimate question. The Suicide Squad is a funny, bloody, bizarre piece of cinema that is unlike any other comic book movie you’ve seen. It’s also a freaking blast.

               For the uninitiated, the Suicide Squad is a team of anti-heroes that are considered disposable enough that they are sent on what are considered, well, suicide missions. First appearing in the comics in 1959, the team consists of villains that are usually offered lighter sentences in exchange for their participation in these top-secret excursions. In this case, the team is sent to the fictional island country of Corto Maltese to destroy a top-secret lab containing some sort of alien. I’m hesitant to provide much more in terms of plot because this film has one of the most pleasantly misleading trailers ever made. Characters that seemed destined to be integral to the story are graphically killed in the opening moments of the film, leaving me wondering, as my friend was also pondering, what the fuck I was watching.  

               The Suicide Squad is a strange film, combining elements of men-on-a-mission films (most clearly borrowing from The Dirty Dozen), giant monster movies, Troma films and, of course, superhero films. That combination would normally sound about as natural as chicken soup and cheap gin, but it does work coming from writer/director James Gunn. Gunn got his start working for Troma (his first writing credit is for Tromeo and Juliet) and became a big name for making the Guardians of the Galaxy films, so The Suicide Squad feels like his attempt to combine those very disparate styles of filmmaking. This film feels something like a Guardians of the Galaxy film that takes place in the same world as The Toxic Avenger, resulting in almost whimsical ultra-violence. This is Gunn completely unleashed, resulting in an R-rated superhero movie that most closely resembles Deadpool in tone and content but ups the gore content significantly.

               The Dirty Dozen is also a significant parallel, both in terms of basic plot and exposing a weakness in the finale of this film. Both films are about a group of prisoners being sent on a suicide mission in exchange for freedom if they somehow survive. The Dirty Dozen is basically the forefather of the outcasts-being-sent-on-a-mission subgenre, so its influence permeates through The Suicide Squad and dozens of other films. However, the heroic villains of The Dirty Dozen are Americans being sent on a mission to kill Nazis and turn the tide of World War II. Although the Dozen are not nice people, they are sent to kill the scum of the earth. That creates an understandable grey area in which they operate.

The last act of The Suicide Squad struggles a bit by trying to instantly convert vicious killers into heroes, but does so without the threat of real-world boogeymen (Nazi has always been convenient cinematic shorthand for “pure evil”). Given the absurdity of the threat in the film and the established brutality of the characters, it is a bit of a narrative stretch for them to suddenly become true heroes in the last act. This choice, which comes at a very distinctive point, rings hollow considering everything that has come before it. Perhaps this is just nitpicking, but I found this to be groan-inducingly forced and out of character (particularly for Harley). It does lead to a great battle, though, so there is that.

               The squad members themselves are far superior to the first film (even though several cast members remain the same), and several of the disastrously awful characters (like Joker and Killer Croc) were dropped entirely. Idris Elba is the moral center of the team, though I’m using that term loosely, and the man brings his unfailing sense of gravitas to the proceedings, providing the audience with a grounded anchor as we watch our heroes battle a city-destroying starfish. Margot Robbie finally has good material to work with and proves my suspicion that she could be a good Harley Quinn if working from a half-decent script. Although the entirety of the cast is excellent, I want to give special mention to Sylvester Stallone and Michael Rooker. Stallone voices King Shark, who somehow became my favorite character in the film and is basically the R-rated equivalent of Guardians of the Galaxy’s Groot. I want to mention Rooker just to thank James Gunn for creating a world where the star of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer has now played roles in mega-budget movies from both Marvel and DC. I never thought I would see the day.

               In addition to the somewhat-forced closing act, the middle of the film does drag a bit. I started becoming genuinely concerned when a Harley subplot started to go on for too long and the film started to feel a bit too much like The Expendables. Fortunately, this eventually gives way to the pure wackiness of the last act that (my quibbles aside) features some really entertaining and batshit-crazy stuff. However, considering that the running time stretches comfortably passed two hours, some trimming in the middle could have substantially improved the film’s pacing.

               Overall, this is my favorite DC-universe movie and one of the best superhero movies in years. This is a genre that’s not exactly known for originality, and The Suicide Squad certainly contains its share of tropes, but it feels refreshingly unique because of its tone and unabashed celebration of its R-rating. As a lover of Troma, this may be the closest that we ever get to a big-budget Troma film, where laughs and decapitations get equal screentime and celebration. Despite some narrative issues and an excessive running time, that makes The Suicide Squad one of the most entertaining films of the year in my book.

               As a quick final note, fans of Tim Burton’s Batman should have vaguely felt their spidey-sense tingling while watching this film. Corto Maltese is a fictional place, but we have heard of it before. In Burton’s film, Vicki Vale shows off her photography portfolio featuring a series of horrific photos from violence in none other than Corto Maltese. This may just be a fun easter egg, but with Michael Keaton suiting up again soon for The Flash, I wonder if this is an extremely subtle way to start introducing elements of Burton’s films to the modern DC universe.

Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Suicide_Squad_(film)#/media/File:The_Suicide_Squad_official_poster.jpeg