Producers: Peter Safran and Charles Roven Director: James Gunn Screenplay: James Gunn Cast: Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, Sylvester Stallone, Peter Capaldi, Steve Agee, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Jai Courtney, Flula Borg, Pete Davidson, Mayling Ng, Sean Gunn, Taika Waititi and Lynne Ashe Distributor: Warner Bros.
Grade: B
In comics, do-overs and reboots are not uncommon, and it’s getting so that they’re just as frequent in superhero movies. The Warner Brothers DC unit has revamped its Superman and Batman franchises repeatedly, of course, but recently they’re really gone overboard. First they bankrolled the Zack Snyder director’s cut of “Justice League” that fans had long demanded, and now they’ve produced a second take on the so-called Suicide Squad after only five years. (There’s also an ongoing movement among fans for the release of David Ayer’s edit of his 2016 movie.)
That first “Suicide Squad” made money, but in its final form it was dreadful, though it did make Margot Robbie’s flamboyantly anarchic Harley Quinn a fan favorite and spawned her spin-off in “Birds of Prey.” This new effort from writer-director James Gunn, who was exiled for awhile because of some old tweets, adds “The” to the title to distinguish itself from Ayer’s picture. (Perhaps that’s why it’s also nine minutes longer.)
Gunn’s “Squad” is, like its predecessor, flamboyantly nasty, garishly gory trash—but an efficiently manufactured example of such stuff, which succeeds on its own admittedly sophomoric terms. It revels in its ludicrousness, bad taste and over-the-top comic-book violence, and fanboys will eat it up.
The premise once again is that an undercover government agency headed by hard-nosed Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) selects teams of imprisoned super-criminals to undertake missions for which they can get release or reduced sentences—provided they survive, which often doesn’t happen. The operational leader of each team is stalwart Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman).
An emergency has arisen on the small island nation of Corto Maltese, where s military coup has overthrown the long-time ruling family. The U.S. cares little about the fate of the populace, but is concerned that the generals might unleash some sort of terrible weapon that’s kept locked up in a heavily-guarded stone tower there.
So a squad of dispensable convicts is assigned to land on the island, make their way to the tower, and eliminate the threat. Unfortunately in a prologue the mission goes awry and it seems that the entire force, including Flag, is wiped out—very gruesomely, it must be said.
So a second squad is quickly assembled. It’s to be led by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), a brooding villain whose teen daughter might face a long prison term unless he cooperates. (An F-bomb-riddled tirade between them occurs early on to establish the movie’s R-rated credentials.) The other members of the team are Peacemaker (John Cena), a burly super-patriot in a quasi-Captain America outfit; Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), a sleepy young woman with the power to summon rodents to help; Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), a morose fellow with mommy issues and a dotty viral condition; and a giant rubbery shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) whose power is the inclination to gobble down enemies. They’ll eventually be joined by two unanticipated survivors from the earlier squad, Flag and wild card Quinn (Robbie, again).
This time, despite a number of feints, twists and mistakes (like accidentally wiping out most of the resistance movement that represent their natural allies) the augmented squad captures Gaius Grieves, aka The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), the scientist who’s been overseeing research on the secret weapon, to help them get into the facility and defuse whatever they find there. What that is won’t be revealed here, but suffice it to say it involves a well-established DC villain and, in the inevitable final confrontation, some of the looniest VFX images yet encountered in the superhero genre.
This is the sort of material that invites less acting than overacting, and the cast complies with that expectation. Robbie and Capaldi are predictably the most over-the-top, but all the major players get their share of standout moments, though Melchior and Dastmalchian make particularly strong impressions, even adding a bit of heart to the proceedings. The cinematography by Henry Braham, production design by Beth Mickle and costumes by Judianna Makovsky, like the large effects contingent, feed off the roughness of tone and absurdity of plot, and editors Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner adroitly keep things moving. Composer John Murphy adds some punch as well.
Gunn’s “Suicide Squad” is a down and dirty take on the property that will deliver the goods for those in the mood for a further helping of “Deadpool”-style superhero comedy and action, with a dash of rudimentary political commentary added to the mix. It might aim low, but it hits the target.