The Suicide Squad

With DC caught between completely rebooting the franchise with the upcoming The Batman and making more sequels, 2021 saw a loose sequel to the weakest of all of DC's films, Suicide Squad from 2016. The film that tried to explore DC's vast catalogue of smaller, more obscure villains carried a lot of potential but after a lot of studio rewrites and reshoots, the final product was a mess and far from the director's intended vision. So with DC learning from Joker to let their director's have more free rein, enter James Gunn with The Suicide Squad. 

Mixing a few returning faces with a whole batch of new characters, Gunn brings his creative vision that worked so well with Guardians of the Galaxy to DC for a wild new adventure. Rick Flag, Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller return for a new adventure to a South American island occupied by a vicious regime who control something very deadly. Among the team are Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman and Margot Robbie but can this rise above the rocky foundations of its predecessor?

Not having to cater to a wider audience, Gunn is given all the tools at his disposal for a much for violent and striking experience than what David Ayer had the opportunity to do. The result will come as a delight to some but for others it might be a stretch too far to really feel immersed with the story. TSS is packed with bloody explosions, crude funny dialogue and a cast who all seem to be enjoying a more creative screenplay but I didn't always find myself buying some of the film's emotional beats and wondered if this needed a bit more tightening in the edit room due to some iffy pacing. 

There is still a lot of enjoyment to be had by some and there were some moments towards the end where the film really kicked into gear with some great character drama but the ostentatious amounts of violence quickly wears thin coupled with moments where the story lags makes this a mixed experience. The Suicide Squad will work for a lot of DC fans with the colourful cast of characters, some good gags and beats in the story but it just didn't quite click for me given the potential this had. Still, it's a vast improvement over what we saw in 2016 and it's good to see DC taking more risks that gives the opportunity for films as creative and different as this.