This is what the Suicide Squad should’ve been all along.

Despite not being called a sequel or a reboot I definitely see this movie as a re-imagination of what the original movie should’ve been. Now, you know that James Gunn is a fantastic director, he has so much fun with every movie he creates and this one is no exception.

In the film we meet a new suicide squad group full of very interesting characters including a shark man and a man who sprays polkadots everywhere – perfect for any children’s party! This movie also brings back the character of Harley Quinn who is fabulous as always. After Birds of Prey I feel a lot of learnings were taken about the character and how strong she is and I really appreciate seeing her take that role again in this movie, and shining without being out shined by her male cast mates.

Despite this movie having quite a long run time and moments switching between characters, I never felt any moment of this movie wasn’t used to some effect. Yes there were parts that I enjoyed more than others but they all had a purpose to the overall storyline and I really appreciated that. Everything kept the movie going and we never lost that momentum of excitement about what could happen next.

I also really appreciated the monster in this film. I won’t lie, when I saw the starfish in Leicester Square I didn’t get the reference, but watching the movie now I do and it is absolutely brilliant. It really shows Gunn at his best, it is so whimsical and so weird but really adds a different element to superhero movies.

Far too often we are given faceless, meaningless aliens that come from a giant hole in the sky and it is up to the protagonist to shut that hole. Whereas in this film we had our antagonist that, while was quite short lived, definitely had a lot of depth to it and made you think about what the human race would do if we did find aliens out in space and how cruel we can be to the things that we do not understand.

I also really appreciated, vs the other Suicide Squad, how at no point did any of the superheroes from the DC Universe appear in this version of the film. Of course Harley is connected to the Joker and they’re all connected to Batman and Superman and there are references, but at no point did any of them show up and I really appreciated that. I love this subsection of superhero movies much like Venom where the whole point is the anti hero that we are given and not the hero counterpart. It really sets them apart from other superhero movies that we’ve seen and really lets you get to know these characters on a different level, especially as we are meant to be rooting for them, yet they’re usually the bad guys.

I highly recommend this movie. It gives Suicide Squad a great first chance again after the abysmal effort of the original movie. This really gives you what the audience was hoping for. James Gunn understands his audience but understands the film and the characters and the story so well as well that everything comes together, and it has both parts hilarity and sombre moments. You really get to know these characters on a deeper level than what you would in the usual superhero movies and in a more exciting way than just reeling off their character cards at the start of the film like the other one did.

I do hope this is a franchise that can continue into the future. I feel this is a great marriage between the director and the cast and the storyline, and with the after credit scene I definitely feel it’s left the door open for future instalments which would be really enjoyable to watch. While DC isn’t my preferred superhero franchise of choice these little movies that are coming out that aren’t directly collaborative with the over arching storyline are fantastic and make the DC franchise worth investing in.

What do you think of The Suicide Squad?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding