Film Review: The Suicide Squad ('21, Dir: James Gunn)

 

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Written and Directed by James Gunn

Ah, we find ourselves with another review that it pains me to write. I adore James Gunn. I think he's one of the more delightful filmmakers and personalities in Hollywood, and I've enjoyed a wide variety of his films from his work writing the Scooby Doo movies to Slither to Guardians of the Galaxy. He has unique sensibilities and even when dealing in big budget sandboxes those shine through. He doesn't compromise his weird. Keeping in mind that the less there is said about the horrible first attempt at a Suicide Squad movie the better, while also noting that I found Harley Quinn's follow up Birds of Prey to be one of the more kickass and joyous comic book movies we've seen, my expectations for this new iteration of Task Force X were somewhat high. Perhaps that was my mistake. Then again, people seem to be loving this movie. The majority of both critical and fan reviews that I've seen are praising the violence, the humor, the weirdness, the batshit insanity. And I say good for them! I'm always glad when people enjoy things. This movie just did not work for me. Not at all.

I'm not even quite sure how to articulate what went wrong here. The film is well made, there's no denying that. Gunn's ability to craft large scale action sequences and work with a big ensemble is as evident as it's ever been. But from nearly the first frame, I was simply unable to vibe with the tone of this film. It felt like a nonstop assault of over-the-top gore and violence (which I often love!) and obnoxiously repetitive jokes that had my ready to scream by the end of the film. If I had to hear or see one more joke about King Shark wanting to eat a human and say "nom nom" or another visual gag regarding Polka Dot Man's mother, I was either going to throw my shoe at the screen or get up and leave. This film very much feels like the kitchen sink approach. Throw it all at the screen and hope it sticks, and if it doesn't stick we'll just keep throwing it again and again and again, berating and assaulting our audience into giddy submission. The amount of times I rolled my eyes or sighed because of how cringeworthy I found it all will fuel my sass meter for a long time coming. It's just all so... stupid. Not even gleefully stupid or delightfully stupid. Not Deadpool stupid, where it knows its stupid and is having a laugh with you. The Suicide Squad sort of just made me angry with how insufferable I found it. I didn't even like the character designs. By the time we get to the climax and Starro is introduced (which is in the trailer, so I'm not counting it as a spoiler) I thought to myself... "wow, this giant Kaiju that should be cool is so ugly and poorly designed." And don't get me started on the mind control aspect that had me cackling with how poorly it played out. By that point I was so over the movie I may have been being unfair. But here we are.

A few things work. John Murphy's score is solid, especially a track used towards the end of the film involving heroic rats. And speaking of rats, I loved Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, the clear MVP and heart of the film. What little heart and enjoyment I got was almost entirely from her and her precious pet rat Sebastian. I also still adore Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, even if I think the film underuses her amidst this very large ensemble. The rest of the cast is... fine. I wanted to punch John Cena in the face, but I'm pretty sure that's the point. David Dastmalchian is one of the stranger actors working but he's used to good effect here. Idris Elba and Joel Kinnaman (so much better here than in the first Squad movie) are decent as the very typical macho male leads, though their character are as archetypal as it gets. And on and on. It's a really big ensemble, y'all.

So here we are. I wouldn't go so far as to say I outright hated this movie, because there were a few things that made me giggle. A few choices that worked. But on the whole? I'm baffled by this thing. By this onslaught of messy, obnoxious mayhem that simply did not coalesce for me. The film feels like it's screaming, "look at me! look at what I can do! Aren't I cool and special and weird?!" And let me tell you, readers. I looked. I looked for 2 hours and 12 punishing minutes. I hope to never have to look again. This movie was simply not for me. Now I'm going to go watch Birds of Prey again...