Movie Review – The Suicide Squad – Delightfully Fun!
Table of Contents
My Rating – 3.5 out of 5
Plot Summary – The Suicide Squad
Thinker: This is suicide.
Rick Flag: Well, that’s kind of our thing.
The Suicide Squad
Well, this is, after all, a Superhero movie and over-the-top sequences are expected but James Gunn makes it such a guilty pleasure to watch! The violence is gory, the comedic sequences are rib-tickling and the overall movie can be set at par with Deadpool – with sinful pleasures, from the point of view of an adult cinephile, galore!! It’s a huge improvement over its 2016 iteration, much to its audiences’ delight. In being so delectably irreverent, it highlights a different type of movie-making in the superhero genre – it never takes itself seriously and thus it excels. So without any further ado, let’s delve into what this is about.
Viola Davis playing the role of Amanda Waller, the chief of the notorious Task Force X, has a mission for the Suicide Squad. It is to land on the beaches of the fictitious South American island nation of Corto Maltese and capture a Nazi-era complex now being used to develop a biological superweapon. Sound familiar? It is! A regime once friendly with the US has just been taken over in a violent military coup and the General wants to use the weapon to gain even more power, far beyond the realms of his tiny island nation. Now, the Suicide Squad has to infiltrate the country, gain access to the high-security research facility and destroy the superweapon.
Young Cleo: Why rats, Papa?
Ratcatcher: Rats are the lowliest and most despised of all creatures, my love. But if they have a purpose, so do we all.
From The Suicide Squad – Ratcatcher and her Father
So, the first squad to hit the beach consists of Captain Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), the delightfully bipolar Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), Javelin (Flula Borg), Mongal (Mayling Ng), and the weird Weasel (Sean Gunn). This gang is led by the surly Savant (Michael Rooker). But Waller is not satisfied to only have one team on the ground and simultaneously has another one hit the beach on the other side of the island. Both have to either reach the complex that houses the superweapon in the form of an alien creature or die trying.
The second group consists of the brooding Bloodsport (Idris Elba), the grumpy Peacemaker (John Cena), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), and the comic relief of King Shark (Sylvester Stallone). These two groups find that one of them has been compromised, with fatal consequences. As the movie hurtles towards its inevitable climax, which, as in all Superhero movies is rather predictable, what stands out are the treatment of the action scenes and the performances of the cast. Idris Elba and Margot Robbie are the standouts – bringing charisma and style to their characters with effortless ease. Supported quite ably by Daniela Melchior and David Dastmalchian, who breathe life into their respective characters.
Savant: So this is the famous Suicide Squad.
Rick Flag: Well, we consider that term degrading. The official term is Task Force X and love them or hate them, these are your brothers and sisters for the next few days. Captain Boomerang. Blackguard. Mongal. Javelin. TDK. Weasel. And of course…
Harley Quinn: Hey, guys. Sorry I’m late. Had to go number two.
Rick Flag: Good to know.
Captain Boomerang: What are you doing back in prison, Harls?
Harley Quinn: I got road rage. In a bank.
From The Suicide Squad
Conclusion – Movie Review of The Suicide Squad
If you have the knack for the whacky and a bit of weird, you are going to love this one. Pure entertainment, brought to life by Idris Elba and Margot Robbie. The story, as mentioned earlier, doesn’t demand attention because it is so cliched and has been done to death by numerous others before it with slight changes, but it is Director James Gunn‘s credit that his treatment of the storyline and his lead actors’ brilliance which infuses such attractiveness to the movie. As with other movies of the genre, the CGI and other special effects are par for the course and nothing much stands out.
Purely for entertainment value, this is worth a watch and for someone like me, possibly a second watch after a few months, just to savor the quirky treatment and acting! Even the generally wooden John Cena looks bearable in this and that’s saying quite a lot!
Ratcatcher II: They call you Peacemaker.
Peacemaker: I cherish peace with all of my heart. I don’t care how many men, women, and children I kill to get it.
The Suicide Squad – Ratcatcher & Peacemaker
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