The Suicide Squad (2021) Review: An Immensely, Bloody, And Brutal Genius Of A Movie

James Gunn’s excellence mixed in with the crazy Suicide Squad, what could go wrong? Absolutely everything. James Gunn takes on The Suicide Squad and returns with the original members of the first movie, Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, and Captain Boomerang, but making their debuts is the likes of Bloodsport, Polka-Dot Man, Ratcatcher 2, Blackguard, and a few other lesser-known characters from the DC Universe.

A major risk using hardly any mainstream characters from the DC Comics, James worked the characters into this crazy, wild, and brutal ride throughout the movie and gave each character a defining moment of their own, the movie was filled with action, drama, comedy, and emotional torment.

Overview

As soon as the movie starts we get introduced to Michael Rooker’s character “Savant” who instantly gets brought into the Suicide Squad or “Task Force X”, he meets his other team-mates lead by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), his team is comprised of Javelin, Blackguard, Mongal, Captain Boomerang, Weasel, TDK, and of course, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). The movie then shows the scene in the helicopter where Blackguard (Pete Davidson) gets scared because of Weasel.

Right from the first mission, the blood, the brutality, and disgusting (a good thing) is there, it’s no lackluster thing on that, Michael Rooker’s Savant is looking around at all the brutality, bloody messes, we see him try to run back into the sea and escape, but he’s the first to have his bomb exploded, this was a distraction to allow the second team lead by Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and his team onto the island.

We are then introduced to “Team 2” which comprises of Bloodsport, Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher 2, King Shark, and Polka-Dot Man. I can already see myself, as well as many others, absolutely loving some of the characters that James Gunn has chosen for this movie.

We get to see Team 2 infiltrate and rescue Rick Flag, this is where we get to see King Shark eat someone whole, and the somewhat rivalry between Bloodsport and Peacemaker begins. There is a pretty funny back and forth between Bloodsport and Peacemaker which is hilarious.

The story then pans to what is happening with Harley, she’s being shown a good time by one of the movie’s villains, they have intercourse, and then she ends up shooting him dead because of a promise she made to herself that if she saw any red flags for her next boyfriend, she’d kill him, and she does.

I didn’t expect to witness a couple of characters, Bloodsport and Ratcatcher 2, have insanely emotional, powerful, and heartbreaking backstories, it truly expanded their characters so much, in the next scene we see this different, less serious, less focused, and just happy side of Task Force X, it was really well done, and James Gunn did well with those two scenes back-to-back.

Peacemaker’s alternate objectives are finally revealed, he’s willing to kill Flag just to hide the secrets, we then finally get to see Starro get his revenge on The Thinker. The CGI for Starro is fantastic. We then get such a cool shot of Peacemaker and Rick Flag fighting in the reflection of Peacemaker’s helmet,

At the end of the fight between Flag and Peacemaker, we get to see the brutal side of Peacemaker when Flag is about to get the best of him, Peacemaker grabs a piece of ceramic and stabs Flag, and we get such a cool but bloody image of the ceramic puncture Flag’s heart, we Flag’s last words being “Peacemaker, what a joke”. This shook me, I was literally gobsmacked.

Anther absolutely insane scene to end the rivalry between Peacemaker and Bloodsport when Bloodsport sees Peacemaker going to shoot Ratcatcher 2, the two have a standoff and each fire one single bullet, although Peacemaker’s words come back to haunt him and Bloodsport uses a smaller bullet which goes through Peacemaker’s bullet and hits him in the neck, killing him.

We see the 5 remaining members of Task Force X go up against Starro and his infected, Bloodsport tells Polka-Dot Man that Starro is his mom and makes Polka-Dot Man attack Starro but ends up being squashed by one of Starro’s tentacles, while Bloodsport gets surrounded by the infected.

The scene where the thousands of rats eat away at Starro, outside and inside was visually but disgustingly beautiful, the VFX, CGI, and anything else used in this scene was top quality. Harley and Bloodsport’s reaction to Flag being killed was emotional I’m not going to lie, that’s a death that hurt me.

Story

While the story was an original story created by James Gunn himself, the story for The Suicide Squad was decent, some of it had such amazing moments, and elements to it, while some scenes felt less necessary to other characters stories, like the Harley Quinn/boyfriend bit of the story, felt like it was thrown in there, while it did have some character development, it just felt out of place.

As for other character stories throughout the main story, they all fit together like a puzzle. While the story could have been a bit better in some parts of the movie, like in the middle of it, the rest of the main story absolutely made up for the less exciting parts of the story, overall James killed the story.

Characters

The characters that returned from the previous incarnation of the Suicide Squad, Rick Flag, Harley Quinn, and Captain Boomerang, as well as Amanda Waller all, had their respective character development they gained throughout the previous movie, although Amanda Waller did feel a tad less brutal than she did in the previous movie.

While the new additions to Task Force X which was Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot Man, King Shark, Blackguard, Mongal, TDK, Weasel, and Savant, each character had their own story, depending on how long they were in the movie, the standouts in the new cast were Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Polka-Dot Man, and Ratcatcher 2.

While I was disappointed that a couple of characters that I was excited to see return were pretty much immediately killed off, this was also countered by the new additions of Bloodsport, Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot Man, Peacemaker, and King Shark.

For the full cast list, you can visit IMDB by clicking here.

Hype

Was it worth the hype? 1000% yes. This movie was beyond my expectations, James Gunn delivered one hell of a movie and this movie had me on the edge of my seat throughout the movie. I don’t think I wasn’t excited once while watching the movie.

I see why this got such a huge rating and review on Rotten Tomatoes, this movie is one of Warner Bros. and the DC extended universe’s best movies to date. The reaction gained from the early screenings for the movie has already opened the gates for Gunn to return and begin another project with DC and I am absolutely ready for it.

Favorite Moments

Where to start with this section? Obviously the beginning scene on the beach is up there as one of my favorite moments, it’s the typical thing Amanda Waller would do, sacrifice some members of Task Force X while another team sneaks onto the island on another part of the island, classic.

My next moment would have to be, when Team 2 find out that Rick Flag is alive and is “captured” so the team sneaks into the camp, literally killing everyone, with Peacemaker and Bloodsport getting into somewhat of a competition and beginning a rivalry, only to find out that the camp is actually helping Flag.

My next moment was the fight between Rick Flag and Peacemaker when Peacemaker is trying to stop at nothing to follow orders and cover up the U.S. involvement in the Starro project, the fight was a pretty back and forth fight with Rick Flag getting the best of Peacemaker until he’s eventually stabbed in the heart and killed by Peacemaker.

My next few moments came towards the end of the movie, everything with Polka-Dot Man involved is my favorite moment. He’s just a great character made even better because of David Dastmalchian. Bloodsport was also a huge favorite moment himself, everything he did was insanely cool, especially his suit and how he can literally use it as any weapon.

Dislikes

I only truly had a few dislikes throughout the entire movie. One of which being Captain Boomerang being killed off early in the movie, I still felt like this one character had a lot of character development, action, and story left to tell, I hope we see another version played by Jai Courtney return in a future Flash movie.

My next dislike was the titles of operations, places, and names popping up on screen to let people know what is happening, where people are, and who were are seeing, I understood it at the beginning to let people know who certain characters are but popping up throughout the entire movie was slightly annoying.

Another dislike was Amanda Waller, don’t get me wrong, Viola Davis once again smashed it as Waller, but she felt less brutal, let’s strict, and less straight to the point like as she was in the first movie, and to be knocked out by a tech geek towards the end of the movie was annoying as well.

Recommend?

Would I recommend this movie? Another 1000% yes, it’s fun, action-packed, bloody brutal (pun intended), endless comedy. Each character had a story that fit into the bigger overall story, It’s definitely a top movie of the year. I’d recommend an IMAX viewing if it’s possible.

Verdict

Overall a great story, fun characters, and bloody moments tied up in a great story is pretty much a perfect movie. While some people may dislike certain characters or Warner Bros/DC movies, I have to say they brought in James Gunn and pretty much gave him his freedom to do what he does best, and it absolutely worked.

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Rating 9.3/10

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The Suicide Squad is available in cinemas worldwide and also available on HBO Max. You can visit here for more information on The Suicide Squad.