Jacked In Reviews ‘The Suicide Squad’ (2021)

With the same premise as the previous movie (and obviously its literary inspiration) The Suicide Squad follows a bunch of villains on a (pretty much, suicidal) mission in order to deduct years from their prison sentences. From the first five minutes, you have hilarious new characters, brutal fatalities and a weasel-human hybrid that eats children, and with that, you’re immediately sold on this movie. As the new squad (and some returning members of this soft reboot) begin jumping into the sea on their latest assignment, the dirt from 2016’s Suicide Squad begins to wash off them and audience members alike.

With each of their abilities more unique than the last, from the impressive to the outright ridiculous – not to mention attire that matches their comic book counterparts perfectly – this new team is just bursting with variety. However, the movie’s tagline ‘They’re dying to save the world’ definitely sums up this feature, in that regardless of all the names and faces you saw in the trailer, you shouldn’t get attached to anyone in particular.

It has been said that the actors who returned for the reboot noticed a massive shift in the atmosphere when filming this time around and more than anything else, they had fun with it. . . And it certainly shows.

Putting a new spin on its genre, with a more grounded plot than its predecessor – discounting the giant starfish from outer space – The Suicide Squad feels like a ‘70s war movie with superheroes (or supervillains, in this case). One of the film’s strengths is that it’s set in a timeless period. Viewers have no concept of the year or even decade, this film is set in and instead become more interested in the characters and their actions than anything else.

James Gunn is able to encompass the fun elements from his stint with Guardians of the Galaxy whilst simultaneously going back to his dark comedic routes. From making a killing machine absolutely adorable to not holding back when disposing of a character – not to mention a kickass soundtrack – Gunn does what he does best.

An all-around amazing cast, Viola Davis returns as the stone-cold Amanda Waller, Margot Robbie finally gets a movie that matches her energy as the loveably, psychotic Harley Quinn and Sylvester Stallone stars as a talking, man-eating shark.

This feature is a good argument for why DC should be more inclined to allow directors to have creative control when adapting their property, not only that but like Christopher Nolan’s, Dark Knight Trilogy and Todd Phillips’, Joker, it shows that it doesn’t need to follow the MCU’s recipe and can instead focus on one particular story as opposed to setups and a bigger universe.

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