TL;DR - An entertaining R rated popcorn flick that is quietly subversive but mostly entertaining
The Suicide Squad
Written and directed by James Gunn
I actually got to see this in an actual theater with literally...um, 10 people present. Granted in a small town but that was bittersweet. While the prices for tickets and concessions were just bitter. I realize theaters are really struggling and you gotta pay these kids way more money than you used to but I think getting a large drink and a ticket set me back $22. Still..it felt good seeing a big screen superhero movie on a big screen.
So what did I see? Basically this is a mashup of the Marvel formula with fairly constant jokes, a fast pace and mostly impressive CGI with a sprinkling of influences from Sony and DC movies. In fact, this is almost a direct response to, or almost rebuke of the first, terrible Suicide Squad movie. I don't think I've seen a sequel disparage the original movie quite like this since Gremlins 2. It also borrows elements from the Deadpool movies and Venom, though somewhat less. It does not feel like a Zach Synder film, both due to its pace and color palette (and because it's fun), even if he does get an Executive Producer credit for some reason.
Was it any good? Hmm, well, it was an entertaining movie. If you want gore, tits, dicks, death heroic and ignoble and rats, this is your huckleberry. It was also somewhat quietly liberal despite the guns and explosions. And it was also the most openly feminist movie I've seen in a long time, even more surprising is that it manages to be feminist without being misandranist, which is even more rare. But I want talk about that element later, as it may have flown under the radar for a lot of people.
But that does bring up something else, this movie both leans into its source material (in book and movie form) and tries to distance itself from it. For example it goes out of its way to disparage the 'Suicide Squad' name, rebranding the team as 'Task Force X' (which is from the comic as well) but at the same time, it also goes way out of its way to demonstrate that everyone being sent on these missions is very disposable.
Then there's the children. Famously, or maybe infamously, James Gunn was fired from Disney, briefly, for a bunch of social media comments that included some pro-pedophilia 'jokes'. They in fact were so disgusting that nearly everyone who read them spoke out against them..which might be why the media didn't actually report on what he literally said. He also had his laptop confiscated which reportedly had a whole lotta child pornography on it. The LAPD and LA DA being what they are when it comes to connected directors, they did not file charges. But that IS how Gunn came to direct The Suicide Squad before returning to Disney's foetid tentacles. In any case, there are several moments in the movie where characters exclaim in overwrought tones, 'they're killing CHILDREN' or words very nearly identical. And, in fact, the movie does in indeed have kids being hung and murdered on-camera and off. It's almost blatant but I can't tell if this is a subtle 'fuck you' to his critics or not. Much like the strong feminist themes, it seems to have slipped by just about every critic I've read. But it's time to talk about the plot and get to themes later.
Plot
The story is fairly straightforward. A disposable group of criminals is sent into a Latin/Caribbean island to destroy a research facility. The survivors will get time off their sentence, the dead will get eaten. If the criminals try to escape or disobey, they are killed via remote-detonation implants in their head, in theory. Also in theory the disgusting Amanda Waller is watching every move they make from her base back in America. There are backstabs and hidden agends and giant monsters and a whole lotta killing. James Gunn described this as a war movie and I think that's apt. It's not 'Where Eagles Dare' or 'The Dirty Dozen' but it's in that vein. I won't go beat by beat but I will try to summarize the story a bit and there will be spoilers to follow.
First we get a head fake, as we are introduced first to James Gunn's lucky charm, the underrated Michael Rooker, who is playing a criminal named 'Savant'. He is attached to a group of crooks including survivors of the first Suicide Squad: Captain Boomarang, Harley Quinn and Col. Flag. Viola Davis reprises her role as Amanda Waller who offers Savant and the rest of the criminals a chance to reduce their sentence, etc as listed above. However, due to betrayal by one of the team, a very annoying Pete Davidson...who gets a his annoying face blown off, they invasion is compromised and there are army units lined up waiting for them to come ashore. Despite the loss of surprise, Waller orders them to attack anyway and most everyone is killed or captured, except for Harley and Flag, who are captured.
THEN, the real protagonists are introduced, who come ashore while the other squad is being massacred. The movie then jumps back in time, it will do this a lot so strap in, and we see how the 'real' squad was recuited, with Amanda Waller threatening deadbeat dad (or unwanted dad as it sounds like he had no relationship with either mother or daughter, just an advertisement of the importance of wearing a condom) Bloodsport...who is basically a knockoff or deconstructed Deadshot from the first Suicide Squad movie. After his daughter is threatened with jail, abuse and death, he agrees to join Waller*1. We are then introduced to the rest of the squad:
Peacemaker is is John Cena (JOHN....CENA!), a flag-waving hero who does everything Bloodsport does and has an almost identical background (this is both a joke and a serious problem, plot-wise).He also gets most of the good lines.
King Shark is a CGI anthropomorphic shark that likes to eat people and is very strong and nearly invulnerable, voiced by Sylvester Stallone.
Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) is the daughter of a petty junkie and thief carrying on the family business of commanding rats to do her bidding. She's played as an idealistic idiot who is inexplicably rewarded for everything she does.
Polka-Dot Man, an entertaining David Dastmalchian constantly spawns highly destructive polkadots and has severe mental issues regarding his hated mother.
Though they're later joined by Harley and Flag, Gunn wisely keeps the cast down compared to the first film. However Harley gets a lion's share of the runtime.
After coming ashore the group of commandos...goes to sleep...This makes no sense but it gives the director time to have some character interactions and jokes. They are supposed to infiltrate the city, grab an evil scientist, Thinker' who has electrodes in his brain (the excellent Peter Capaldi) , infiltrate the secret-ish base and blow it up. But Waller notices that Flag is alive and tells the squad to rescue him and 'kill everyone you see' on the way in. It is unclear if Waller is aware that Flag was rescued by freedom fighters or if she's just an asshole. But the Squad kills nearly every rebel, an amusing sequence with rare male frontal nudity, and rejoins with Flag.
They go into the city and discover Harley is a captive too. Only Harley is apparently a celebrity there and in one of the most over the top romantic montages, is given a fantasy date, treated like a princess, gets laid (without any icky nude scenes by the chaste and demure Margot Robbie), gets proposed to by the new island dictator...and murders him in cold blood because of relationship 'red flags'. This is as 'evil' and 'insane' as this diluted version of Harley Quinn gets and yeah, it's a clear lesson in not sticking your dick in crazy. Harley is then put back in prison.
The squad discovers Harley is in prison and goes to break her out....but Harley puts on her magic plot armor and kills everyone without getting breaking a sweat, while retrieving the magic javelin of one of the dead first squad members. There apparently NOW is some sort of jamming preventing Waller from presumably seeing what they're doing and preventing communication. Allegedly it does not prevent the explosives from working but there's no proof of that.
NOW the squad is ready to get the Thinker. They go to a strip club, where we get some topless females, apprehend them. However soldiers appear, looking for hated Americans, who take Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag into custody. Polka-Dot Man, Ratcatcher 2 extract Thinker, while King Shark hangs out in the van (It IS hard to disguise a large sharkman). The imprisoned guys escape, killing all the soldiers and surviving a car crash in the process.
They go to the secret-ish research base, with the Thinker, where it is revealed that the base is where experiments have been taking place on Starro, an alien starfish that can control the minds of people and make them into extensions of itself, while growing larger and more powerful. It is also revealed that the science base is an AMERICAN facility where they have been letting Thinker run wild with Day of the Living Dead levels of insane medical experiments. The real mission is apparently to cover up US involvement. Which flag refuses to do. However Peacemaker is revealed to be Waller's secret agent and he is forced to kill Flag when fighting over the data. Ratcatcher sees the killing, steals the data and is about to be killed when Bloodshot magically appears and shoots Peacemaker.
The explosives go off prematurely but it damages the building enough to free Star-o. That also removes the jammers allowing Waller, who thinks the data has been destroyed instead of retrieved by Ratcatcher 2 and Bloodsport. She orders them to leave, on pain of death. But the Squad decides to destroy Star-o for...reasons. When Waller tries to kill them, her staff attacks her and knocks her unconscious.
The Squad, in a scene gleefully stolen from The Avengers, comes together to fight Starro, and finally kill him through means best seen to be believed, costing the life of Polka-Dot Man in the process. In the end the four survivors: King Shark, Harley, Bloodsport, Ratcatcher 2 barter their freedom in return for not revealing US involvement in the Star-o incident.
What worked
As a war movie, this more or less works. I appreciate that the protagonist don't succeed for 'free', people die in this movie. Some of them die hard and painfully, some die quick and never feel it. Innocents get killed, both as a result of mis-communication (charitably, I suspect Waller just enjoys the power of killing people via orders) and as collateral damage from big monsters walking around.
Everyone gets a chance to show their competence, sometimes too much so, like Harley in her escape sequence. The main core characters get a chance to discuss motivations, fears, desires. Just about everyone has a backstory and motivation. From a writing viewpoint, that ain't nothing.
The violence is real and has impact. There's no superheros throwing their weight around without actually hurting anyone here. If anything, weapons are too lethal (much as I loved watching Pete Davidson getting his face blown off, that's not what happens when you get shot from the front).
Visually, this is rather spectacular. You get to see things I've never seen in a mainstream movie, like Starro, or John Cena showing emotion. The movie is colorful and is well-shot. The locations feel real and not like movie sets or fantasy depictions of buildings or vehicles, no floating fortresses.
Performances are mostly good.I can't call out any particularly bad acting, no one is 'phoning it in' like ScarJo in Black Widow. In face, Rick Flag comes off as decent and likeable in this version of Suicide Squad. Sylvester Stallone does a fine job as King Shark's voice. Harley's torture and escape from her cell is great (not so much what follows) And we see some reactions from Waller's staff over her murderous and manipulative intentions...too much so which is a good transtion to...
What Didn't Work
Jumping forward and backwards in time is always jarring. It takes a deft hand to pull it off. And though the visual 'six hours earlier' designs are creative and cool, narratively it gives the movie a herky jerky quality that is needlessly taking us out of the moment and killing narrative momentum. The pacing is ruined and this is mostly a fast-paced film, not a lot of wasted screen time, but the jumps defeat that efficiency. I think that also helps cause the fragmented feeling of the films where it doesn't feel like a natural flow of events but instead it's like distinct scenes smashed together.
Harley Quinn is improved over her Birds of Prey performance. But on the whole, she still doesn't work. She is neither the insane nihilist of the animated source material, nor is she the sexpot naughty girl of the video game and first film. She's played as too stupid to be her 'psychiatrist' backstory and too nice to be the villian who hung around with Joker because she loved him and liked his sense of humor. Her solo scenes bring the narrative to a screeching halt and kill the story momentum, but she works fine in group scenes but....she's still too nice. I won't say she's flawless, she does murder a guy after he proposes to her, but she just doesn't work the way she's used and depicted here.
Harley's gunfight didn't work for me, either. In a movie that has been fairly grounded, for what it is, seeing Harley one shot a prison full of guards without getting a scratch is video game cheat mode at its worse. Yes, worse than god mode in Goldeneye. I own Beretta 92's and AR-15's, they don't do what she does. It's better than the last James Bond movie, I suppose but it bumped me at the time.
I also didn't quite buy Waller's support staff. I can see some of her employees being shocked by her ruthlessness, but they shouldn't all be new to this job. In fact, this should be a highly classified job and the employees should be carefully selected and tested. It feels like a reaction to Waller in the first movie and her sense of morality or lack thereof. They came off as liberal idealists, not people who work for an intelligence agency that murders people frequently. I really enjoyed watching Waller get hit in the head though, if anything if they'd killed her, I'd have had more respect for the film. But knocking her out and letting her wake up and not getting their asses killed? That's out of character for a woman we saw massacure a whole office full of her employees in the first Suicide Squad movie...which sucked worse than this one, to be clear.
Having both Peacemaker and Bloodsport in the same team. Waller makes a big deal out of why they HAD to have Bloodsport, when in reality, she already had a more loyal and motivated guy who does everything Bloodsport can do, only better, in Peacemaker. Which goes back again to WHY did Waller need Bloodsport?
Waller is also too quick to sacrifice the first team, which includes her best asset, Colonel Rick Flag. If anything as a """Colonel""" (which I don't buy, knowing several senior officers in my extended family and friend network), Flag should have called off the first invasion or been informed that it was to act as a diversion, or at least moved to attack from the flank or call in fire support. Waller is killing off one of the few people she can trust and for what? To prevent Starro from being used against the US? Don't forget, the real reason for the Suicide Squad, acoording to the movie, is just to cover up US involvement in Starro's capture and torture. If that's all she wanted to do, why not just parachute in Peacemaker with a nuke? I don't feel the movie sold us on the story of WHY this had to happen in just that way.
Unanswered anti-Americanism. This is almost an ironic one, in the light of how the Intelligence Community has been revealed to be corrupt, politicized and ready / able to compromise their oaths and allegancies, but everyone in Corto Maltese badmouths America but only Peacemaker ever speaks up for it. And even then, it's in vague terms of 'Liberty'. The insults are allowed to stand over and over. I suppose it helps Oliver Stone return James Gunn's phone calls.
And, this is more 'Meh' than 'Didn't Work' but Ratcatcher 2, and most of the second Suicide Squad are too 'nice'. They only act villainous in specific moments, mostly for comedy. Ratcatcher 2 is particularly so innocent and optimistic and loving that it almost feels like a joke...but, no, she turns out to be everything John Lennon and the Beatles promised. Meh.
Themes: or the Most Feminist Movie in America
I'm not joking, this might be the most feminist movie any major studio has made, especially from Marvel or DC. And I don't mean 'fake feminism' that makes women into 'men with tits', I mean the other feminism where women are just people who can do most things men can do. The movie manages to do that without making all the male characters useless, helpless or stupid as well, which is almost a miracle. Almost.
Women are uniformly seen in roles not normally well represented: They are Corto Maltese soldiers, they lead the resistance movement against the generals (who are all depicted as sexist males, the movie isn't perfect), most of Amanda Waller's staff are women, the staffer who takes Waller out and takes over is a woman, Starro is defeated by two women (Harley and Ratcatcher 2....no word on the gender of the gnawing rats); Harley Quinn gets the ultimate romantic fantasy date where she is dressed pretty and made up, meets a stunningly handsome fit latin lover, who flatters her, asks her to marry him even.
But women are not protected, sacred, flawless creatures. They get killed too, Corto Maltese female soldiers get squished, MonGal gets burned to death, female rebels get killed by the Squad, even Harley gets tortured.
And the nudity is not just targeted towards men. There are naked tits in here, but also naked penises, and John Cena and Juan Diego Botto in tiny underwear.
Women are the villains as much as the men, Amanda Waller is twice the monster any of the Corto Maltese Generals are. Even Ratcatcher 2 is a thief and bank robber.
I don't know if anyone was paying attention, but James Gunn wrote a movie that once upon a time, every Feminist in the West would dream of...only with more explosions and gun fights, gore and alien starfish.
How to Fix It
Most of the problems in the film are really writing and editing problems, which are cheaper to fix than most.
I wouldn't have the first, head fake Suicide Squad. It wastes time and begins the 'jumping around' continuity problems, wasting screen time and ruining pacing. Have Harley integrated into the team from the beginning. That will give her the screen time her 'fame' apparently demands but without slowing things down to have private time. Besides, the real gold here is having these characters interact and bounce off each other.
Only one of Waller's staff should have the wide eyed innocent look about them. THAT person, whoever it is should be the one to knock Waller out and take over (I think 6' 6" Steve Agee would fit the bill and have the size and strength to be believable but...that's wishing for too much reality). Having all of her staff be surprised and shocked by Waller doesn't work.
No jumping back and forth in time. A flashback for backstory is one thing, it's not great, but if it's short even Ratcatcher 2's little scenes don't take up too much time and they're mostly narrated by her in the presence. The same should be done for any mandatory breaks in continuity if you do have to jump around.
You either don't need Flag, Bloodshot and Peacemaker or make even more of a point of the redundancy. Make them wonder, be paranoid even. None of these people, except Flag and Harley, know each other, let along should trust each other.
More group conflict. Again, these are all villains, all we get is Bloodsport and Peacemaker comparing dick size. (Surprisingly, John Cena might win that one) Inter-group conflict is gold for drama and plot complications.
Summary
I know I take movies too seriously. I know I demand a lot from films. But I do think there is a place for semi-mindless entertainment. I think The Suicide Squad works for that. I can see throwing it on for laughs and spectacle (and nudity or gore, whichever flips your switch). Movies are rarely perfect. This isn't but it's not a bad movie and it's much less offensive than anything Marvel has done since Infinity War.
Superhero movies are dying off, for better or for worse, but if you want a different spin on them, this is worth your time if you're willing to accept the R rating. And the rats.
The Suicide Squad
Written and directed by James Gunn
I actually got to see this in an actual theater with literally...um, 10 people present. Granted in a small town but that was bittersweet. While the prices for tickets and concessions were just bitter. I realize theaters are really struggling and you gotta pay these kids way more money than you used to but I think getting a large drink and a ticket set me back $22. Still..it felt good seeing a big screen superhero movie on a big screen.
So what did I see? Basically this is a mashup of the Marvel formula with fairly constant jokes, a fast pace and mostly impressive CGI with a sprinkling of influences from Sony and DC movies. In fact, this is almost a direct response to, or almost rebuke of the first, terrible Suicide Squad movie. I don't think I've seen a sequel disparage the original movie quite like this since Gremlins 2. It also borrows elements from the Deadpool movies and Venom, though somewhat less. It does not feel like a Zach Synder film, both due to its pace and color palette (and because it's fun), even if he does get an Executive Producer credit for some reason.
Was it any good? Hmm, well, it was an entertaining movie. If you want gore, tits, dicks, death heroic and ignoble and rats, this is your huckleberry. It was also somewhat quietly liberal despite the guns and explosions. And it was also the most openly feminist movie I've seen in a long time, even more surprising is that it manages to be feminist without being misandranist, which is even more rare. But I want talk about that element later, as it may have flown under the radar for a lot of people.
But that does bring up something else, this movie both leans into its source material (in book and movie form) and tries to distance itself from it. For example it goes out of its way to disparage the 'Suicide Squad' name, rebranding the team as 'Task Force X' (which is from the comic as well) but at the same time, it also goes way out of its way to demonstrate that everyone being sent on these missions is very disposable.
Then there's the children. Famously, or maybe infamously, James Gunn was fired from Disney, briefly, for a bunch of social media comments that included some pro-pedophilia 'jokes'. They in fact were so disgusting that nearly everyone who read them spoke out against them..which might be why the media didn't actually report on what he literally said. He also had his laptop confiscated which reportedly had a whole lotta child pornography on it. The LAPD and LA DA being what they are when it comes to connected directors, they did not file charges. But that IS how Gunn came to direct The Suicide Squad before returning to Disney's foetid tentacles. In any case, there are several moments in the movie where characters exclaim in overwrought tones, 'they're killing CHILDREN' or words very nearly identical. And, in fact, the movie does in indeed have kids being hung and murdered on-camera and off. It's almost blatant but I can't tell if this is a subtle 'fuck you' to his critics or not. Much like the strong feminist themes, it seems to have slipped by just about every critic I've read. But it's time to talk about the plot and get to themes later.
Plot
The story is fairly straightforward. A disposable group of criminals is sent into a Latin/Caribbean island to destroy a research facility. The survivors will get time off their sentence, the dead will get eaten. If the criminals try to escape or disobey, they are killed via remote-detonation implants in their head, in theory. Also in theory the disgusting Amanda Waller is watching every move they make from her base back in America. There are backstabs and hidden agends and giant monsters and a whole lotta killing. James Gunn described this as a war movie and I think that's apt. It's not 'Where Eagles Dare' or 'The Dirty Dozen' but it's in that vein. I won't go beat by beat but I will try to summarize the story a bit and there will be spoilers to follow.
First we get a head fake, as we are introduced first to James Gunn's lucky charm, the underrated Michael Rooker, who is playing a criminal named 'Savant'. He is attached to a group of crooks including survivors of the first Suicide Squad: Captain Boomarang, Harley Quinn and Col. Flag. Viola Davis reprises her role as Amanda Waller who offers Savant and the rest of the criminals a chance to reduce their sentence, etc as listed above. However, due to betrayal by one of the team, a very annoying Pete Davidson...who gets a his annoying face blown off, they invasion is compromised and there are army units lined up waiting for them to come ashore. Despite the loss of surprise, Waller orders them to attack anyway and most everyone is killed or captured, except for Harley and Flag, who are captured.
THEN, the real protagonists are introduced, who come ashore while the other squad is being massacred. The movie then jumps back in time, it will do this a lot so strap in, and we see how the 'real' squad was recuited, with Amanda Waller threatening deadbeat dad (or unwanted dad as it sounds like he had no relationship with either mother or daughter, just an advertisement of the importance of wearing a condom) Bloodsport...who is basically a knockoff or deconstructed Deadshot from the first Suicide Squad movie. After his daughter is threatened with jail, abuse and death, he agrees to join Waller*1. We are then introduced to the rest of the squad:
Peacemaker is is John Cena (JOHN....CENA!), a flag-waving hero who does everything Bloodsport does and has an almost identical background (this is both a joke and a serious problem, plot-wise).He also gets most of the good lines.
King Shark is a CGI anthropomorphic shark that likes to eat people and is very strong and nearly invulnerable, voiced by Sylvester Stallone.
Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) is the daughter of a petty junkie and thief carrying on the family business of commanding rats to do her bidding. She's played as an idealistic idiot who is inexplicably rewarded for everything she does.
Polka-Dot Man, an entertaining David Dastmalchian constantly spawns highly destructive polkadots and has severe mental issues regarding his hated mother.
Though they're later joined by Harley and Flag, Gunn wisely keeps the cast down compared to the first film. However Harley gets a lion's share of the runtime.
After coming ashore the group of commandos...goes to sleep...This makes no sense but it gives the director time to have some character interactions and jokes. They are supposed to infiltrate the city, grab an evil scientist, Thinker' who has electrodes in his brain (the excellent Peter Capaldi) , infiltrate the secret-ish base and blow it up. But Waller notices that Flag is alive and tells the squad to rescue him and 'kill everyone you see' on the way in. It is unclear if Waller is aware that Flag was rescued by freedom fighters or if she's just an asshole. But the Squad kills nearly every rebel, an amusing sequence with rare male frontal nudity, and rejoins with Flag.
They go into the city and discover Harley is a captive too. Only Harley is apparently a celebrity there and in one of the most over the top romantic montages, is given a fantasy date, treated like a princess, gets laid (without any icky nude scenes by the chaste and demure Margot Robbie), gets proposed to by the new island dictator...and murders him in cold blood because of relationship 'red flags'. This is as 'evil' and 'insane' as this diluted version of Harley Quinn gets and yeah, it's a clear lesson in not sticking your dick in crazy. Harley is then put back in prison.
The squad discovers Harley is in prison and goes to break her out....but Harley puts on her magic plot armor and kills everyone without getting breaking a sweat, while retrieving the magic javelin of one of the dead first squad members. There apparently NOW is some sort of jamming preventing Waller from presumably seeing what they're doing and preventing communication. Allegedly it does not prevent the explosives from working but there's no proof of that.
NOW the squad is ready to get the Thinker. They go to a strip club, where we get some topless females, apprehend them. However soldiers appear, looking for hated Americans, who take Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag into custody. Polka-Dot Man, Ratcatcher 2 extract Thinker, while King Shark hangs out in the van (It IS hard to disguise a large sharkman). The imprisoned guys escape, killing all the soldiers and surviving a car crash in the process.
They go to the secret-ish research base, with the Thinker, where it is revealed that the base is where experiments have been taking place on Starro, an alien starfish that can control the minds of people and make them into extensions of itself, while growing larger and more powerful. It is also revealed that the science base is an AMERICAN facility where they have been letting Thinker run wild with Day of the Living Dead levels of insane medical experiments. The real mission is apparently to cover up US involvement. Which flag refuses to do. However Peacemaker is revealed to be Waller's secret agent and he is forced to kill Flag when fighting over the data. Ratcatcher sees the killing, steals the data and is about to be killed when Bloodshot magically appears and shoots Peacemaker.
The explosives go off prematurely but it damages the building enough to free Star-o. That also removes the jammers allowing Waller, who thinks the data has been destroyed instead of retrieved by Ratcatcher 2 and Bloodsport. She orders them to leave, on pain of death. But the Squad decides to destroy Star-o for...reasons. When Waller tries to kill them, her staff attacks her and knocks her unconscious.
The Squad, in a scene gleefully stolen from The Avengers, comes together to fight Starro, and finally kill him through means best seen to be believed, costing the life of Polka-Dot Man in the process. In the end the four survivors: King Shark, Harley, Bloodsport, Ratcatcher 2 barter their freedom in return for not revealing US involvement in the Star-o incident.
What worked
As a war movie, this more or less works. I appreciate that the protagonist don't succeed for 'free', people die in this movie. Some of them die hard and painfully, some die quick and never feel it. Innocents get killed, both as a result of mis-communication (charitably, I suspect Waller just enjoys the power of killing people via orders) and as collateral damage from big monsters walking around.
Everyone gets a chance to show their competence, sometimes too much so, like Harley in her escape sequence. The main core characters get a chance to discuss motivations, fears, desires. Just about everyone has a backstory and motivation. From a writing viewpoint, that ain't nothing.
The violence is real and has impact. There's no superheros throwing their weight around without actually hurting anyone here. If anything, weapons are too lethal (much as I loved watching Pete Davidson getting his face blown off, that's not what happens when you get shot from the front).
Visually, this is rather spectacular. You get to see things I've never seen in a mainstream movie, like Starro, or John Cena showing emotion. The movie is colorful and is well-shot. The locations feel real and not like movie sets or fantasy depictions of buildings or vehicles, no floating fortresses.
Performances are mostly good.I can't call out any particularly bad acting, no one is 'phoning it in' like ScarJo in Black Widow. In face, Rick Flag comes off as decent and likeable in this version of Suicide Squad. Sylvester Stallone does a fine job as King Shark's voice. Harley's torture and escape from her cell is great (not so much what follows) And we see some reactions from Waller's staff over her murderous and manipulative intentions...too much so which is a good transtion to...
What Didn't Work
Jumping forward and backwards in time is always jarring. It takes a deft hand to pull it off. And though the visual 'six hours earlier' designs are creative and cool, narratively it gives the movie a herky jerky quality that is needlessly taking us out of the moment and killing narrative momentum. The pacing is ruined and this is mostly a fast-paced film, not a lot of wasted screen time, but the jumps defeat that efficiency. I think that also helps cause the fragmented feeling of the films where it doesn't feel like a natural flow of events but instead it's like distinct scenes smashed together.
Harley Quinn is improved over her Birds of Prey performance. But on the whole, she still doesn't work. She is neither the insane nihilist of the animated source material, nor is she the sexpot naughty girl of the video game and first film. She's played as too stupid to be her 'psychiatrist' backstory and too nice to be the villian who hung around with Joker because she loved him and liked his sense of humor. Her solo scenes bring the narrative to a screeching halt and kill the story momentum, but she works fine in group scenes but....she's still too nice. I won't say she's flawless, she does murder a guy after he proposes to her, but she just doesn't work the way she's used and depicted here.
Harley's gunfight didn't work for me, either. In a movie that has been fairly grounded, for what it is, seeing Harley one shot a prison full of guards without getting a scratch is video game cheat mode at its worse. Yes, worse than god mode in Goldeneye. I own Beretta 92's and AR-15's, they don't do what she does. It's better than the last James Bond movie, I suppose but it bumped me at the time.
I also didn't quite buy Waller's support staff. I can see some of her employees being shocked by her ruthlessness, but they shouldn't all be new to this job. In fact, this should be a highly classified job and the employees should be carefully selected and tested. It feels like a reaction to Waller in the first movie and her sense of morality or lack thereof. They came off as liberal idealists, not people who work for an intelligence agency that murders people frequently. I really enjoyed watching Waller get hit in the head though, if anything if they'd killed her, I'd have had more respect for the film. But knocking her out and letting her wake up and not getting their asses killed? That's out of character for a woman we saw massacure a whole office full of her employees in the first Suicide Squad movie...which sucked worse than this one, to be clear.
Having both Peacemaker and Bloodsport in the same team. Waller makes a big deal out of why they HAD to have Bloodsport, when in reality, she already had a more loyal and motivated guy who does everything Bloodsport can do, only better, in Peacemaker. Which goes back again to WHY did Waller need Bloodsport?
Waller is also too quick to sacrifice the first team, which includes her best asset, Colonel Rick Flag. If anything as a """Colonel""" (which I don't buy, knowing several senior officers in my extended family and friend network), Flag should have called off the first invasion or been informed that it was to act as a diversion, or at least moved to attack from the flank or call in fire support. Waller is killing off one of the few people she can trust and for what? To prevent Starro from being used against the US? Don't forget, the real reason for the Suicide Squad, acoording to the movie, is just to cover up US involvement in Starro's capture and torture. If that's all she wanted to do, why not just parachute in Peacemaker with a nuke? I don't feel the movie sold us on the story of WHY this had to happen in just that way.
Unanswered anti-Americanism. This is almost an ironic one, in the light of how the Intelligence Community has been revealed to be corrupt, politicized and ready / able to compromise their oaths and allegancies, but everyone in Corto Maltese badmouths America but only Peacemaker ever speaks up for it. And even then, it's in vague terms of 'Liberty'. The insults are allowed to stand over and over. I suppose it helps Oliver Stone return James Gunn's phone calls.
And, this is more 'Meh' than 'Didn't Work' but Ratcatcher 2, and most of the second Suicide Squad are too 'nice'. They only act villainous in specific moments, mostly for comedy. Ratcatcher 2 is particularly so innocent and optimistic and loving that it almost feels like a joke...but, no, she turns out to be everything John Lennon and the Beatles promised. Meh.
Themes: or the Most Feminist Movie in America
I'm not joking, this might be the most feminist movie any major studio has made, especially from Marvel or DC. And I don't mean 'fake feminism' that makes women into 'men with tits', I mean the other feminism where women are just people who can do most things men can do. The movie manages to do that without making all the male characters useless, helpless or stupid as well, which is almost a miracle. Almost.
Women are uniformly seen in roles not normally well represented: They are Corto Maltese soldiers, they lead the resistance movement against the generals (who are all depicted as sexist males, the movie isn't perfect), most of Amanda Waller's staff are women, the staffer who takes Waller out and takes over is a woman, Starro is defeated by two women (Harley and Ratcatcher 2....no word on the gender of the gnawing rats); Harley Quinn gets the ultimate romantic fantasy date where she is dressed pretty and made up, meets a stunningly handsome fit latin lover, who flatters her, asks her to marry him even.
But women are not protected, sacred, flawless creatures. They get killed too, Corto Maltese female soldiers get squished, MonGal gets burned to death, female rebels get killed by the Squad, even Harley gets tortured.
And the nudity is not just targeted towards men. There are naked tits in here, but also naked penises, and John Cena and Juan Diego Botto in tiny underwear.
Women are the villains as much as the men, Amanda Waller is twice the monster any of the Corto Maltese Generals are. Even Ratcatcher 2 is a thief and bank robber.
I don't know if anyone was paying attention, but James Gunn wrote a movie that once upon a time, every Feminist in the West would dream of...only with more explosions and gun fights, gore and alien starfish.
How to Fix It
Most of the problems in the film are really writing and editing problems, which are cheaper to fix than most.
I wouldn't have the first, head fake Suicide Squad. It wastes time and begins the 'jumping around' continuity problems, wasting screen time and ruining pacing. Have Harley integrated into the team from the beginning. That will give her the screen time her 'fame' apparently demands but without slowing things down to have private time. Besides, the real gold here is having these characters interact and bounce off each other.
Only one of Waller's staff should have the wide eyed innocent look about them. THAT person, whoever it is should be the one to knock Waller out and take over (I think 6' 6" Steve Agee would fit the bill and have the size and strength to be believable but...that's wishing for too much reality). Having all of her staff be surprised and shocked by Waller doesn't work.
No jumping back and forth in time. A flashback for backstory is one thing, it's not great, but if it's short even Ratcatcher 2's little scenes don't take up too much time and they're mostly narrated by her in the presence. The same should be done for any mandatory breaks in continuity if you do have to jump around.
You either don't need Flag, Bloodshot and Peacemaker or make even more of a point of the redundancy. Make them wonder, be paranoid even. None of these people, except Flag and Harley, know each other, let along should trust each other.
More group conflict. Again, these are all villains, all we get is Bloodsport and Peacemaker comparing dick size. (Surprisingly, John Cena might win that one) Inter-group conflict is gold for drama and plot complications.
Summary
I know I take movies too seriously. I know I demand a lot from films. But I do think there is a place for semi-mindless entertainment. I think The Suicide Squad works for that. I can see throwing it on for laughs and spectacle (and nudity or gore, whichever flips your switch). Movies are rarely perfect. This isn't but it's not a bad movie and it's much less offensive than anything Marvel has done since Infinity War.
Superhero movies are dying off, for better or for worse, but if you want a different spin on them, this is worth your time if you're willing to accept the R rating. And the rats.
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