Film Review: The Suicide Squad
Images courtesy of Warner Bros.
The Suicide Squad is a movie like few others. Using the nonsensical nature of comic books, an underrated plot line is borrowed from existing comics (with unexpected twists laced throughout) to maximum effect in this soft reboot of a franchise that DC has been attempting to bring to the mainstream arguably since 2013 with Man of Steel.
The Suicide Squad is a movie that relishes in an unorthodox relationship with its audience. From the get-go, the eponymous Squad is assembled to subvert a dastardly plot brewing away somewhere out on the world by some maniacal baddies whilst the movie does what it does best: have fun, regardless of the costs.
Suicide Squads are a dime a dozen, the premise is that criminals can reduce their sentence by playing spy in the niche world of geopolitics as a hired arm of the government. Obviously, that seems completely natural when one ponders the sentencing of Harley Quinn, a returning Suicide Squad member, and taking into account that she’s got life behind bars anyway – why not have some fun outside while you can? Following along with this line of thought however, is the realisation that these groups are the government’s last resort. The Suicide Squad delights in this concept.
I have never described a movie’s cast as ‘perishable’, but these people do not have a long shelf life. In a rotating door of violence, the film uses premium digital effects to show the audience just how funny gore can be. I’m not even trying to be specific, the amount of people slaughtered in this film duly awards its MA 15+ rating. Horrors like Saw have some pretty skin-crawling torture traps that are not funny… The Suicide Squad has very similar executions that are side-splittingly hilarious. It’s really the beauty of a director to be able to show such sights in ways contrasting like day and night, but director James Gunnpulls it off flawlessly.
To continue with the plot line, once villains are released from prison and entrusted with defeating terror, they are told in no uncertain terms that if they defy the mission a detonation device in their skulls will explode. I was going to use a metaphor, but I think the image that leaves in your imagination is enough. This is a high-risk mission, life or death, and I want to see someone’s head blow up! You’ll have to see the movie to find out if one does.
Underrated plot lines are worn by The Suicide Squad with pride. The B-list cast of supervillains (and the practical usage of their powers in real life) is hoisted to glorious effect when you start to realise ‘no, these characters actually exist and have comic books detailing their terrors’. Someone with a ‘superpower’ of detachable limbs is not the VIP of the battlefield nowadays is all I’m saying…
The movie is golden. A rare gem in DC’s otherwise meek and depressed comic book adaptions of late. Absolutely hilarious, but serious enough to invest everyone in the audience in the subplot of a lonely shark.
The Suicide Squad is available to view in select cinemas and stream online now.