‘The Suicide Squad’ Leaves a lot to be Desired (Review)
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DC fans will be unable to catch a break while watching this messy and incongruous script.
Director James Gunn was given the keys to The Suicide Squad after the disastrous attempt in 2016 — which seems to be largely ignored in the DCEU by all. Many people, myself included, were optimistic about getting a Gunnian-stylized film with an ensemble cast, something Gunn is exceptional at, proven by the monumental success of Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1 & 2.
Alfred Hitchcock has a famous quote about the three things you need to make a good movie. The script, the script and the script. 2021’s The Suicide Squad suffers because of Gunn’s over-stylized approach trying to mask a very lacking script with poorly written characters.
Even for a premise as silly and as fun as the concept of a ‘suicide squad,’ the pacing suffers from a pretty incongruous plot with a complete lack of story.
Audiences will still find it enjoyable enough to have a decent time with it. John Cena as Peacemaker has great screen presence and chemistry with the rest of the cast, but can only do so much to get his costars to reciprocate. The vast majority of the banter between the crew outside of Cena’s Peacemaker falls flat because of the lack of cohesive chemistry and painfully unfunny jokes in the script.
But the film isn’t a dreary nightmare like the 2016 version and isn’t as bad as I’m making it sound. It actually has quite a few redeeming qualities. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn isn’t reduced to nothing more than eye-candy. However, her character’s place in the story is on the backburner and usually detracts from the scenes she’s in. Robbie did what she could with the jokes in the script, but the foundation wasn’t strong enough to allow her to get the belly laughs her career has shown us she’s capable of extracting.
The R-rating helped Gunn in achieving his vision. Gunn leans in to the gratuitous violence which resulted in some pretty effective visual gags. But for each well done visual gag like Cena’s Peacemaker and Idris Elba’s Bloodsport trying to compete in style-killings, they’re partially undermined by the scattered pacing. The film feels like 12–15 different independent sequences that Gunn stitched together to form a coherent enough plot to be morphed into a movie.
In the climax when character arcs should come to fruition or a conclusion, they are either completely abandoned or never developed beyond their introduction. Instead, the film focuses on the lackluster spectacle of the climactic showdown which could have used a little more thematic cohesion.
The themes and messages of the film are either poorly explored, poorly introduced or pulled out of thin air with nothing preceding them — ending with the illusion of being tied up with a bow. It’s as if a beautiful hotel was constructed without a lobby and paper walls. A big enough gust of wind and it all falls apart.
DC fans will likely rejoice as after a handful of attempts, the fans finally got something that is passably competent, but the more casual fans might find themselves seeing through the stylized grandiose illusion and finding the messy script.
