What to Watch - The Suicide Squad

by James Rambo, Senior Editor for the Great Geek Refuge

The Suicide Squad

Director/Writer: James Gunn
Starring: Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Daniela Melchoir, David Dastmalchian, Viola Davis

David Ayer’s Suicide Squad was sold primarily via a trailer cut to resemble James Gunn’s initial effort from Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy. This led to disappointment for those expecting a fun, upbeat group of misfits kicking ass only to get a heavily stylized, grim, grimy, and joyless movie with a handful of solid performances. Given the swipe of his narrative style as promotion for an unrelated film it’s ironic that Gunn ended up not only directing the not sequel/not reboot The Suicide Squad, but just how successfully he was able to do it. It’s a great example of what it is that makes Gunn’s films so enjoyable: sincerity. There’s no pretense in his work, just a genuine love and appreciation for what he’s making.

Gunn is a man that puts himself into his art. That he works exclusively in genre film (at least as of this writing) is no coincidence, both because of his initial entry into the film industry at Lloyd Kaufman’s Troma Films and the freedom it grants. Genre films allow you to have the same pathos and emotional resonance of any Best Picture drama but you can do it with monsters and slime and gruesome violence. They aren’t beholden to the ever-present and insidious idea that to be an adult means to abandon a sense of humor or appreciation for sensationalism.

The general plot: picking up with a particularly speedy pacing, TSS throws us into the story immediately. Shadowy government agent Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis, one of a handful of shared characters between both films) has an offer with a hell of a caveat: complete a mission with Task Force X and have 10 years cut off your prison sentence, the catch being that the missions themselves are so dangerous that you likely won’t survive it. Gunn mainstays Michael Rooker (as Savant,) Nathan Fillion (as TDK,) and Sean Gunn (as Weasel) join an already impressive cast boasting a few A-list actors (Idris Elba, Margot Robbie) as D-list supervillains. I’ve been reading comics for multiple decades at this point and I’d say about half the characters in this movie had me Googling who’s who.

Because of the deep bench of random characters Gunn has to play with, you genuinely don’t know who will make it to the end of the mission or movie. That would be entertaining enough -- trying to suss out which jackass is gonna bite it and when -- but then Gunn has to go and be good at his jobs and make you genuinely care about these murderers, monsters, and man-sharks. The sentiment “Man, I hope Polka Dot Man makes it out of this,” is one I never thought I’d share and yet it’s a genuine feeling I had over the course of the movie. The standout performance has to be Daniela Melchoir’s Ratcatcher 2 as the Character Most Likely To Pull At The Heartstrings. The relationship between her birth father (a delightful cameo I wasn’t aware of and therefore won’t give away here) is established in less than 3 minutes of screen time but provides us with an emotional impact not often seen in a movie with a giant alien starfish. And her connection to Elba’s Bloodsport, a Rob Liefeld-esque assassin/mercenary literally covered in guns, perfectly bookends that unusual but very welcome sentimental depth.

It would be easy to say that this is just a reskinned Guardians. It would also be wrong. Despite some general similarities (team of misfit anti-hero types including a seemingly unintelligent big bruiser character and a badass hot lady working toward a common goal) the characters in TSS are fully realized. Be it the one upmanship between Peacemaker (John Cena) and Bloodsport, each going for the bigger, more brutal kill, or the tragic and disturbing origin of Polka Dot Man’s (David Dastmalchian) powers, Gunn and cast have taken special care in crafting genuine takes on what could very easily have been simple archetypes. Why, it’s almost like even big, silly action movies deserve narratives and characters you actually care about. Who'da thunk it?

There is a particular scene featuring Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn that stands as a major turning point for her character. I debated discussing it in-depth here but it was such a lovely and impactful sequence that comes as a genuine shock that I feel like telling you before you’ve seen it would be a disservice to you as the viewer and the cast and crew for the hard work they put into it. Without any details suffice it to say that Gunn has, as previously mentioned, put a lot of himself into this and between his writing and direction and Robbie’s performance we get to see Harley take some unexpected and very positive steps forward.

Friends, we have reached a tipping point. With the release of The Suicide Squad the DCEU now has more movies worth watching than not.* This outrageously violent, hilariously funny love letter to DC Comics via The Dirty Dozen was well worth the wait and the delay for GotG 3 and it’s one more win for the veteran writer/director. This is a momentous occasion. Shirley Temples on me!

*In order: Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam!, Birds of Prey, and The Suicide Squad. The Whedon Cut of Justice League is a toss-up. No, I don’t care if you disagree but I’m happy you found a thing that brings you joy, Internet Stranger.