Not to be confused with the 2016 supervillain action movie Suicide Squad from director David Ayer, The Suicide Squad (the title differentiated by the addition of an indefinite article) is the 2021 sequel from Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn. It's the same premise—the baddest of the imprisoned supervillains are drafted for dangerous missions by the government in exchange for shorter sentences—with a mix of new and returning characters on the team.
This team reunites the first film's star player Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) with Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Colonel Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), the non-criminal mission leader, who are joined by deadly sharpshooter Bloodsport (Idris Elba), homicidally patriotic one-man-army Peacemaker (John Cena), and some of the most obscure and ridiculous villains drawn from the pages of DC comic books.
Their mission sends them to a (fictional) South American island country that has imprisoned its own superpowered creature. Gunn, who also wrote the original script, leans into the inherent absurdity of some of the more oddball characters, like King Shark, literally a talking humanoid shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), who disgorges interdimensional polka dots like projectiles, and T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), whose superpower is detachable fighting limbs. Gunn also embraces the R rating with the giddy overkill of extreme violence—half the squad is literally blown to bits in the opening assault—which he unleashes with black humor and bad puns.
Gunn embraces the garish spectacle, wildly silly concepts, and tormented villains who exhibit at least a little heroism or moral center at some point in the mission making it more fun than the largely humorless original. Elba is suitably intense as the deadly assassin who takes the mission to save his estranged daughter and Cena has fun playing a macho bad guy convinced that he's saving the world with every violent act.
But Robbie is still the secret weapon as the wild child Harley Quinn, who embraces her madness and finds pleasure in every destructive, antisocial act she engages in. And once again, the most ruthless character in the film is government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who is ready to execute any and all of the team members for defying orders.
Be warned, however, that it is not for kids. The R rating is for strong violence and gore, language, sexual references, drug use, and brief graphic nudity. The Blu-ray and DVD releases also include director commentary, deleted and extended scenes, and lots of behind-the-scenes featurettes. A strong optional purchase for public library patrons with an interest in comic books and superheroes.
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