OK, I'll be reviewing James Gunn's The Suicide Squad (2021) from the perspective of someone who isn't a diehard DC Comics fan, which is what I am (sorry guys, Marvel's always been more my thing). That said, I quite enjoyed this film for what it is, a really gritty war movie with boatloads of heart (plus simultaneous hatred), an underlining dark comedic tone and cascades of spectacularly over-the-top, sick action-violence that completely goes off the rails in quick succession right from the get-go (oh yeah, and a few satirical elements come into play). To put it blunt and simply, this is the most mainstream Troma-esque film I've ever seen be made, which is no surprise given the director got his start in the industry thanks to his mental former mentor Lloyd Kaufman - the madman schlock maestro himself. Since this film is centred around a ragtag bunch of rebellious antiheroes, it draws pretty strong correlations to the nitty-gritty Spaghetti Westerns of old with its unpredictable "rough and ready, no holding back" attitude, various double-crossing plot twists and the fact that not every character makes it out alive to see the end; A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) are the prime examples that spring to mind. Only difference here is that instead of being about gunslinging cowboy outlaws in the archaic Old West, it's a government led team of incarcerated bad guys with super-powered abilities who're all burdened due to their own internal conflicts and seeking some mild form of redemption for those past struggles (so not totally the exact same thing, but fairly close).
I recall back to when folks once hailed Alex Garland's grounded DREDD 3D (2012) as being one of the most ultra-goriest superhero films ever made, and how that honour soon quickly went over to Fox's screwball Deadpool duology (2016-2018). But I can safely say after seeing this, now they have to bestow that title onto The Suicide Squad because those previous comments couldn't be anymore redundant by now. Although saying that, if you've already seen a whole load of disturbingly gruesome imagery in prior genre films beforehand - such as the many body-horror movies of the '80s and '90s - then really, you might be a tad disappointed to find that it's not all that much gorier than most of those older horror-oriented ones are. What makes all the gory parts in those old-school horror movies more effective is that the practical-effects in them (i.e. Special prosthetic makeup and other physical on-set props) felt tangible to the human eye, whereas conversely the polished visual-effects bloodshed you see in modern splatter flicks today are all one big digital graphic generated on a computer screen and yes, while they may look way more convincing to audiences nowadays, they just never give me that same sort of feeling I get when I watch the classic older effects; which is a raw sense of dirty realism because it was all actually done in-camera during the principal photography shoot and not just composited in the scene later on in post-production after filming the whole thing (the point I'm driving at is that VFX don't affect me in the same way like how SFX do).
The main expendable group of awesome supervillain lunatics are all given their manically memorable moments to sadistically shine; whether that be them displaying frequent outbursts of psychopathic actions (some of which can be rather disturbing, at points) or just simply showboating to one-up each other on the mission, it's all good character-building stuff considering the fact they're supposed to be black ops baddies that we shouldn't like or be rooting for with their drastically unhinged personalities (this is further reinforced by their ever-present erratic behaviours). I'd say that out of the entire task force, Idris Elba's mercenary persona stood-out as the only one with a mostly cool, calm and collected frame-of-mind; a somewhat levelheaded "I don't care very much for your nonsense" type demeanour, especially when he's reluctantly forced into the awkward position of temporary leadership. Seeing as how it was partially featured in almost all the marketing (which includes trailers, teasers and TV spots), it's NO spoiler that Starro the Conqueror is in this film as the penultimate antagonistic threat. As someone who knows next to nothing about comic book lore but who's right into black-and-white creature features from the "Atomic Age" of classic 1950s cinema, this gargantuan one-eyed starfish-looking alien would've fitted in perfectly with the bonkers Gamera franchise (being a big daikaiju addict, it's appearance properly satisfied me). And Sylvester Stallone giving his voice to a slow-minded man-shark (who's constantly famished and friendless) in a prominent live-action role sure is one heck of an anomaly, one which I never thought I'd see happen to such a high-profile Hollywood actor as him (seems like it'd be the sort of thing you'd likely see in a cheesy low-budget B-movie).
Just some miscellaneous things I want to comment on now; I found it kind of distracting how Gunn's script brought up the word "children" several times throughout the course of the film, placed in the context of preventing something really bad from happening to them. It seemed to me like the man still harbours an awful amount of emotional guilt over the numerous risque mistakes he made on social media years and years back, in reference to him posting tasteless, unfunny and downright offensive "jokes" (his own failed attempts at doing edgy humour publicly) about certain sensitive subjects on Twitter long ago. I get he may continue to have a guilty-conscience about his previous actions and wants to atone for what he did by facing his inner-demons (from a certain point-of-view), but sometime or another you're going to have to let go and move on, hold your head up high and look forward to the future, try to better yourself and ultimately be the bigger person than you once where before without dwelling too heavily on your past wrong-doings because otherwise it'll gradually consume you (if you're not careful, it can leave you writhing around in a lot of guilt-ridden pain). I also wasn't a fan of the uncomfortable "bird cruelty" scenes, but I get they were all fictitious depictions and never really happened (so I'm not too distressed). I'm typically not that much of a prudish person but there's a big overload on the excessive usage of swear words spouted out for juvenile jokes, as it's shock value starts to wane when they're said over a billion times in the same scene (thus rendering them ineffective to the senses as your mind becomes numb after a while of listening to it).
So overall, The Suicide Squad was a ridiculously fun time. I may not like it as much as David F. Sandberg's tongue-in-cheek Shazam! (2019), but I think it's miles better than Zack Snyder's miserable and depressing Batman vs. Superman (2016). And just to reiterate, if you were expecting to see a high amount of extremely horrific gore in this movie, than you'll probably be a little let down with it's actual content. Sure, the pacing might drag on a bit halfway through when we reach the Second Act and people can complain about certain plot-holes all they want by nitpicking them to death, but I say anyone who takes movies too seriously is going to miss out on enjoying the immense entertainment value something as absurdly stupid as this has to offer the viewer. It's just an unapologetically CGI-heavy gore-fest with an appropriate soundtrack comprised of licensed music, tons of cleverly-written sarky quips to keep you amused (Gunn's trademark quirky style) and some gruesomely exaggerated sequences of crazy ultra-violent action set-pieces (most were seemingly done on-location in the real world with wire-work stunts and pyrotechnic explosions going off, and weren't all solely performed in front of a studio green-screen), all of which are surprisingly rich in exquisite detail. Accept it for what it is and you'll have an absolute blast watching; a hilarious ride of black comedy that's got an unleashed level of self-awareness which tells you to go along with the daft premise as this knows exactly how dumb it truly is by embracing it's barmy source material. But only watch if you're really feeling in the right mood for an insane war zone-type film with a morbidly-humorous silly vibe and vibrantly colourful superhero-motif.
Just one last piece of interesting trivia for you; if you've ever seen any one of his previous films before, it would appear as though James Gunn has a weird "tentacle fetish" going on in his prior body of work as his past filmography literally has them in almost every single feature he's directed so far - from Slither (2006) to Super (2010) and of course, his Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) for Marvel - and now, in addition to all that, The Suicide Squad as well. Man, Gunn sure likes his slimy tentacled thingies, doesn't he.
I recall back to when folks once hailed Alex Garland's grounded DREDD 3D (2012) as being one of the most ultra-goriest superhero films ever made, and how that honour soon quickly went over to Fox's screwball Deadpool duology (2016-2018). But I can safely say after seeing this, now they have to bestow that title onto The Suicide Squad because those previous comments couldn't be anymore redundant by now. Although saying that, if you've already seen a whole load of disturbingly gruesome imagery in prior genre films beforehand - such as the many body-horror movies of the '80s and '90s - then really, you might be a tad disappointed to find that it's not all that much gorier than most of those older horror-oriented ones are. What makes all the gory parts in those old-school horror movies more effective is that the practical-effects in them (i.e. Special prosthetic makeup and other physical on-set props) felt tangible to the human eye, whereas conversely the polished visual-effects bloodshed you see in modern splatter flicks today are all one big digital graphic generated on a computer screen and yes, while they may look way more convincing to audiences nowadays, they just never give me that same sort of feeling I get when I watch the classic older effects; which is a raw sense of dirty realism because it was all actually done in-camera during the principal photography shoot and not just composited in the scene later on in post-production after filming the whole thing (the point I'm driving at is that VFX don't affect me in the same way like how SFX do).
The main expendable group of awesome supervillain lunatics are all given their manically memorable moments to sadistically shine; whether that be them displaying frequent outbursts of psychopathic actions (some of which can be rather disturbing, at points) or just simply showboating to one-up each other on the mission, it's all good character-building stuff considering the fact they're supposed to be black ops baddies that we shouldn't like or be rooting for with their drastically unhinged personalities (this is further reinforced by their ever-present erratic behaviours). I'd say that out of the entire task force, Idris Elba's mercenary persona stood-out as the only one with a mostly cool, calm and collected frame-of-mind; a somewhat levelheaded "I don't care very much for your nonsense" type demeanour, especially when he's reluctantly forced into the awkward position of temporary leadership. Seeing as how it was partially featured in almost all the marketing (which includes trailers, teasers and TV spots), it's NO spoiler that Starro the Conqueror is in this film as the penultimate antagonistic threat. As someone who knows next to nothing about comic book lore but who's right into black-and-white creature features from the "Atomic Age" of classic 1950s cinema, this gargantuan one-eyed starfish-looking alien would've fitted in perfectly with the bonkers Gamera franchise (being a big daikaiju addict, it's appearance properly satisfied me). And Sylvester Stallone giving his voice to a slow-minded man-shark (who's constantly famished and friendless) in a prominent live-action role sure is one heck of an anomaly, one which I never thought I'd see happen to such a high-profile Hollywood actor as him (seems like it'd be the sort of thing you'd likely see in a cheesy low-budget B-movie).
Just some miscellaneous things I want to comment on now; I found it kind of distracting how Gunn's script brought up the word "children" several times throughout the course of the film, placed in the context of preventing something really bad from happening to them. It seemed to me like the man still harbours an awful amount of emotional guilt over the numerous risque mistakes he made on social media years and years back, in reference to him posting tasteless, unfunny and downright offensive "jokes" (his own failed attempts at doing edgy humour publicly) about certain sensitive subjects on Twitter long ago. I get he may continue to have a guilty-conscience about his previous actions and wants to atone for what he did by facing his inner-demons (from a certain point-of-view), but sometime or another you're going to have to let go and move on, hold your head up high and look forward to the future, try to better yourself and ultimately be the bigger person than you once where before without dwelling too heavily on your past wrong-doings because otherwise it'll gradually consume you (if you're not careful, it can leave you writhing around in a lot of guilt-ridden pain). I also wasn't a fan of the uncomfortable "bird cruelty" scenes, but I get they were all fictitious depictions and never really happened (so I'm not too distressed). I'm typically not that much of a prudish person but there's a big overload on the excessive usage of swear words spouted out for juvenile jokes, as it's shock value starts to wane when they're said over a billion times in the same scene (thus rendering them ineffective to the senses as your mind becomes numb after a while of listening to it).
So overall, The Suicide Squad was a ridiculously fun time. I may not like it as much as David F. Sandberg's tongue-in-cheek Shazam! (2019), but I think it's miles better than Zack Snyder's miserable and depressing Batman vs. Superman (2016). And just to reiterate, if you were expecting to see a high amount of extremely horrific gore in this movie, than you'll probably be a little let down with it's actual content. Sure, the pacing might drag on a bit halfway through when we reach the Second Act and people can complain about certain plot-holes all they want by nitpicking them to death, but I say anyone who takes movies too seriously is going to miss out on enjoying the immense entertainment value something as absurdly stupid as this has to offer the viewer. It's just an unapologetically CGI-heavy gore-fest with an appropriate soundtrack comprised of licensed music, tons of cleverly-written sarky quips to keep you amused (Gunn's trademark quirky style) and some gruesomely exaggerated sequences of crazy ultra-violent action set-pieces (most were seemingly done on-location in the real world with wire-work stunts and pyrotechnic explosions going off, and weren't all solely performed in front of a studio green-screen), all of which are surprisingly rich in exquisite detail. Accept it for what it is and you'll have an absolute blast watching; a hilarious ride of black comedy that's got an unleashed level of self-awareness which tells you to go along with the daft premise as this knows exactly how dumb it truly is by embracing it's barmy source material. But only watch if you're really feeling in the right mood for an insane war zone-type film with a morbidly-humorous silly vibe and vibrantly colourful superhero-motif.
Just one last piece of interesting trivia for you; if you've ever seen any one of his previous films before, it would appear as though James Gunn has a weird "tentacle fetish" going on in his prior body of work as his past filmography literally has them in almost every single feature he's directed so far - from Slither (2006) to Super (2010) and of course, his Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) for Marvel - and now, in addition to all that, The Suicide Squad as well. Man, Gunn sure likes his slimy tentacled thingies, doesn't he.