The Suicide Squad

After proving he can make two movies based on little known Marvel characters be hugely successful with the two Guardians of the Galaxy films, James Gunn does the same with DC characters by switching from the MCU to the DCEU for The Suicide Squad. While a followup to the first film in 2016, this entry is way different from its predecessor in so many ways, such as through its storytelling, tone, and visual style. The film sees the eponymous team being sent to the fictional South American nation of Corto Maltese wherein they have to deal with its corrupt government, as well as their own teammates, in order to deal with secret experiments. Gunn is a director who's not afraid to make comic book based movies and have the most insane and obscure subjects from them become part of the movies. The fact that Warner Bros. let him do whatever he wanted for this film, after hiring Gunn to do whatever project he wanted, and he chose to do a hard-R rated extremely violent but also silly sequel to one of the weakest entries in the DCEU just shows the great tenacity that Gunn has and how that shows with this entry. Compared to the first film, this one is absolutely insane and filled with so much absurdity, love and respect to the source material, and filled with enough debauchery to make the original seem tame. Gunn's love for obscure and often silly characters means we get to have adaptations of characters that would have been considered too much for live action, such as Polka-Dot Man as played by David Dastmalchian and the giant alien starfish Starro the Conqueror, and he manages to make them believable. While not everyone from the first movie returns, with some exception including Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, and Jai Courtney, much of the new cast brings their absolute best, such as Idris Elba as Bloodsport, John Cena as Peacemaker, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, and Sylvester Stallone voicing King Shark. Whether anyone in the large cast appears all the way through or briefly, every single one gives strong performances. But the standouts that steal the movie are Margot Robbie, as expected due to her performance as Harley Quinn, and Cena as Peacemaker for just how over the top his character is and the insanity that goes in playing someone who believes in extreme violence to bring peace, which is no surprise that he got his own spinoff show. Besides the cast and Gunn's writing and directing, the editing, cinematography, music, and effects that went into this movie is just as fresh and engaging. Editors Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner combine comic book like cuts and chapter titles with great pacing to make a huge improvement from the first while giving this one its own identity. The effects are incredible and not only make characters like King Shark and Starro feel real, but give us some of the most fun use of gore and violence in any superhero movie. The cinematography from Henry Braham gives us some of the most fresh looking and absolutely beautiful shots that the DCEU has ever given us. John Murphy's score has a great mixture of drama, comedy, warmth, tragic, and even epic music combined with great use of licensed songs that compliment what's happening onscreen. That's not to say that it's completely flawless, of course there are some things wrong but they don't detract as much. My biggest gripe would be that although I loved how a lot of characters died, there were two that I thought were a mistake to kill off. For anyone worried that they don't want to see this movie because of how they felt about the first, there's no worrying as The Suicide Squad is not only a huge improvement over the first but another sign of the DCEU learning from its past. Over all: 100%

2021 top list so far:

1. In the Heights

2. The Green Knight

3. The Suicide Squad

4. Nobody

5. Black Widow

6. A Quiet Place Part II

7. Raya and the Last Dragon

8. Jungle Cruise

9. Cruella

10. Wrath of Man

11. F9

12. Snake Eyes

13. Old

14. Space Jam: A New Legacy