The premise of The Suicide Squad is not too dissimilar from its predecessor, a team of super villains are sent on a mission for the US government in exchange for reduced sentences, these missions tend to be very dangerous hence the name Suicide Squad. In this film we see Task Force X (official US Govt name) sent to a fictional South American country for a mission that eventually pits the steam against a giant alien starfish called Starro I don’t want to give too much away other than the Suicide Squad lives up to its name.
What elevates The Suicide Squad is its execution both figuratively and literally, The Squad is a lot more expendable this time around, sure characters Like Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, Idris Elba's Bloodsport and John Cena's Peacemaker are probably going to stick around longer than others but this movie is full of surprises. While the first movie struggled a bit where it stood with being violent and edgy in the wake of the success of Deadpool, The Suicide Squad knows where it stands and that’s big expensive Hollywood action with the sensibilities of a director who started his career making films for Troma. Its Edgy, it's funny, it's violent but in a consistent way and one that fits with its source material. Speaking of violence, this is a very violent movie, but unlike Snyder's comic book movies this violence has an absurdity that matches what you may see in a comic book, it's very much a spectacle and in a way just a a big budget version of what one might see from a Troma B Movie.
Back to the cast, it is huge with some big names coming on board. We also see the return of some characters from the first movie such as Rick Flag, Captain Boomerang and obviously Harley Quinn. For such a large cast it is pretty amazing how much you end up caring about and liking the characters that show up. One example is Rick Flag who was not super notable in the original but in this he is way better and they make you care. Other characters that get to shine with Nanaue/King Shark, Polka Dot man and Ratcatcher 2. In a way this feels like a natural extension of what we got in Guardians of the Galaxy but with the added tension that any of them could die.
On the action, we get some pretty cool set pieces and Starro at the end is a pretty cool antagonist. After watching Zack Snyder's Justice League earlier in the year it's kinda funny that we get a pink and blue starfish in the same universe. The general interaction between characters is good, about what you would expect from the guy who made Guardians of the Galaxy. There is a lot of crazy shit but the movie still has a lot of heart and has its characters that really bring things together.
As much as I enjoyed this movie it isn't perfect. Like the first movie there is a very heavy use of licensed music which may or may not work for you. Personally I liked what showed up I don’t think it's not as good as the Guardians of the galaxy films. I also don’t think this movie is as smooth as some Gunns previous work with the Guardians movies, things can be a bit more jarring which may be to do with the tone and sensibilities of the film. This movie is filled with ultra-violence and heart felt moments and those things don’t always flow naturally.
Overall I really enjoyed this movie, it's one of the better movies I have seen this year, I think it's one of the better DC movies in general and really redeems the Suicide Squad source material. I don’t think it's for everyone but if you're on board with comic book movies and have enjoyed movies like Deadpool or other R action comedies you will probably like it too. What happened with Gunn as Disney was pretty bad and should not have happened but in a way I'm glad we got this out of it. In a way it really brings together the different parts of James Gunn's career, starting at Troma, making an amazing comic book movie like Guardians of the Galaxy and really putting all that stuff together to make craziest most bombastic comic movies you will see in The Suicide Squad.