‘The Suicide Squad’ Is Director James Gunn’s Gruesome Love Letter To Comic Books
By Connor Danz, Creative Editor
“The Suicide Squad,” written and directed by James Gunn, is the latest movie from Warner Brothers and DC comics to compete with Disney’s Juggernaut MCU. Previous attempts by DC and their partners to wage a counter-assault have been middling affairs, to say the least. They range from movies like “Wonder Woman” and “Shazam,” to “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad” and to the downright awful with 2017’s “Justice League.”
It has been a rough ride for DC and Warner Bros. With the poor reception of the films “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey,” they tapped one of Marvel’s heavy hitters, James Gunn, and gave him full control to make his own story with the Suicide Squad and it is the best superhero movie I have seen in a decade.
Unlike nearly every other DC movie, “The Suicide Squad” has one clear vision throughout. No forced connections to possible future projects, just the complete vision of one man, James Gunn who brings his absolute A-game to this movie. After watching this movie, it is incredibly hard to go back to his previous Marvel work like “Guardians of the Galaxy”, while a good movie in its own right, you can see how constrained he was creatively after seeing this. Everything from the music, the cinematography, the insane character designs, and the artistic choices all scream that this is a comic book movie. Not just a movie that features comic book characters, it feels like you’re watching a comic book.
The acting in this movie is also fantastic, unlike the series’ previous movie, “The Suicide Squad” gives room across the entire movie for all of their characters to fully develop making you grow attached and care for them throughout the movie, which may be the most villainous trick up the movie’s sleeve. Right from the outset, the movie sends the incredibly clear message that no character (except for Harley Quinn) is safe from death by any means, no matter how absurd it may seem.
This puts the viewer on the seat the whole time as you genuinely care about this rag-tag team of characters but at any moment, one or more of them could die. This masterclass in suspense and character drama is aided greatly by the amazing performances from the entire cast. While the entire cast did a stand-up job, the definite highlights are Joel Kinnaman and Viola Davis returning as Captain Rick Flagg and Amanda Waller from the first film, Kinnaman portraying a much more fleshed out character with his motivations, and Davis bringing the cold and calculated demeanor of Amanda Waller few others could capture.
Other standouts being Idris Elba as the team leader, Bloodsport, John Cena as the fanatical soldier, Peacemaker, Daniela Melchior as the heart of the team, Ratcatcher 2 and last but not least, David Dastmalchian as the superhero, Polka-Dot Man.
James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” is not only an excellent movie, but it is an amazing expansion and reinvention of the superhero movie, which has become a dime a dozen in modern Hollywood. Within its run time, it can tell a fully actualized and well-written story with a fully developed cast with no interference to set up future movies. This movie is HIGHLY recommended as a great movie overall. Beats out almost every MCU movie in terms of sure quality and artistry.