What Are We? Some Kind of Second Suicide Squad?

 

There seemed to be a melancholic air to the plaza where the South Gate Regal Cinemas theater stood. Barely any cars littered the many parking lots. It was a hot. A forgotten "Max Height" sign was half fallen as we made our way into the parking structure. A solemn, unspoken metaphor as if to say that the times have not changed; social entertainment is not something that this parking lot has condoned. It wanted to block us out. The courtyard where the giant theater was condescending, It stood  as if to ask my friends and I if we should really be here. If  watching movies in the midst of the pandemic was really a good idea. But after the horrible affair of trying to watch Wonder Woman 1984 over a Zoom call and after all of us getting fully vaccinated, we decided to go against what the world was telling us. We decided to head into the theater and watch The Suicide Squad (2021).

It's been over eight months since Wonder Woman 1984  has arrived and the DCEU has been hurting for another new entry to get their hat back into the cinematic super hero ring. I could count Zack Snyder's Justice League, but I feel like that isn't entirely correct on account that the movie is a re-release/director's cut rather than a freshly shot movie. 

Despite being freshly shot, James Gunn's directed The Suicide Squad (2021) is technically a re-quel of DC's probably biggest blunder, David Ayer's Suicide Squad (2016). There are definitely repeat characters, they replaced Will Smith's Deadshot with Idris Elba's Bloodsport (despite having almost the exact same character and skillset). They even brought back Rick Flagg and Harley Quinn. But at least the plot has a few twists and turns that kept me happy and doesn't rely so heavily on terribly worded exposition and terribly written characters. 

To keep things short, I enjoyed my time with The Suicide Squad. It's like a solid B grade movie. I think after watching so many super hero movies in the past couple of decades, I've started to figure out that there are just checkboxes these "squad/team-up" movies come up with so they can meet the demographics they need to capture. It felt like I had seen the same scene from another super hero movie being displayed right in front of me. Even the devil-may-care attitude reminds me a lot of Deadpool. If you're looking for a new take on the super hero film genre, you're not going to find it here.  

However, you will find a well executed team up movie that doesn't take long to get going. While some things may seem familiar, Gunn does a good job of making his version of Suicide Squad his own. I have to admit that I didn't think Idris Elba would fit the role of a for-hire assassin, but he impressed me. I felt like he carried the disheartened and uncaring attitude much better than Will Smith's character in the other movie. Harley on the other hand felt like her entire involvement was contrived. She needed to be in the movie only because of the fact that WB wanted her in it. If you removed her entire presence, the plot of the movie would be the same and probably twenty minutes shorter. Though she did have a pretty cool fight scene towards the end. Much of the other members included on the squad were great additions and were used to for some good action and comedy.

While a lot of the awkwardness was pretty hilarious, It did feel a bit repetitive. There's only so many times I can here Idris Elba go "uhhh.....[insert expletive]" and laugh in one movie. The other issue is that the pacing was extremely brisk in the beginning only to sort of drag on towards the end. I mean, do we really need to have two rescue missions? It's a bit unnecessary. 

 All in all, I'd probably give the movie a solid 8 out of 10.