Suicide Squad It was the first film to be released with attachment to this new strategy, but the result was as rugged as Batman vs superman, sparking conversations that the study interference it was of such magnitude that the vision of the directors in charge of the projects was repressed.
Perhaps in response to the urgency of giving filmmakers complete creative freedom or perhaps as a strategy to gain the trust of the community, Warner Bros. opened the doors to James Gunn after he was fired by Disney following a social media scandal and tasked with creating a sequel to Suicide Squad, work that seemed natural considering the past of the director with Guardians of the Galaxy.
The suspicion then was that this sequel would be just a Guardians of the Galaxy inhabited by characters from DC Comics, but fortunately we are facing a risky work which may be the best movie in the entire DC Extended Universe.
Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has a new high-risk mission in his hands and, as in the first film, he believes that the best thing is to reunite several supervillains, offer them sentence reductions (or blackmail them) and form the Task Force X, nicknamed Suicide Squad, to carry it out.Some members of the first Suicide Squad, such as Harley Quinn (Margot robbie), they are back and will join other characters like Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voice of Sylvester Stallone) and Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela melchior) to enter an island and fulfill the mission, and as they go they will realize that the threat goes beyond what was initially posed to them.
To better appreciate The Suicide Squad you have to consider the James Gunn origins, a filmmaker who found international success after writing and directing the two installments of Guardians of the Galaxy (and soon the third), but that came out of the ranks of the independent production company Troma, home to quirky, low-budget films like The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ‘Em High Y Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.
He had the opportunity to bring his taste for horror and blood to the big leagues of Hollywood and wrote the script for the remake of Dawn of the Dead directed by Zack Snyder, and it was in 2006 that he released Slither, his debut in the director’s chair and a tribute to the zombie and alien cinema of the 70s and 80s that he is passionate about.
The Suicide Squad It’s Gunn’s return to the movies dotted with blood and humor, wrapped in guts and in which people and monsters coexist, now under the protection of a property of DC comics with which he had an open letter to do whatever he wanted – something that he himself has confirmed time and again and that is evident from the first minutes.
Gunn proposes a soft reboot to Suicide Squad, but he makes sure to give the audience points of identity through characters he already knows like Quinn, Waller, and Rick Flag (Joel kinnaman) to bring you into a transition where, despite the amount of action on the screen, there is a due construction of protagonists.
It is impossible not to do a comparative exercise between the two Suicide Squad. The film of David Yesterday -Unfortunately intervened by Warner Bros.– assumed that the audience did not need to know the characters and opted for presentation cards or meaningless lines, such as the infamous “This is Katana” which was mocked on the internet. Conversely, Gunn manages to introduce a significant number of characters, focusing on those whose bond with the viewer is essential to retain interest and achieve fluency in narrative.
Without sacrificing rhythm or tone, the film exposes through flashbacks the most relevant aspects of its central characters, leaving loose those ends that will be resolved later in the main narrative, which translates into solid motivations Y congruent evolutions.
Gunn’s ease with his casts is evident once again and you just have to observe the chemistry between Elba and Cena, who put it at the service of a script that is subjected to a humorous profile while making action or dramatic turns without losing consistency.
Robbie has never been better as Harley Quinn. Unlike Birds of prey -a film that wasted its cast and that was assumed funny just for insisting on the gag of a sandwich-, here we see it being the center of memorable moments that encompass the same action sequences that monologues. The Australian actress has embodied the character for five years, but it is until now that she is allowed to shine without resorting to an elemental slapstick.
And as with both Guardians of the Galaxy, here is a CGI character of few words designed to conquer audiences: King Shark, who in his role as passive-aggressive comedic relief raises laughter, generates tenderness and dyes the screen red.
That brings us to the human carnage that abounds in the film and that will be applauded by the enthusiastic audience of the gore.
The Suicide Squad is to see Gunn embracing their origins in the cinema series b, finding himself in the highest point of popularity of his career. Although he had already had the opportunity to honor films such as The Fly Y The Thing and to show their passage through Troma in his debut SlitherIt was an effort that took place while making his way into Hollywood and when no one imagined that he would one day be associated with the Avengers house.
Now that Warner Bros. let him do whatever he wanted, the filmmaker had the luxury of filling the film with dismemberment, beheadings, sliced throats, busted heads, discarded bodies, and monsters, but now with a premier investment, which he does. that The Suicide Squad feel like a Troma tape made on a multi-million dollar budget.
The director even returns to expose a thematic concern related to the “zombiefication” of the collective consciousness and that he addressed precisely in Slither.
If to all that is added the abundance of foul language, we have as a result a risky movie that is part of that strain of comic cinema aimed at adult audiences what Warner and DC are betting on and that we have seen in the last couple of years through exponents like Birds of prey Y Joker.
The Suicide Squad is an example of the exceptional result that can be achieved when there is confidence in the directors, they are given complete creative freedom and multi-million dollar budgets are provided, finding a middle ground where the vision of a filmmaker and the economic interest of a studio coexist in harmony.
It is an exciting, funny, grotesque and even emotional movie. It’s a super author blockbuster which implies Gunn’s return to the humorous and blood-drenched cinema in which he took his first steps, but now from the trench of a superhero film with privileged investment for which he was recognized worldwide.
It is a work that radiates style and personality from its start, it is the most Troma that Gunn has done since he hit the big leagues of comic book movies and is probably the best tape in the entire DC Extended Universe.
Rating: 10/10
The Suicide Squad
Year: 2021
Country: United States
Director: James Gunn
Script: James Gunn
Cast: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Peter Capaldi