The Suicide Squad

James Gunn moves away from his status as the king of the Guardians of the Galaxy and takes hold of DC’s Suicide Squad, this time offering a “The” at the front and enough gory mayhem to appease a demanding and expectant fan-base!

I’ll start this review by being honest and say that I actually do not hate David Ayer’s 2016 attempt at Suicide Squad. Yes its been critically savaged and mauled by fans, but in an age where it seems a week doesn’t go by when a new Superhero film is released, I can not say its the worst Superhero film ever made. I mean its 1000x better than Ryan Reynold’s attempts at being The Green Lantern? It also introduced to the world Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn even though at the same time we have all had to make sure we have forgotten Jared Leto’s attempt at Mr J.

Despite a clamour from fans to release the “Ayer version”, much like what happened with Snyder’s Justice League, DC and Warner have decided to go down the soft re-boot fashion and give is us a brand new Suicide Squad – sorry – THE SUICIDE SQUAD and have pulled in James Gunn to give it a Guardians of the Galaxy push, with added gore, a lot of swear words and a real superhero movie where our heroes actually do die. A lot of pressure then on Gunn but hey, what is that famous saying….? “With great responsibility, comes….”, oh hang on this is not Marvel!

While there are a few hints of the previous film, Gunn more or less rips up what was before and decides wisely to go down his own path. Fans of such films like the TROMA classics, rejoice as the dark nature and gags makes you feel like we one step away from The Toxic Avenger joining the team. This movie is not for children people, even though we are guessing if they are allowed to watch, they will love every crazy second of it.

The set up is not too dissimilar the first. We still have Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) using prisoners as heroes in which they have to obey or a bomb will go off and they head will go KABOOM! The returning faces from the last mission, Harley (Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), offer the continuity for the returning fans and while we get the likes of Nathan Fillion playing TDK in which he serves up a stunning visual gag and wisecrack from Harley, Gunn pulls off a neat trick right at the beginning which switches the plot and we then introduced to the proper new faces of our new team.

This time around we have the likes of Idris Elba’s Bloodsport a hitman that will have Will Smith wondering should he sue for copyright. John Cena’s Peacemaker who has the same abilities as Bloodsport and Deadshot but is more funnier and when Cena plays it like this, then as always he is a total and utter blast!

Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2 is more fun than you’d think and the utterly fantastic Polka Dot Man played by David Dastmalchian clearly proves that when our heroes have stupid powers, then its hilarious. The stand out though is King Shark (voiced by Sly Stallone) who for many will remember from The Flash TV Show but here is played with more humour and a thirst for blood who will no doubt do for the Suicide Squad to what Groot did for the Guardians.

Unlike the original film in which they battled a witch out to take over the world, here they have to battle a giant pink starfish from outer space called Starro who just happens to be telepathic. Yes, you read that right!

Despite the craziness, this really is the James Gunn show! Giving free reign by the powers that be, Gunn fully embraces his dark side and you get the feeling that its probably the most fun he has had behind the camera. Those hoping for a Guardians style caper will be in for a shock. The gags are cutting and sometimes downright hilarious, while Gunn is also not afraid to dip the films toes into the horror genre, with some death scenes that wouldn’t look out of place if Jigsaw himself was involved in the mayhem.

It won’t be for everyone’s taste, but if you love the work of the man behind the camera, a guy who started off writing films like Tromeo and Juliet and directing gory horror favourites like SLITHER, then you’ll cherish every single minute of its blood spilled carnage.

Gunn has not just delivered one of his best works, but has also just given DC one of their most stunning films….