The Suicide Squad (2021)
(L-R) JOEL KINNAMAN as Rick Flag, JOHN CENA as Peacemaker, MARGOT ROBBIE as Harley Quinn, PETER CAPALDI as The Thinker and IDRIS ELBA as Bloodsport in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure THE SUICIDE SQUAD, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo: Jessica Miglio/™ & © DC Comics
James Gunn’s THE SUICIDE SQUAD struggles with what exactly it wants to say, but by the third act it comes closer to some kind of coherency.
Though Gunn and the studio are reluctant to frame it thus, it’s effectively a reboot of the lackluster 2016 film, SUICIDE SQUAD, directed by David Ayer. The premise begins by revisiting the subject of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight #3: Hunt For The Dark Knight, a revolution on the fictional island of Corto Maltese—inspired perhaps by U.S. Support of far-right Contras in Nicaragua against the leftist Sandinista government.
THE SUICIDE SQUAD opens on Savant (Michael Rooker) getting some yard time in prison, tossing a handball. One of many misfired Chekhov’s Guns in the story, he throws the ball so hard it kills a bird. Maybe he’ll use it to whack a guard and stage a stunning escape? No. Savant volunteers for Task Force X, a.k.a. The Suicide Squad, led by Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman).
Rounding out the team: TDK (Nathan Fillion as “The Detachable Kid” which, sadly, is not a King Missile reference), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Javelin (Flula Borg), Blackguard (Pete Davidson, who might have lost a bet), Mongal (Mayling Ng) and an anthropomorphic Weasel (Sean Gunn). Ebert’s Law of Economy of Characters dictates that telling you they’re the decoys spoils nothing. Naturally, the producers couldn’t afford to kill off Idris Elba (as Bloodsport), John Cena (Peacemaker), and Sylvester Stallone (voicing King Shark), or, and especially, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.
While they all possess varying superpowers—though I’m not sure murdering children counts; sorry Weasel—I would have to say Polka-Dot Man’s (David Dastmalchian) is by far the most intriguing backstory. Suffice it to say, you’ve never seen a meaner Starfish than a 300-foot Karen. And it doesn’t matter that you have no idea what I’m talking about because the writers don’t seem to know or care that the picture lacks tone or context for most of its gags. But oddly, that one works.
What doesn’t work: relegating two-time Academy Award® nominee Margot Robbie to roping the bad guys with her “feminine wiles” rather than playing off her harebrained schemes to deliver the exact same, surprisingly effective Rube Goldbergian action sequence minus the prostitution.
SQUAD tries, and mostly fails, to launch a subplot about Bloodsport’s relationship with his daughter, Tyla (Storm Reid), purely to introduce a mechanism for Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to coerce Bloodsport’s cooperation. At the same time, every member of Task Force X was implanted with an explosive device, as is often the case in prison labor exploitation movies (See: FORTRESS)… Why even ask his consent if you can just strap a bomb to his face?
So, the narrative meanders through the Corto Maltese fiasco for nearly 45 minutes before getting to the point: The U.S. government (gasp!) is on the wrong side of the coup as a cover for its crimes against humanity. This plays like a surprise, and throws at us the preposterous notion that this revelation shocks the career military guy.
At 132 minutes, THE SUICIDE SQUAD could easily strip 45 from the muddling second act and dive straight into the group’s third-act disenchantment with their federal government. The appearance of David Tennant in the role of a key villain held promise of spicing things up, but the character, like all the computerized gore and outlandish “save the world”-scale battles, is just another placeholder for plot things to happen. You know it’s a bum deal when CG has become an insert card: “Story and character development TBA.”