IR Film Review: THE SUICIDE SQUAD [Warner Brothers]

The rules of a comic book movie rule in the eyes of the beholder. Writer/Director James Gunn got to go in a different grid making "The Suicide Squad" but it feels more like his indie movies at times than "Guardians Of The Galaxy". That's not a bad thing and this "Suicide Squad" has its moments but one cannot help thinking certain parts of the first film and even "Birds Of Prey" were better. One of these ideas relates in the song selection which is alright but almost too far outside the mainstream. There could have been one or more recognizable tracks. "Cruella" really fared greatly because of it. Gunn wants to play with form and you get what is happening from the first scene. He likes bringing different worlds together and undermining certain expectations but there needs to be a little delivery. He does to a point but there isn't really any magic per se.

Here blood is the name of the game and while parts of it are fun, it doesn't add anything since a lot of it is done (unfortunately) unstylistic ally. There are some great quips, especially with F-bombs flying around. The barbs and tit-for-tat between Peacemaker [John Cena] and Bloodsport [Idris Elba] works well because of the extreme nature and just the ironic and sheer tongue in cheek delivery. Cena actually fares well because he gets the joke and yet is still able to deliver one of the film's gut punches (although it is helped by another actor), But as the movie heads towards its end, there is not as many stakes as one would think despite certain turns of fate. One gets the long running joke but in not taking itself a little more seriously there is not as much heart connection.

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn gets the two most creative sequences in the same space but it is because she knows her character in and out and made it sing with Gunn. Joel Kinnaman is a little more awry with not as much as steady hand playing the straight man as he did in Ayer's world. It just isn't there. Another character works better. She is quiet 20-year old who can communicate with rats. She has a a chip on her shoulder but is not inherently violent and that is refreshing. She gives a little bit of empathy and heart to the proceedings and almost overplays it but it is nice to see that. The reason she works is that she balances back with David Dastmalchian's Polka Dot Man. It is best to leave the explanation of him to that description but his character has the most pathos and underlying issues and he makes it work while not losing the scene to everyone else.

And then there is King Shark (though they are using his given name) and he is self explanatory but a nice addition. The story itself is pretty self-contained and makes sense (and it makes you understand why they shot in Panama). Oddly enough, at a certain point, before the villainy of a certain level goes off the rails, one was thinking how this might have been how "Sgt. Rock" movie in a way would have looked. There is also a great cameo inside a truck that is awesome, marking the best point between the boys in the film but to another person who is uncredited. And it does hark in direct correlation to a certain other universe if you know what to look for. There is also a weasel. "The Suicide Squad" is its own thing for sure but the issue is that in being so many things and jumping all over the place, it is eccentric but not consistent. B-

By Tim Wassberg