The Suicide Squad

We are invited into the DC world, familiar from the Superman or Batman or Wonder Woman action shows. The comparison, of course, is with the Marvel Universe and its huge range of superheroes and super films.

This one is for the fans and, judging by comments afterwards, for younger fans. It opens with what might be called an extravaganza of mayhem. Then it moves into the main action – one extravaganza after another, more mayhem after more mayhem.

There is a prologue where we are introduced to the control, Amanda Waller, played with hard as nails (or whatever is harder) determination and control (Viola Davis, who appeared in the original film in this role). However, the prologue has a group of the Suicide Squad sent out on a special mission – and, generally, they are complete failures. (And they played by a group of character actors who then disappear after their explosive deaths, Michael Rooker, Pete Davidson, Jai Courtney…).

So, it is time to start again, a new Suicide Squad, all prisoners, all hardened, all with idiosyncratic superpowers, led by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), a crack shot but afraid of rats, Peacemaker (John Cena), big and brawny he’s always out to keep the peace (no matter what the cost), the lazy Ratcatcher 2 (Cleo Cazo), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), whose weapons are the polka dots of his costume as they glow, enlarging and become weapons (especially when he imagines the target as the mother he has hated and who appears larger than life), and King Shark with a penchant for human meat and learning to pronounce his words. Sylvester Stallone appears in the cast list – and, as it turns out, he is this shark.

But, captured after the first expedition, Colonel Rick Flag and Harley Quinn, from the first film (respectively, Joel Kinnaman and Margot Robbie – who receives top billing) reappear to add to the mayhem. Flag is the serious hero – a career military man who is assigned to keep tabs on the Squad. Harley Quinn steals the show, of course, being both daffy and lethal, often simultaneously.

The plot concerns a Caribbean island, a revolution, counterrevolutionaries (Alice Braga as the leader, taking it very seriously as if she were in a different film), a tyrant, a mad scientist (Peter Capaldi beyond Dr Who), a vast scheme to foster an alien monster, Starro, a giant starfish, who controls everyone, an experiment secretly fostered by the US… Which leads then to a grand finale with mayhem in abundance.

The film was written and directed by James Gunn, responsible for the Guardians of the Galaxy films, which combined superheroes, human characters, and strange creatures. It is said of him that he made films when he was very young, full of what is referred to as ‘comic splatter’. There is plenty of that here, a lot of it gleefully brutal, aided by bloodily-creative special effects, a lot of it just brutal. Actually, it would be interesting to do a case study on James Gunn’s psyche, his imagination, the creative directions in which this goes, his target audiences and how he perceives their desire for this kind of entertainment.