Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and a collection of nutty cons at Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.
When the highly anticipated “Suicide Squad” arrived in theaters in 2016, it made over $746 million worldwide but DC fans were not happy with this big-screen iteration. For the longest time, the trailers boasted Jared Leto as the maniacal Joker but when the film finally arrived, they were shocked and dismayed to discover that he was barely in the movie at all. Even Jared Leto said he was disappointed that most of his scenes were cut.
Recently, director David Ayer stated that after the success of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” where Warner Bros. allowed Snyder to go back to “Justice League” and shoot new scenes and excise all the footage Joss Whedon shot after he had to leave the film because his daughter’s death, Ayer said that if Warner Bros. extended him the same courtesy, he would deliver a vastly different “Suicide Squad” altogether. Whether that will happen or not is yet to be seen but it piques one’s curiosity at the thought of a far superior film, just waiting to be re-released.
Intelligence officer Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles the Suicide Squad, now known as Task Force X, and gives them a new mission: to make their way to Corto Maltese, a mythical island in South America where they are to sneak into Jötunheim, a Nazi-era prison, and laboratory. She informs them that political prisoners are detained there and horrendous experiments carried out on them and that their mission is to extract a hard drive that contains proof of America secretly funding their experiments over the years. Once again, each member of the squad has nanite explosive devices inserted into their neck, and should they fail to carry out Waller’s orders, they will be remotely detonated.
Once more, Waller’s subordinate, Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), leads the team including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Savant (Michael Rooker), and several others. Once they reach Corto Maltese, the team splits into two, with one half causing a distraction for the waiting armed guards on the beach, while the other team makes their way inland toward Jötunheim.
Things don’t go too well for the group on the beach and most of them are killed off quickly, with both Harley Quinn and Rick Flag taken prisoner. With Bloodsport leading the other group, they make their way into the jungle and meet up with Sol Soria (Alice Braga), a rebel splinter group leader who wants to overthrow Corto Maltese’s dictator Silvio Luna (Juan Diego Botto). They manage to rescue Flag and make their way into town, hoping to find The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), a highly intelligent supervillain who has the capability to communicate with Starro the Conqueror, an extra-terrestrial, mind-controlling intergalactic starfish with a central eye and prehensile extremities that has the ability to create psychic-parasitic clones to conquer any and all lifeforms that gets in its way. The American government has been secretly funding Luna and his scientists so they could carry out underhand, clandestine tests on Starro over the years and he and his army will stop at nothing to keep it hidden until they are ready to unleash it on earth.
After Bloodsport and his team capture The Thinker, they manage to sneak into Jötunheim with him where he turns on them but while trying to kill them, he accidentally unleashes Starro, who is now an intimidating, hulking monster, and tears him apart and manages to break free of its confinement, forcing Jötunheim to collapse around them. With guns and grenades having no effect on it, Starro rampages through the city, using its psychic-parasitic clones to possess its citizens, turning them against our heroes. Now Bloodsport and the squad must fight back, and stop Starro before it takes over the world.
James Gunn has the unique distinction of being one of the few directors to helm movies in both the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes. While Joss Whedon took over for Zack Snyder on “Justice League” after he had to leave the project, Gunn is the first director to helm full features in both universes, and after watching the hard R-rated “The Suicide Squad,” it makes you wonder if Marvel would ever consider letting him direct “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3” as an R-rated movie. I highly doubt it but it’s fun to imagine Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Baby Groot swearing at each other and when killing bad guys, decapitating them, or literally blowing their heads into a million pieces.
“The Suicide Squad” is completely batshit insane, in every aspect. Margot Robbie assumes her Harley Quinn persona effortlessly and while she is not as unhinged as she was in “Suicide Squad” and “Birds of Prey,” when taking on bad guys, she has absolutely no hesitation in decimating them with any and all weapons at her disposal. While characters from “Suicide Squad,” such as Captain Boomerang and Rick Flag, make for a welcome return, this latest mission is focused solely on its new central characters. Idris Elba’s Bloodsport is very much a loner but winds up taking the mission because Waller has threatened to incarcerate his teenage daughter, Tyla (Storm Reid). He quickly assumes control and the rest of the squad seem only too happy to have a competent leader at the helm.
Other characters include Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), a humanoid shark who has a taste for human flesh. These round out the rest of the squad’s colorful characters but to detail what each of their unique abilities are, would ruin the movie for you. I knew nothing of the new characters and their superpowers in advance of the screening, though their monikers should give you some sort of insight as to what to expect, so experiencing them for the first time added to my overall euphoric enjoyment. In the end, James Gunn has crafted a thoroughly enjoyable, yet totally demented piece of pulp cinema that will undoubtedly be revisited more than once by its hardcore fanbase. And those virginal newbies who will be experiencing it for the first time.
In Theaters and on HBO Max Friday, August 6th
