Brazen blast

Full of attitude, language and violence, ‘The Suicide Squad’ is almost always a great time

Imagine if “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Deadpool” had some horribly beautiful baby. ¶Well, you don’t have to imagine it, because that’s generally what “The Suicide Squad” — a decidedly R-rated, wholly irreverent, almost always entertaining supervillain romp hitting theaters and HBO Max this week — feels like. ¶ And sure, it shares traits with its predecessor, 2016’s messy, middling and confusingly similarly named “Suicide Squad,” but this is a more cohesive — and, importantly, more hilarious — affair.

The comparison to 2016’s hugely popular “Deadpool” is an obvious one because “The Suicide Squad” also lives, at least vaguely, in a superhero realm — the DC Extended Universe instead of the world of Marvel’s X-Men franchise. It, too, is absolutely crammed with four-letter words and wonderfully ridiculous moments.

The new flick’s connection to 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” is even more clear as the movies share a writer-director in the insanely talented James Gunn. the one best suited for a

With “Guardians” and its 2017 sequel, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” Gunn has made what easily are two of the most entertaining entries in Disney-owned Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe. And now he’s hammered together the most entertaining movie in DC Comics and Warner Bros. Pictures’ DCEU — if not family with little ones.

Like “Suicide Squad,” “The Suicide Squad” is built around a collection of supervillains coerced by the U.S. government to go on a dangerous mission as part of a group officially known as Task Force X but commonly referred to as the Suicide Squad.

Aside from Margot Robbie’s blond, bombastic and beloved Harley Quinn, the key returning players are “Fences” star Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, the heartless suit pulling the strings from a government control center, and the team’s military leader, Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, “For All Mankind”).

While Jai Courtney (“Divergent”) also returns as Captain Boomerang — and makes one really fun kill — it’s mostly a new collection of weirdos working under Flag and, eventually, alongside Harley.

The deadly Bloodsport (Idris Elba) is the least strange among them, and we often experience all the bizarre doings and beings through him.

Bloodsport bristles with Peacemaker (John Cena), whose skillset is virtually identical to his, even if the latter’s peace-at-all-costs mentality is not.

Also along for the main part of the raucous ride are Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior, “Parque Mayer”), the daughter of Ratcatcher (Taika Waititi, “Jojo Rabbit”) and taught by her father to communicate with and direct the rodents; the efficiently murderous Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian, “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), who’s saddled with serious mommy issues; and Nanaue, a walking, simple-talking sharkperson voiced with gusto by Sylvester Stallone.

How silly is “The Suicide Squad”? With side characters including supervillain

The Thinker (Peter Capaldi, “Doctor Who”), TDK (Nathan Fillion, “The Rookie”) — whose full name we won’t spoil — and Weasel (Sean Gunn, younger brother of James), the shark dude barely stands out. (One of the movie’s earliest laughout-loud moments comes as those running a mission realize they never thought to check if Weasel can swim.)

We won’t say too much about the plot, but know that our antiheroes are sent to the remote, war-torn island of Corto Maltese to confront a threat believed to be extraterrestrial in nature. (It’s, um, appropriately odd.)

Robbie (“Bombshell”) continues to delight as the Joker’s ex-girlfriend, Harley, even if, after 2020 spinoff “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn),” she’s sadly been trending in a more heroic direction. Hey, Harley wears a “Live Fast or Die Clown” jacket and kills A LOT of people in “The Suicide Squad,” so she’s still not the girl you bring home to Mom.

And Elba (“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” “The Wire”) succeeds at filling the shoes of Will Smith, who portrayed the relatively normal Deadshot in “Suicide Squad.”

As well-cast as Elba is, however, the real surprise is Cena. Pretty bland as the villain in the recent “F9,” he’s a complete joy as Peacekeeper, whether he’s

killing people inventively or standing around in the jungle in his tighty-whities.

Behind the camera, Gunn is a maestro, conducting all this madness quite melodically. He’s a longtime fan of the comics involving the Squad and counts John Ostrander’s run with the books — as well as war movies such as “The Dirty Dozen” and “Kelly’s Heroes” — as inspirations for the film.

In his hands and those of his filmmaking collaborators, some of whom worked with him on at least the second “Guardians,” “The Suicide Squad” is fast-paced and violent. However, it’s also artful; a flashback scene related to Ratcatcher 2 displayed on a bus window is a very nice touch, for example.

That said, you may hit a wall as “The Suicide Squad” nears the end of its second hour. It’s all a lot of fun, but it’s also, well, just a lot.

Stay through the credits for the obligatory scene setting up a potential sequel.

We’ll have to wait to see if Gunn is back for that. He is the creator of a spinoff TV series, “Peacemaker,” starring Cena and planned for HBO Max next year.

And then there’s 2023’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” from which he was fired and then rehired to direct.

If he does return for another “Suicide” feature film, we’ll be excited to see how spectacularly abnormal that baby turns out to be.

WARNER BROS. PICTURES Joel Kinnaman, left, John Cena, Margot Robbie, Peter Capaldi and Idris Elba are shown in a scene from “The Suicide Squad.”

WARNER BROS. PICTURES Sylvester Stallone voices Nanaue, aka King Shark, in “The Suicide Squad.”