THE SUICIDE SQUAD (15)
Guardians of the Galaxy director brings twisted comic fun to DC, with brilliantly bonkers second Suicide Squad film
THE schools have broken up on schedule, the weather has taken a turn for the worse, and superheroes are battling it out with talking animals at the multiplexes.
After 18 months of madness, it feels like a return to some semblance of normality, although there isn’t a lot normal, or kidfriendly, about this new DC movie.
Pitched somewhere between a reboot and a sequel, this is a violent, funny, foul-mouthed and gleefully bonkers attempt to right the wrongs of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad.
While that 2016 film (a bland, comic-book Dirty Dozen) felt like it was made by committee, The Suicide Squad is the product of the very singular mind of Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn.
After he was fired by Marvel/ Disney over old off-brand tweets, Gunn was a risky signing for DC’s beleaguered movie franchise. But you can see it pay off in an off-kilter first act.
As a menagerie of oddball villains are sprung from prison to raid a South American island, it’s like watching the po-faced DC Extended Universe tear itself apart. After a bravura twist, Gunn’s leads emerge from a very crowded pack – Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Peacemaker (John Cena), PolkaDot Man (David Dastmalchian), Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and King Shark, a dunderheaded, CGI aquatic god amusingly voiced by Sylvester Stallone.
The film offers striking action scenes, a dastardly turn from Peter Capaldi, an unpredictable plot, big-hearted drama and a smattering of killer lines.
“I cherish peace with all my heart,” says Cena’s patriotic dork. “I don’t care how many men, women and children I need to kill to get it.”
The future of the DC movie now looks deliciously dark.