--Rick Flag, The Suicide Squad
"You know what I think? I think liberty is your excuse to do whatever you want."
--Bloodsport, The Suicide Squad
James Gunn's first entry in the DCEU is actually one of its best. Without directly referencing the specific events of 2016's Suicide Squad or contradicting them, The Suicide Squad features some of the same characters from before--Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Rick Flag, and Amanda Waller, all played by the same actresses or actors. It is clearly presented as a continuation of a terrible DCEU starting point (the 2016 movie) in a time when the latest DCEU titles are loosely connected, but its commitment to the wild nature of the story, characters, themes, and acting place it far above almost everything in the DCEU besides a handful of movies like Zack Snyder's Justice League.
Production Values
The Suicide Squad, breaking the habit of its predecessor, often has great CGI, even when it comes to Starro the Conqueror--an extraterrestrial starfish-shaped being already revealed in one of the trailers. Plenty of late-movie shots show Starro up close, from its eye to its skin to folds in its limbs that can release miniature versions of itself. Long before Starro is ever shown for the first time, the practical and digital effects are still excellent overall. There are lots of scenes where, whether practical or digital, gore is at play, and most of it does not look clearly fake. John Cena's Peacemaker costume does look more obviously artificial than many of the other costumes, but this somewhat lends itself to the over-the-top presence of Peacemaker as a philosophically delusional, comedic figure.
Cena is just one of the many newcomers to this sub-series within the DCEU, and his acting is superb all the way through. No, not all of his lines are about comedy though the trailers highlighted some of his humor-oriented dialogue. Some of them are very serious. As for the more regularly serious characters, it is actually Daniela Melchior and Idris Elba, playing Ratcatcher 2 and Bloodsport respectively, that provide much of the emotional core of the story with the bond their two characters form. This is not to say that the other main characters are lacking. Margot Robbie actually has less screentime than she does in the first Suicide Squad, yet she makes the most out of her scenes. She is even better realized as her character here than she is in Birds of Prey. Fellow returning cast member Viola Davis likewise has less screentime while still delivering a performance that is even more ideal for her character. All around, the acting is truly excellent.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
Two Task Force X teams are sent to an island near South America with the goal of destroying "Project Starfish," which is in the hands of a militaristic, anti-American regime. Explosive implants are used as a threat to motivate total obedience to overseer Amanda Waller's commands. Included in these teams are Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang. The survivors of the initial landing fight and sneak through the island until they come upon Jotunheim (where Project Starfish is held). At this point, they have actually bonded to some degree, despite being forced into a lethal mission against their preferences.
Intellectual Content
Suicide Squad merely teased the dehumanizing elements of how Task Force X was forced to carry out a dangerous mission. For the most part, this and other deeper themes were seemingly edited out in the extensive reshoots. In The Suicide Squad, not only is this theme of genuine dehumanization illustrated in far more obvious and necessary ways, but this same approach to special ops missions is shown to lead to apathy about foreigners in places the American government interferes with. After Amanda Waller uses threats of prison violence against Bloodshot's daughter to persuade him to comply with her whims, example after example of reckless or outright tyrannical American interactions with other nations is shown. It is not that the island regime the Suicide Squad is fighting against is morally good or presented as good, but that this film is about selfish, abusive people using other selfish people as tools against, unsurprisingly, another group of selfish people. This is unexpectedly one of the most political movies in the DCEU, and all of its main points are entirely valid. People who are willing to treat the fellow citizens of their country selfishly and emotionalistically will very likely be willing to treat foreigners the same way.
Conclusion
Not even the arbitrary whims of Warner Bros. stop The Suicide Squad from reaching general greatness. It is absolutely asinine that Warner Bros. would reject the "Snyderverse" for being dark only to let James Gunn have full creative control to make a film that deals with even darker things. An R-rated movie of this type, made with full creative input of the director, getting released while so many people are still reluctant to visit theaters normally shows that Warner Bros. is obviously biased against Zack Snyder's mostly competent ideas for the DCEU given that they oppose his plans while encouraging Gunn's. Still, that hypocrisy and idiocy is no fault of the cast and director of The Suicide Squad, which together deliver an often excellent film that capitalizes on some of the themes that the 2016 predecessor needed to delve into.
Content:
1. Violence: Skulls and limbs are split apart, throats are slit, and people are lit on fire onscreen. There is plenty of blood to be seen. Of all the R-rated DCEU movies, which include this, Zack Snyder's Justice League, Birds of Prey, and the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman, this is by far the most violent, as it is genuinely graphic.
2. Profanity: Words like "damn," "bastard," and "fuck" are used quite a bit.
3. Nudity: A man is briefly shown with his genitals exposed. A later shot shows a topless woman, also briefly.
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