THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2021) ** ½

The Suicide Squad is pretty much what you'd expect a hard-R DC movie from director James Gunn would look like.  That’s not exactly a bad thing.  It’s foul-mouthed, gory, and glib, but it’s sorely missing the heart that made his Marvel franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy so much fun.  

Led by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), the new team of Suicide Squad members land on a small island to dispose a power mad general.  Turns out, he has an extraterrestrial entity on the island that he plans to use to threaten the globe.  It’s then up to the Squad to take it out.  

The Suicide Squad is basically a big-budget version of The Specials (which was also written by Gunn) as it's full of B (and C… and D) grade superheroes with really lame superpowers.  Some of the characters are fun, if one-note (like Nathan Fillion’s “TDK”), but that’s OK because many of them don’t stick around for too long.  There are a few returning cast members that still feel like they’re a part of the old guard, although they aren’t really given a whole lot to do.  You would think Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn would be a natural fit for Gunn's writing style, although somehow, she kinda falls flat.  Elba makes for a solid, if unspectacular lead, and carries the movie capably enough.  

The standouts are John Cena and Sylvester Stallone.  Cena’s Peacemaker is a riot as he strives for world peace and “doesn’t care how many women and children he has to kill” to get it.  (Basically, he’s a shitty douchebag Captain America.)  Cena was unmemorable in F9, but his special brand of dorky machismo fits the character like a glove.  Stallone’s King Shark is basically the Groot stand-in, a loveable monosyllabic monster voiced by a cool action hero.  He steals most of the scenes he’s in.  You’ll just wish it was worth stealing.

The action is kind of ordinary too.  The camerawork is less than optimal, and the choreography is unmemorable.  Being a Gunn movie, the carnage is often accompanied by old pop songs.  The selection offers a few bangers, but it’s not a patch on the quality needle drops in the Guardians movies.  

Overall, The Suicide Squad is definitely a step down from David Ayer’s perfectly acceptable, but thoroughly unremarkable original.  Despite being mostly entertained, but slightly disappointed, I still have to give props to a big budget comic book movie that contains such a loving homage to Warning from Space.  You don’t see that every day.