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The Suicide Squad finally comes to cinemas and HBO Max, and under the writer/directorship of James Gunn (Guardians Of The Galaxy 2), even after some very questionable tweets from 2008/09 came to light in 2018.
Now, I really enjoyed 2016’s Suicide Squad, and this is billed as a “standalone sequel”, whatever that means.
This time around, some characters have been removed, some have been added, I’ve no idea why. In fact, throughout the entire 132 minutes, I still wasn’t sure what the plot was meant to be, and it doesn’t seem like writer/director James Gunn did, either.
There’s no Jared Leto as the Joker, for example, even though he was kept in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. I can only imagine he’s not here because fanbois got pissy about his take on the character.
Viola Davis is back as Amanda Waller, but her character is just an angry, mouthy waste of space.
Two teams are sent in, one largely made up of characters from the first one – including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). However, things don’t go to plan with the team which are picked, and it’s time for a new one. Well, Team 2 are a backup and they’re going to have an easier time of it… for a while.
Team 2 is made up of Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) – who… er… likes to throw polka dots at people. Meanwhile, Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) is in tow.
Oh, and no, I don’t know where Ratcatcher 1 is, either.
Without giving major spoilers, between the two teams, not everyone will survive, but while Harley is in Team 1, no-one will kill her because Margot Robbie is the most bankable star, even after Birds of Prey!
As for a plot, Doctor Gaius Grieves – aka Thinker (Peter Capaldi) – has been conducting experiements for the past 30 years under the name of Project Starfish, the name used because it sounds like ‘chocolate starfish’ which is rude, as it’s slang for your bumhole’s opening. These are pretty nefarious projects, as well, so just make sure you’re not involved…
Along the way, they team up with Sol Soria (Alice Braga) and her rag-tag bunch of reprobates, but after they popped up and then disappeared again, it was so long before they returned that I had forgotten all about her character.
However, while I enjoyed the 2016 movie, 2021’s The Suicide Squad just feels like a random collection of disconnected scenes, and without a huge amount of decent action, either. Between that, this idiot squad waste time fighting amongst themselves, largely involving Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Rick Flag.
There’s a pre-end credits scene:
And a post-credits scene:
The Suicide Squad is available to pre-order on Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray and DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 132 minutes
Release date: July 30th 2021
Studio: Warner Bros
Aspect Ratio: 1.90:1 (Dolby Vision, IMAX, Redcode RAW (6K) (8K))
Rating: 2/10
Director: James Gunn
Producers: Charles Roven, Peter Safran
Music: John Murphy
Screenplay: James Gunn
Cast:
Harley Quinn: Margot Robbie
Bloodsport: Idris Elba
Peacemaker: John Cena
Colonel Rick Flag: Joel Kinnaman
King Shark: Sylvester Stallone
Ratcatcher 2: Daniela Melchior
Polka-Dot Man: David Dastmalchian
Thinker: Peter Capaldi
Amanda Waller: Viola Davis
Sol Soria: Alice Braga
Emilia Harcourt: Jennifer Holland
Savant: Michael Rooker
T.D.K.: Nathan Fillion
Captain Boomerang: Jai Courtney
Javelin: Flula Borg
Mongal: Mayling Ng
Blackguard: Pete Davidson
Weasel / Calendar Man: Sean Gunn
Briscoe: Stephen Blackehart
Doctor Fitzgibbon: John Ostrander
John Economos / On-Set King Shark: Steve Agee
Flo Crawley: Tinashe Kajese
Sliced Dome Soldado: Fernando Martinez
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.