Brandon’s Movie Review for

The Suicide Squad

In theaters and streaming on HBO Max

Forget everything you know of the first attempt at Suicide Squad in 2016.  This is more of a “re-do” than a sequel, so if you were wondering if you had to see the previous rendition to get this movie, stop wondering.  You don’t.  Forget about it!

The Suicide Squad is OUTSTANDING from beginning to finish.  The first 12 minutes serves as a huge psyche-out as you’re introduced to some of the worst “super-villains” to ever be imagined including Captain Boomerang, Blackguard (who only sucks because he is played by the abominable Pete Davidson from SNL), The Detachable Kid (or the Arm-Fall-Off-Boy), and a giant Weasel.  After you’re all hyped up and introduced to the first Task Force X scene, they are obliterated by their enemies on an island beach, only to be sold out by Pete Davidson’s character (Which came to no surprise.  Pete Davidson does seem like the type that would sell out his team)… Oh yea, spoiler alert.  Then the real movie starts with the much more believable Task Force X of super villains led by Col. Rick Flag,  Bloodsport (played by Idris Elba, who can do no wrong, in my book), Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Polka Dot Man (who has the ability to throw radioactive polka dots) and the hilarious John Cena as Peacemaker.  Sylvester Stallone even makes an appearance as the comedic relief CGI character King Shark (similar to Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy).

The cast of characters is worth the price of admission in itself, but director James Gunn nailed this one out of the park with brilliant cinematic techniques, knee-jerk story-telling and brutal violence that just leaves you shaking your head in laughter.  The plot itself sounds like either a brilliant, ground-breaking spin on the nearly over-done superhero genre – OR – a plot that only an 8-year-old could excitedly describe in some sort of stream of consciousness attempt at describing their favorite cartoon.

In an attempt to give you an example, here is a synopsis of the plot as released by the studio:

The government sends the most dangerous supervillains in the world — Bloodsport, Peacemaker, King Shark, Harley Quinn and others — to the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Armed with high-tech weapons, they trek through the dangerous jungle on a search-and-destroy mission, with only Col. Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave.

And now, I will pretend that I am an 8-year-old nerd excitedly describing his new favorite movie, The Suicide Squad:

So, um, there are a bunch of bad guys, but they are good guys, and they, um, they are best friends with a giant shark.  Then these bad guys become best friends and one of them is called The Rat Catcher Part 2 and she can talk to rats.  And then the bad guys go into the jungle and the wrestling guy wears his tightie-whities, and another guy throws up polka dots.  The clown lady gets taken by some other bad guys and she breaks a guy’s neck with her legs… wow, she is strong.  And then, and then, and then  there is a giant Starfish in space, and the astronauts bring down the Starfish and the Starfish starts to poop baby star fish from its armpits, and those baby Starfish suck people’s faces until they die and become an extension of the big Starfish.  Then the Starfish starts to terrorize the city and the bad guys are left with a choice to either save the city or walk away.  It’s soooooo cool!!!!!!!