Even in all my complaining about James Gunn's Twitter on this blog -- and there has been a lot, more than any one person deserves -- I have never wavered from the basic belief that he is a good filmmaker. And The Suicide Squad may be his most enjoyable film yet.
So I'll devote a full post's worth of observations about the film as a sort of mea culpa. That may not be the correct term, because I never said he wasn't a good filmmaker and I still believe he's too proud of himself on Twitter. But after this movie, he definitely deserves some good press from me.
Bringing the fun back to ultraviolence
I've been numbed by the John Wick movies. I really enjoyed the first, but I found the next two a slog, an unceasing succession of soulless murders that made me grimace more and more as the movies went on. I call them "murders" not to suggest that Wick isn't acting in self-defense most of the time, but that their sheer joylessness makes them criminal. Half the time, they are initiated by him as revenge for killing his dog, which yeah, seems sort of murdery.
The Suicide Squad is a different story. It includes all sort of fatal mayhem, but it's the kind that demonstrates a sort of creative joy that helps remind us they exist in a comic book world, and that kind of thing is okay because there is never any doubt this is pure escapism.
Sure, it sill involves heads being sliced in half, faces being blown off, and a man's body ripped in half -- lengthwise, mind you -- by a walking shark. And you can say that any sort of violence breeds potential copycats, though I dare you to try ripping someone in half lengthwise with your bare hands.
But the walking shark is what's important here. This is clearly a fantasy world, a place where none of this stuff could clearly ever happen. Might as well have fun with it.
It was a bit of the vibe I got from a recent big budget favorite, Kong: Skull Island. That film gave me such joy that it ended up in my top ten for the year. The Suicide Squad may not be destined to land that high, but the fact that it's even a contender says something about how successfully it pulls off its tone.
How to do CGI characters
While we're on the topic of that shark, this film contains two of my favorite recent CGI characters. I guess that's no surprise from the director who brought us Rocket Raccoon. I think I like the ones in this movie even better than him.
So there's Nanaue/King Shark, a perfect Suicide Squad candidate in that he's got a loveable voice and general temperament but he is also caught in the act of trying to eat one of his fellow team members. I didn't realize Sylvester Stallone was doing the voice until the end credits, and that just made me enjoy him more, retroactively. I never knew I would want to watching a walking shark for two hours as much as I did.
But even more fun, though with considerably less screen time, is Weasel, a giant weasel who can't speak English and communicates in kind of braying yelps. He's also got crazy eyes. However, he mostly behaves himself, sitting there quietly with the rest of his crew in a kind of unassuming fashion that makes him even funnier. All the bits related to him -- including a scene where he's licking a door and examining a future teammate out of the corner of one bulged-out eye -- are just hilarious. I won't spoil what happens with him, but it is perfectly in keeping with this world, where Gunn knows instinctively never too give us too much of a good thing.
A lethal Harley Quinn
We got a decidedly softer Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey a few years ago, one that would prefer to shoot people with bean bags than snap their necks, though she was still the same crass girl we came to love, even in inferior projects. That was definitely right for that movie, which I enjoyed.
She kills people here, and it's right for this movie.
There are a couple lethal moves she uses to get herself out of jams, when it's kill or be killed, but she's also a straight-up assassin at one point. It's an interesting commentary on the reality that exists under the fun. This is not a world where you can subdue people with beanbags. And that's okay.
Also, her role in the finale against the [won't give it away] is just awesome.
A real-life Bad Guys
My kids love this series of Australian comic books/graphic novels called Bad Guys, which feature a team of historically bad animals who try to make themselves over as the good guys. They include a wolf, a snake, a spider, a piranha, and yes, a shark.
It's really cute and clever and gives even its adult readers a laugh. But as I was watching The Suicide Squad I thought of how many similarities to this project there really are.
Of course there is the same basic setup, as an historically feared and dangerous band of associates try to slough off the prejudices against them and fight for their version of justice.
Then there's the fact that both teams feature a shark who speaks sort of monosyllabically, in a deep voice, or at least that's how I always voiced Mr. Shark when reading the books to my kids.
But I'll go one step further: In both properties the shark tries to disguise himself. In these graphic novels, if that's what you want to call them, Mr. Shark's main attribute he contributes to the team is his ability to disguise himself. He does a hilariously small amount to change his appearance, yet everyone in the story has a genuine inability -- no nudging or winking -- to identify him as his former self when he's in disguise. It's patently ridiculous since this is a large sea creature with rows of razor sharp teeth, which is what makes it so funny.
That's not Nanaue's main characteristic in this movie -- he eats people and tears them in half lengthwise -- but in one scene when they need to go undercover, he does suggest wearing a fake moustache to mask his appearance. The team doesn't go for it though, and he has to wait in the car.
Bridging the DCEU and the MCU
We know Gunn was a defector to the DCEU from the MCU, though we also know it was not by choice. He got fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (before ultimately being rehired) due to past tweets that were meant as jokes but came back to haunt him. So now he has a definite foothold in both, which is apparently not a problem.
You'd assume these rivals would be loath to share talent, but Gunn is not the only example of this in this movie. In fact, I counted four in total, which seems to me a very high amount. They're mostly in smaller roles, in one universe or the other, so maybe that's part of the explanation.
The first character we meet is Savant, an inmate who bounces a rubber ball around his cell, and is so deadly accurate with it that he can use it to kill a bird in the corner on something like the fifth rebound off one of the walls. He's played by Michael Rooker, who of course played Yondu in the Guardians movies. He's already dead in the MCU and he's not long for this one, so maybe that's not much of a conflict.
Then there's David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man. He's still ongoing in the Ant-Man movies as Kurt, one of Scott's buddies who run the security firm, and he's the kind of character who will never die because he's there for comic relief, and the Ant-Man movies aren't those kinds of movies.
Finally we get a very small role from Taika Waititi, seen only in flashbacks, playing the father of Ratcatcher 2, played very memorably by Daniela Melchior. He's already dead from the start of the movie, so we won't expect him in any future Suicide Squad movies, but he's probably the person most currently in Marvel's good graces (as director of the last and next Thor movie), and he really only would have participated with Marvel's blessing.
Maybe in this crazy world of bitter feuds between comic book mega giants, there's hope that we really all can get along.
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I think I had more to say originally after watching this movie, but that was Saturday night and now it's Wednesday morning, and I can no longer remember it. It's been a busy few days.
But I'll just close by saying that The Suicide Squad is awesome, and Gunn has definitely bought himself a reprieve from my future scorn.
