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HBOWatch Movie Review: “The Suicide Squad”

by I.E.
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The Suicide Squad, which is currently showing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, benefits from embracing the stylized absurdity of its comic-book origins. Squad follows a group of imprisoned super-villains including Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) who are promised time off their sentences if they go on unsavory missions for the American government (the catch is that if the villains cease following the government’s orders, they will be handily obliterated by some sort of explosive implanted in their brain, hence the title). A variety of ridiculously violent mishaps lead Bloodsport, Quinn, and their associates, which include Nanaue, an anthropomorphic shark (voiced by Sylvestor Stallone), Polka-Dot Man, a man who tosses lethal polka-dots at people (David Dastmalchian), and Rat Catcher 2, a woman who can control hordes of rats (Daniela Melchior), to face off against a giant alien starfish, aptly named Starro (despite Squad‘s robust cast, Melchior and Dastmalchian steal the show). Somehow, the resulting chaos is coherent, fun, and rather touching at times.

king-shark-1628276174-1024x533The Suicide Squad revels in the goofy and grotesque but it also pursues some interesting questions about the equality of life. In its opening sequence, the film establishes an interest in investigating the social hierarchies that justify violence towards those we deem inferior to us – animals and deplorable human beings. Is there a difference between absent-mindedly killing a bird, a peculiar weasel-like creature, and a terrified man who happens to be a criminal? The film isn’t particularly sure that there is, or that such violence is in any way justifiable.

As Squad progresses, its recurring interest in hybrid bodies and interspecies acts of violence or cooperation provokes further questions about why some people believe that they are entitled to harm others for personal gain. This questioning leads us to sympathize with a variety of unlikely figures: a man-eating shark, say, or a tortured alien starfish, at the expense of those whom we are accustomed to rooting for in superhero movies: the powerful people affiliated with law and order.

None of Squad’s characters are good people (or sharks, or starfish, or rats) and many of them are incapable of being productive members of society due to issues beyond their control (cosmic polka-dot viruses, for example). Does this justify their gruesome and unnecessary demise? Probably not. It’s a good point but Squad fails to go a step further and imagine what an enriching life for a strange weasel creature might look like that also does not involve the death of innocents. Fortunately, the film concludes by suggesting that a sequel might tackle such matters.

I’ve never much cared for DC’s superhero films; in comparison to their Marvel counterparts, DC heroes are over-powered and take themselves far too seriously. Fortunately, writer and director James Gunn, who also directed Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies, does not take the film or its characters too seriously. The Suicide Squad (not to be confused with its ne’er-do-well predecessor, Suicide Squad) is an irreverent take on the super-hero genre and good bit of late-summer escapism. I’d hoped to see this film in the theater but caught it on HBO Max due to the ongoing pandemic– I didn’t feel that the film suffered from being on the small screen.

You can stream The Suicide Squad on HBO Max until September 5, 2021.

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