The Suicide Squad follows a group of supervillains who are tasked by the US government to shut down the secret Project Starfish. The Suicide Squad is not to be confused with Suicide Squad. The Suicide Squad, the one I'm reviewing today, came out this year and acts of a sort of sequel to Suicide Squad (2016) which I have not seen.

Soon after The Suicide Squad was released, my state of Victoria went into lockdown. All during the lockdown, I desperately wanted to see The Suicide Squad so of course it was the first movie I saw once restrictions were eased. Leading up to seeing the movie, I was worried I might be disappointed especially after recently seeing Free Guy which was nothing but a disappointment. I'm happy to inform you that I was in no way disappointed!

The Suicide Squad is the kind of movie with no deep messages but was made purely for entertainment. Of course, we need movies with some deep messages but it is nice to get a movie that doesn't require much thought. It's the kind of movie that you would call a popcorn flick, but a good popcorn flick. A movie that doesn't have much purpose can often turn out to be terrible but not all the time.

What makes The Suicide Squad so much better than other popcorn flicks is it's actually entertaining. The movie was extremely funny with many more jokes that weren't shown in the trailers. The movie placed the audience into the action right from start and mostly kept things moving. It was quite ridiculous and over the top but this only added to the fun.

The Suicide Squad started very quickly and didn't give much context before placing the viewer into the action. The movie did later move back in time and explained briefly what was happening but still didn't go into much detail. However, this hardly mattered. The viewer could easily figure out who the good guys were and didn't need to know much to be able to understand the movie. The movie mostly moved at a very fast pace with a lot of constant action. However, there were a few moments that didn't add much to the movie and essentially ruined the pace of the movie. I think some of these scenes could have been cut entirely whilst others could have been shortened. These moments, unfortunately, felt out of place but can easily be forgotten.

All the characters in The Suicide Squad were very unique. This was partly due to their unique abilities but also to the singularity that the actors brought to their characters. I'm not going to be the first person to say that Margot Robbie is an incredible Harley Quinn. Idris Elba, John Cena, Daniela Melchior and David Dastmalch also portrayed their characters to near perfection. All the main characters were extremely likeable sometimes in a strange way. Who would have thought that a walking and talking shark was everyone's favourite character from the movie?

I often complain about the classification system here in Australia. Firstly, I think that there aren't enough levels of classification and secondly, half the time I don't agree with the classification of a movie. But for once, I think they've got it right. The Suicide Squad is rated MA15+ in Australia and I agree that the movie is not suitable for under 15's. The movie is very violent and gory and has a lot of swearing. However, I think that most of the violence and profanity is justifiable. The violence is very exaggerated and is obviously inspired by comic book violence. The violence is not very realistic and is designed to make the viewer go 'ugh!' The swearing is often for comedic purposes and I never thought that it was unnecessary. Although there were a couple of frightening sequences, the movie wasn't very scary and I would suggest The Suicide Squad over any horror movie. However, if you are a squeamish person, then you may struggle in this movie and I once again wouldn't suggest it to anyone under fifteen.

The Suicide Squad is an extremely entertaining and fun film. Don't expect to get much out of in the way of deep messages but is still a movie that anyone could easily fall in love with. Although it did have a couple of slow points, it mainly moved at a fast pace and I would happily see it again.

Director: James Gunn

Starring: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena

Year released: 2021

My rating: 8.5/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 7/11/2021