The Suicide Squad Review: 9 Ups & 1 Down
James Gunn redeems the Squad with the DCEU's strongest movie to date.
Almost five years to the day that David Ayer's hugely anticipated Suicide Squad released to muted reviews and millions of disappointed fans, James Gunn's quasi-sequel do-over, The Suicide Squad, begins its rollout in cinemas worldwide.
Sensible though it is to keep your expectations middling for any DC Extended Universe movie, Gunn's involvement awarded the film an implicit stamp of quality from the moment he was hired to direct, and true to form, Gunn has knocked it out of the park once again.
In a year that's been jam-packed full of mediocre, OK, and "pretty good" blockbuster films, it's so enormously refreshing to watch one that's truly great - a film with an holistic creative vision that doesn't just feel like it's ticking off studio-mandated boxes.
The Suicide Squad won't change anyone's mind about James Gunn - so if you're not a fan, you're still out of luck - but the filmmaker successfully melds his off-the-wall comedic predilections and character work with a more adult, no-holds-barred sensibility that's really quite difficult to resist.
The DCEU just got its first truly great movie. It's about damn time...