Suicide Squad 2: 10 Things That Will Make It Awesome

6. Make The Most Of That Adult Rating

Suicide Squad Joker Jared Leto Knives
Warner Bros. Pictures

Despite being rated PG-13 in American cinemas, Suicide Squad carries a BBFC 15 tag in UK multiplexes - making it strictly for adults only.

And yet, the film remained relatively... tame. We see The Joker lying in a circle of knives and pointy death-devices - but does he ever use any of them? Nope. There wasn't any blood, and you never got the sense that anyone was in any real danger. In fact, there isn't one single element of Suicide Squad that justifies its UK rating, and that's a disappointment.

It's supposed to be a franchise about terrible people - but the action has that PG-13 gloss, the kills are all off-camera, and the set-pieces feel like a Saturday morning cartoon. Where's the grit, the blood, the bone-breaking stunts? The mission the squad was sent on seemed like a walk in the park, and The Joker was robbed of a moment like the infamous 'pencil trick' that defined Heath Ledger's turn in The Dark Knight.

A lot of the film felt held back by the shackles of censorship, and the sequel needs to set those shackles free. It's apparent that director David Ayer and Jared Leto had something much darker in mind, but were whipped into PG-13 shape by the studio. If Suicide Squad 2 does go R, it should go all out!

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.