At Marvel, this would never happen: “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn was given free rein to unleash his creativity in the DC film “The Suicide Squad,” delivering one of the most brutal, funniest, and best superhero films of recent years.
The name James Gunn is undoubtedly familiar to fans of superhero films, especially for his work on “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” two of the MCU’s most beloved blockbusters. However, Gunn’s career began with far less family-friendly and mainstream films, including work with the cult trash film studio Troma, horror movies like “Slither,” and the edgy (and incredibly brutal) superhero satire “Super.”
Now, you can witness what a true James Gunn superhero film looks like in the budget range of “Guardians of the Galaxy” with “The Suicide Squad,” available for streaming on Netflix.
“If ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ was 50% James Gunn, ‘The Suicide Squad’ is now 100%,” writes FILMSTARTS editor-in-chief Christoph Petersen in his review of “The Suicide Squad.” Don’t confuse this film with “Suicide Squad” (without “The”) from 2016 – “The Suicide Squad” is a loose sequel that features some characters from the first installment (like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn) but largely disregards its predecessor.
To make things even more confusing, “Suicide Squad” is also currently available on Netflix at no extra cost.
A WILD COMIC BLOCKBUSTER
Whether “The Suicide Squad” is your cup of tea, you’ll find out right from the start of the film. The first 20 minutes feature countless torn and perforated bodies, darkly humorous gags, and surprising twists, making it one of the “craziest, most insane, funniest, brutal, wildest, most surprising, and all-around wonderful experiences you could ever have in a comic-book blockbuster,” as described in our review.
So, Gunn provides a refreshing counterbalance to the overwhelmingly dominant Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which, despite its quality, is too well-oiled a machine to produce a film as wild and revolutionary as “The Suicide Squad” – regardless of genre experiments like the black-and-white horror homage “Werewolf By Night.”
THE PLOT OF “THE SUICIDE SQUAD”
The US government faces a problem: a coup has occurred in the fictional island nation of Corto Maltese. The regime supported by the USA is no longer in power, and a well-guarded secret is at risk of being exposed: an extraterrestrial secret weapon stationed in an old research facility. As a result, Task Force X, also known as the Suicide Squad, is dispatched to eliminate the problem. However, the mission doesn’t go as smoothly as planned.