Thinking about seeing The Suicide Squad? Confused about how it fits in with the DCEU and David Ayer’s Suicide Squad from 2016?
We got the answers to your questions and whether Gunn’s film is worth the watch.
Is this a Sequel? Is it part of the DCEU?
So, the answer is no… and a little bit yes too.
DC has struggled to really get its cinematic universe off the ground with the poor ratings from their movies like Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, but they enjoyed a lot of success with some of their more peripheral films like Joker and Birds of Prey.
Even some of their standalone hero films did pretty well and received good ratings, but it is clear that the DC movies need a shakeup to really claw back the glory they had back in Christopher Nolan’s day.
James Gunn plays into the existence of the 2016 film with a few callbacks and an immediate dive into the meat of the movie instead of explaining the concept of the ‘Suicide Squad’, so it is fair to assume that if you haven’t seen the original, you might have been playing catch up to understand the premise.
And in terms of whether it fits into the rest of the DCEU, well, who knows really. They make mention of Superman at one point and the door appears to be open for crossovers and bringing them to the other films, but this movie doesn’t really stand out as a part of a larger whole. But that is in no way a bad thing.
A Wild Ride
Gunn has been quoted as having said this was his favourite project to have ever worked on and its clear to see why.
From beginning to end, this feels like an epic James Gunn adventure with bloody misadventures set to an epic alternative/classic/indie-rock soundtrack (that is very much worth listening to by the way).
Be prepared to be surprised and delighted, as well as maybe a little queasy throughout.
The whole story is coherent and works exactly as intended. Personally, I enjoyed the original Suicide Squad. It wasn’t my favourite movie, but it was a bit of fun, but maybe that is coming from a place where I didn’t have an intense connection with the comics prior to watching.
But I can say that this is hands down a much better movie than 2016, the characters have chemistry and Gunn builds them up, so the audience connects to each and every one.
The story makes sense in the context of a team of villains who the government treats as entirely dispensable and they are sent on exactly the kind of mission that a corrupt government might want more secrecy and privacy around.
Brilliant Performance by Cast and Crew
All around, the acting was excellent, and every member of the team was brought to life with a vivid background, but I think the two single best performances were delivered by Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man.
Viola played Amanda Waller in the original film but here, she took it to a whole new level as the dark puppeteer who is ruthless in achieving her goals and Polka-Dot Man felt like a joke in the trailers but he is developed into a core part of the story with an expansive background that is a pleasure to watch.
Overall Rating
This movie scores a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Story, visuals, soundtrack, acting, it all came together in a fantastic way thanks to Gunn’s clear vision for the project and impressive talent for storytelling that was again proven here.
My only nit-pick is that as part of the DCEU, it’s in an odd position without anything to connect to but maybe if Gunn is given some more control with future projects, we could be looking forward to a very different DCEU in the near future.
What did you think? Have you seen it yet?
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Ben Gibbons