How James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (2021) Reignited My Interest in Comic Book Movies
The year was 2016 and I just got out of a theater alongside my brother. We had just watched one of the weirdest and greenest comic book movie thus far, which was David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. The scenes blended together in my mind right after I stepped out of the theater and I even had troubles remembering what it was about whilst I was writing this. Other than Jared Leto’s Joker — who turned out to be such a disappointing adaptation of the character — no other characters popped into my head whenever I have to think about the film. It was a forgettable, bland, slightly misogynistic film about a team of anti-heroes that I couldn’t care less about, with a soundtrack that was somehow more entertaining than the film itself.
Fast forward to 2021, the world is in shambles, there’s no way to get into theaters, the MCU released three different series to stream in the span of seven months and a standalone Black Widow film (finally!), and the DCEU finally released the four hours director’s cut of Justice League. All those films and series, and yet they all came and went. I almost came to the point where I thought that this is it, this is where comic book movies finally lose their magic on me. That is until I finally watched The Suicide Squad, the one directed by the controversial James Gunn, the one I hadn’t been excited to see, over boredom and mere curiosity. It then, frankly, became the one comic book movie I had enjoyed in a long time.
James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is definitely not perfect but it is stupid fun, hilarious, it’s witty, and it gives a little bit more motives to the characters and you can tell that Gunn actually cares about these characters he’s showcasing. One aspect of The Suicide Squad that I particularly love is the fact that Gunn gives Harley Quinn a little bit more characterization outside of being Joker’s love interest, showing her personal growth and shift in mindset instead — albeit still rather lacking in depth in comparison to her standalone film that was released just one year before.
The Suicide Squad explores each member’s motives and aspirations and the things some characters are willing to go through to achieve their personal purposes. John Cena’s character, The Peacemaker, for example, never loses his own motive throughout the whole film and sticks to his own ideals. The same applies to Idris Elba’s character, Bloodsport, who ultimately, after everything, still puts his family over Amanda Waller’s agenda.
Now, even though I am not an avid reader of the comics, I can see why so many fans of the comics seem to love this adaptation. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s not rigid as the way MCU films need to be rigid to fulfill their long-term plans, with phases strategically placed and characters being spanned out through so many films. The Suicide Squad is able to have fun with the material given, presenting a plethora of colors and costume designs that would’ve been too ridiculous for other comic book movies that are seemingly chasing that “modern, realistic” look to them. Gunn somehow actually made this film to look like it came straight out of a comic book page, and the excess use of CGI at the third act doesn’t feel so out of place from the rest of the film. Another thing worth mentioning, and an aspect I truly appreciated when I watched the film for the first time, is Gunn’s clever way of showing the location markers and timeline information without just using simple text over screen. This ‘trick’ alone adds so much to the whole visual of the film and keeps the audience entertained throughout the film.
As I said before, of course this film isn’t without flaws. The writing, at least for me, seems a bit off every now and then, and I didn’t really enjoy the abrupt or ambiguous switch between sentimentality and humor strewn throughout the film — one example would be the supposedly heartfelt conversation between Bloodsport and Ratcatcher 2 about their relationships to their respective fathers — but after both Guardians of The Galaxy installments, I think that type of scenes are unique to James Gunn. The worse parts of the writing — yet also some of the better parts — seem to fall on Harley Quinn, again, as she occasionally comes off as a typical ‘dumb blonde’ who expresses childish remarks — which isn’t at all that out of character for her, it’s just that in this film, her quips feel more forced and are simply there to explain the already obvious jokes.
Yet even then, this film became such a delightful surprise for me and one that I would watch over and over and not get tired of. James Gunn somehow makes these comic book movies a little bit more enjoyable and distinct, and in a time where the film industry is colored by all these superheroes flying in and out every year, being distinct and bringing something new to the table is more imperative than ever. It’s the least these comic book movies can do.
-written by Rizqa (kru’20)-
