It is also arguably the most violent superhero movie ever made
2021’s The Suicide Squad should not be confused with 2016’s Suicide Squad, despite the fact that it keeps a number of that movie’s major characters (played by Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman and Viola Davis), and seems to carry on as if it is a proper sequel.
Which is sort of is… but mostly sort of isn’t. In fact, it is probably better to pretend you didn’t watch the 2016 one.
Regardless, The Suicide Squad is all about a group of villains being drafted to help the government take down a shared thread, in exchange for shortened prison sentences. On top of a returning Harley Quinn, as well as Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), added to the team this time are Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior).
Their mission initially seems like a simple one – head to the South American island nation of Corto Maltese and destroy its Nazi-era laboratory Jötunheim – but as is always the case with missions like these, things very quickly spiral out of control…
Upon release in cinemas, the movie turned out to be a massive commercial flop, with the $185 million production (not including the costs of promoting and advertising) making just $168.7 million worldwide. This was obviously due to the movie arriving in the summer of 2021, when most folk where still actively avoiding the cinema thanks to the pandemic.
Despite that, critics still mostly loved the film, scoring it a whopping 90 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes:
IGN – “The Suicide Squad is a gut-wrenching, gut-busting wild ride and DC’s best film in years.”
Film Threat – “No one is safe, and decency is thrown out the window. Not since Deadpool has a movie ever been so f****d up. Though Deadpool wandered more into the sexual and scatological terrain, The Suicide Squad, instead, blurs the line between cartoon violence and gory realism.”
ABC News – “The gloriously unhinged filmmaker James Gunn keeps Margot Robbie, John Cena and a top cast of crazies firing on all cylinders and turns a botch job original that was the worst movie of 2016 into the dazzling, down-and-dirty whirlwind it was always meant to be.”
And being a box-office flop, it seems that cinema-goers who did watch the film enjoyed, with the film holding an audience score of 82 per cent on the site.
The Suicide Squad is available to watch on Netflix in the UK and Ireland from today (Monday, October 23).
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