The Suicide Squad

Nothing for the faint hearted. I didn't expect to see anything like this in these politically correct times. The world of comic book movies, which today languishes under the reign of Marvel's childish colouring books, needed someone like James Gunn, a Troma alum, an original in his own right, which is strongly evident in his work. His film is incredibly daring, with a lethal cadence of over-the-top humour, without being a chaotic mess. Gunn has a clear vision, he's fantastic at timing politically incorrect visual jokes, and many of his screenwriting ideas are surprising; he has a God-given talent. And at times, in the barrage of this snarling R-rated gorefest, I felt like I was watching an expensive midnight movie in some grindhouse cinema in the deep 70s. And last but not least, the most original kaiju monster of all time. Hats off to Warner Bros. for not being afraid to give Gunn a wide theatrical release. (07.08.2021)

It's nice to have a pleasant surprise once in a while, because while I was secretly hoping for a lot, I wasn't really expecting much. James Gunn, however, pulled it off much better than I would have guessed. His Suicide Squad is more colourful and wilder, which was more or less expected, except that my fears that too much freedom wouldn't suit him and the film would end up being nothing but bizarre mess were not borne out. Gunn knows when he can afford subtle bizarreness or creepiness, and when to surprise the viewer with an unexpected death or a scene so badass that you're a little embarrassed to laugh at it. But at the same time, his film also works in dramatic situations, and it's far from just an exhibition of more or less weird characters doing more or less weird things. The new crew is really good and the acting is really great (those who can't act know it and, ironically, can take advantage of it), the gradual building of relationships between the murderous sociopaths works unexpectedly well and Gunn isn't afraid to be surprisingly adult at times, only to knock it down a few minutes later with some harsh joke. Above all, though, the whole thing is incredibly fun. This is a good one. (04.08.2021)

Stick to your Gunn. Ein paar mehr Kugeln und weniger Herz als Guardians of the Galaxy, Schrotflinten-Gags ein bisschen weniger ausgefeilt, aber DC hat endlich das, wonach es sich seit Jahren sehnt. Ein unterhaltsamer Ritt mit Tempo und Struktur, bei dem die Charaktere nicht wie ein Haufen inszenierter Konsumenten von Beruhigungsmitteln für Pferde oder Mitläufer für beschissene Gags aussehen. Marvel hätte sein Gold besser bewachen sollen, aber im Großen und Ganzen haben wir alle daran verdient. The Suicide Squad ist ein wilder Ritt mit einigen Kicks und einem hervorragenden letzten Drittel, das für mich das Charisma von Idris Elba und überraschenderweise Joel Kinnaman hervorhebt. Macht weiter so, obwohl ich ehrlich gesagt nicht verstehe, wie das in ein Universum passt, das der Welt so einen Scheiß wie Hawkman auf Steroiden, Beginner Feminist in Boots und Guy Who Frowns vs. Guy Who Dripped Martha beschert hat. (04.08.2021)

Yum yum! The best movie in five years! And a wonderful revenge by James Gunn's revenge for getting fired from Marvel, which he a raises middle finger and serves up a gritty comic book style The Boys and it's AWESOME!! It satisfied all my twisted, wild, sick, unhinged dreams! I have to admit that the trailers didn't really grab me and I went into the cinema cautiously, but from the opening minutes Gunn won me over and pulled off one excellent scene after another that had me literally melting in my seat. The central five of Harley Quinn, Price, Elba, Kinnaman and Shark shine the brightest, they steal the whole show for themselves, but the rest don't lag behind and everyone gets plenty of space. The music is great, banging in the action scenes, the gore is amazing, and I'll say it three more times: gore, gore and more gore, because the movie world has never seen such carnage! Army of the Dead is so humiliated this year. The wisecracks are good too, the banter between Elba and Cena amused me the most. There is plenty of action (the finale is maybe an hour long, bugger me!), and surprisingly the dramatic and emotional moments have the right punch and timing. The body-count is also surprising, it's unreal and I really liked the different signs pieced together from the surroundings. It's a really playful and original film. The whole thing has a breakneck pace and a likeable story, and is properly kinky and slightly perverted, so weaker characters might have some complaints – I was, however, as high as I've been in a long time. This hit my taste perfectly, and anyone who gives it two stars or less is uncompromisingly my enemy number 1! (Jacques Mesrine!) Story 4/5, Action 5/5, Humour 5/5, Violence 10/5, Fun 10/5 Music 5/5, Visuals 5/5, Atmosphere 5/5, Suspense 4/5. 10/10. (05.08.2021)

Quite a leap upward, even despite positive expectations, but I would still like to see a tighter result. I really enjoy James Gunn's playfulness with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and even when he chose a bunch of similar characters from the DC offering, I expected a completely new direction that would overturn the tendencies of the entire universe there. However, due to a problematic campaign and inadequately distinguishing itself from the unsuccessful first film, it did not succeed financially. The film itself is entertaining from beginning to end, intensely bombarding the viewer with one gag after another, sometimes so much that your head spins from the blood, swearing, and generally intense rating. Among the magical King Shark, the cameos used until the last second, or the untamed Harley, whom the script finally lifts to where she should have been in several movies, there are also many jokes that are unfinished, overly juvenile, or (and this is the most disappointing part) seen from a distance and generally delayed as a result. But still, I will forgive many things for the feeling that this is what team movies about outcasts should look like. Even at the cost of being more comedies than comic books and standing out in a completely specific direction. 70% (24.08.2021)

This feature-length version of the Starro Attacks sketch from Robot Chicken is garnering rave reviews thanks to the fact that a big-budget comic-book movie has finally dispensed with both seriousness and sophistication and instead gone the route of juvenile trash (which was an essential characteristic of comic books for many decades before they were taken over by nerds who had the need to justify their childish obsessions by faking profundity). But on the other hand, compared to the unapologetic futility of the best and funniest comic-book movies like Batman: The Movie (1966), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), the new Suicide Squad feels too forced and made-to-order – like products from The Asylum that try too hard to be camp, but can never elicit pure enthusiasm like pure trash can. (28.08.2021)

Yum, yum. This Suicide Squad adaptation was excellently done and yes, it’s all thanks to the errant director, James Gunn, whose brief dismissal from Disney was a real godsend for Warner Bros. The guy who phoned Gunn back then should get a fat bonus, a new Ferrari and a beach house too. The mission to the island of Corto Maltese is presented non-linearly (but still consistently) with dispassion, humor and with respect for the comic book original. The new team with just a few familiar faces is bristling with diverse characters (but I can do anything that they can!) and each of them gets their moment to shine. Harley plays the princess (flowers and all) and Idris as a replacement for Will ends up destroying him in a rough punch-up. John Cena rocks even with that toilet on his head and so I’m really looking forward to his solo series. But the heart of the movie is the King Shark and Ratcatcher 2 duo. It’s easy to make a man-eating shark in shorts into the cutest of them all - just give him the mentality of a two-year-old. I look forward to watching it again. (05.08.2021)

Ist der neue The Suicide Squad so viel besser als der erste Teil? Das gewöhnliche Publikum verzweifelt an dem, was die Kinos zu bieten haben, aber ein gebildetes Publikum, das mit Filmen aus der Palette des erfahrenen Zuschauers vertraut ist, ist zufrieden. Alle anderen können den Film getrost als eine etwas andere Komödie aus der Familie der Comic-Blockbuster ansehen. Für belesene Comic-Leser ist es ein großer Spaß, aber für Menschen mit einem anderen Medienhintergrund ist es noch etwas mehr. Zum Beispiel die großartige Fluchtszene von Harley Quinn, unterlegt mit dem klassischen Hit "Just a Gigolo". Sie hatte bisher nicht den Mut, so etwas zu tun. Und es macht Spaß, diese Entwicklung zu beobachten. (14.08.2021)

Guardians of the Galaxy had more heart, better jokes, and a story that went somewhere and fit into its universe, Suicide Squad is a bunch of weirdos who don't fit in anywhere. Yes, it can’t be taken seriously, and some of the jokes and winks are exceedingly subtle, but it won't suit everyone. If someone had told me it was Guy Ritchie's side-kick on drugs, I might have believed them, but it wouldn't have changed my rating at all. (28.08.2021)

I also liked the film of the same name from 2016, so unlike others, I wasn't waiting for salvation, but I was just looking forward to more madness from the head of my favorite James Gunn. In Gunn's world (Gunn's worlds), the rule is that anything can happen, and Suicide Squad follows this as well. Everything that happens is mainly a source of entertainment, constant entertainment consisting of machine gun dialogues and their (self-) murderous points, in action scenes that go off the leash, and unpredictably evolving small stories that support the central inconspicuous plot. As soon as something smells of clichés, Gunn deals with it by snapping his fingers. And of course he's not alone, because he has well-chosen actors and actresses at his disposal, thanks to whom (and thanks to his screenplay) we quickly like the characters we meet for the first time, and who looked more like more ardent cosplayers from the trailers. I'd love to see it (and really enjoy myself) again. (05.08.2021)

Gunns Suicide Squad ist sicherlich besser gelungen als Ayers fünf Jahre zuvor entstandene Version, die das Potenzial des ersten großen DC-Teams auf unglaubliche Weise verschenkte. Gunn hat bereits bei Guardians of the Galaxy unter Beweis gestellt, dass er gut mit Superhelden-Teams umgehen kann. Diesmal hat er die Wertung einfach ein bisschen nach oben verschoben, was eine gute Entscheidung war. Der Zuschauer bekommt also einen "Deadpool-haften" blutigen Film mit Eiern, der sich nicht scheut, hier und da die Grenze zu überschreiten und ein paar düstere Szenen zu servieren, aber gleichzeitig ist es kein hirnloses Gemetzel mit Hektolitern von sinnlosem Blut. Ich war mit der Besetzung zufrieden, und den Filmemachern ist es gelungen, passende Schauspieler für die verschiedenen Rollen zu finden - vom charismatischen Idris Elba und der coolen Viola Davis über die ewig schläfrige Daniela Melchior und die verrückte Margot Robbie bis hin zum steroidalen John Cena und dem humorvoll gestörten David Dastmalchian. Ein Bonus war "King Shark"! Die Bösewichte waren eher fade, aber das wurde am Ende der Reihe mit "Operation Starburst" behoben - das war keine Staryu oder Starmie. Was den Humor angeht, so hat mich der Film nicht wirklich gepackt, aber dank einer ordentlichen Portion Action, einer Reihe unerwarteter Todesfälle und einiger WTF-Szenen lief er im Kino ganz gut. Schwächere vier Sterne! (05.08.2021)

A corporate-derived illusion of punk and enlightened filmmaking for an artificially created group of fake nerds, which in an era of comic-book meta-movies based on constant reminders of their own cliché consciousness is itself becoming a cliché. Or did anyone believe that the opening fight to introduce the team would actually be the right exposition? The problem with meta-movies is that once there are too many of them (more than one, understandably), they absolutely stop working in all other aspects because you just don't trust anyone or anything. The Suicide Squad has a decent pace, some cool technical ideas (a fight shown in the reflection of a helmet), and at times decent "ground level" camerawork through which to keep an eye on the perspective of the characters through whom we're watching the film. The problem, though, is that there's nothing tangibly there. Digital violence doesn't hurt, and besides, it’s not what violence looks like. The body is not a tomato. The swearing doesn't offend anyone and the guns feel artificial. The only thing that really makes an impression is a pissed off Ayer somewhere in the background, who Warner made the biggest buffoon in Hollywood after they totally blew the soul out of his vision which they manipulated him into when they tried to launch their "dark" universe, but one that would be accessible to everyone at the same time. After the failure of that studio-castrated bore, they threw it overboard, brought in Disney's jilted Gunn, gave him 185 mega, an R rating, and the article "the" before the title. The result followed the trend of movies trying to appear anti-systemic, but behind the anti-systemic attitude was a conference room full of pragmatic yuppies with freshers in hand. As a consequence, we are seeing the replacement of an era of accessible films trying to appear adult with an era of "inaccessible" films so infantile that an eight-year-old child would be embarrassed by them, but thirty-year-old men will squeal with delight at it. (02.11.2021)

Pure comic book porn that rival Marvel can dream about. It's very reminiscent of The Boys, Kick-Ass and of course Deadpool in its poetics, but in some ways it goes beyond just about everything. At 55, James Gunn is reminiscent of a horny comic book kid who's completely off the leash and given virtually unlimited resources for a never-ending festival of bloody brutality. Ultimate kills, absolutely magnificent fight scenes, and a comic book concept that couldn't possibly be more comic bookish. Imagine a third Guardians of the Galaxy in a similar style, and then watch the (for)family Disney's properly licked stock drops after all the outraged reactions and complaints. In short, James Gunn has pulled it off and while making it he had to go wild in a way he will never repeat. Great characters (the girl who controls rats and the guy who shoots buttons!) that the original cast in Ayer's version don't even come close to matching. I haven't had this much fun at the movies in a long time. [85%] (05.08.2021)