The Suicide Squad (2021)
There is a version of the DC Extended Universe that feels perpetually at war with itself, and then there is The Suicide Squad. Released in August 2021, James Gunn's film arrived carrying an unusual amount of baggage: it was simultaneously a soft reboot of David Ayer's much-maligned Suicide Squad (2016) and a continuation of it, retaining some cast members while quietly ushering others out the door. Warner Bros. and DC Films handed Gunn the keys with a level of creative freedom that is genuinely rare for a studio picture at this budget level, and the result is something that feels noticeably more personal and wilfully unruly than most of what the DCEU had produced up to that point. The film is set largely on the fictional Caribbean island of Corto Maltese, and its premise is refreshingly blunt: a collection of imprisoned supervillains are press-ganged into a covert government mission they are not expected to survive, all while their handler Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, ice-cold and completely committed) watches from a safe distance. It is a premise built on expendability, which gives the film a licence to be genuinely surprising in ways most superhero pictures simply are not.
Gunn came to this project fresh from being fired and then reinstated by Marvel over his Guardians of the Galaxy films (you can read thoughts on those entries here: Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). The parallels between the two franchises are obvious enough to be worth acknowledging rather than glossing over: both involve motley crews of social misfits pressed into reluctant heroism, both lean on an irreverent, blood-spattered sense of humour, and both share a genuine fondness for characters that bigger, safer films would treat as throwaway jokes. What Gunn brought to DC that distinguished this from its 2016 predecessor was a consistent tonal confidence. Where Ayer's film felt caught between the studio's desire for something grim and the market's appetite for something fun, Gunn's version is entirely at ease with being a hard-R, proudly chaotic, and occasionally very silly comic-book splatterfest. The production design and cinematography lean into primary colours and a lurid visual energy that suits the material well.
The ensemble is the film's most obvious selling point, and it is a genuinely well-assembled one. Margot Robbie returns as Harley Quinn, a role she had already inhabited in the 2016 film and in Birds of Prey (2020), and she brings a physical, anarchic energy to the character that no one else in the cast attempts to match or compete with. Idris Elba steps in as Bloodsport, essentially filling the squad leader role, and brings a world-weariness that gives the film more emotional ballast than you might expect from the material. John Cena, playing the flag-obsessed Peacemaker with a particular kind of square-jawed obliviousness, turns out to be one of the film's most entertaining elements. Joel Kinnaman reprises his role from the first film as Rick Flag, and Sylvester Stallone lends his voice to King Shark, a great white humanoid with an appetite and a surprisingly winning innocence about him. The supporting ensemble, which includes Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, and Peter Capaldi, fills out the margins with enough personality that the film never feels thin, even when the plot is doing the genre's familiar heavy lifting.
James Gunn’s 2021 reboot-sequel The Suicide Squad has his signature brand of chaotic, R-rated energybut bringing it to the DC universe.
The premise is a cracking hook: supervillains like Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and a ragtag collection of nutty cons from Belle Reve prison are coerced into joining the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. They’re dropped onto the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese with a simple, explosive mandate. As the film's tagline brilliantly puts it, they’re dying to save the world, and the setup immediately plunges you into a brilliantly colourful, violent, and highly entertaining mission.
Watching this unfold, I couldn't help but feel like I was watching the Guardians of the Galaxy for the DC universe, which, of course, makes perfect sense given that James Gunn directed that Marvel trilogy too. He has a real knack for taking a bizarre ensemble of misfits and making you genuinely care about them. The cast here is absolutely amazing. Margot Robbie, as always, completely steals the show with her unhinged, brilliant portrayal of Harley Quinn, but she’s ably supported by a fantastic lineup. Idris Elba brings a grounded, emotional gravitas as Bloodsport, John Cena is absolutely hilarious as the jingoistic Peacemaker, and even Sylvester Stallone gets a fun, scene-stealing cameo as the voice of King Shark.
From a purely technical standpoint, the film is a highly polished piece of blockbuster entertainment. The visual effects are genuinely good, the action set-pieces are brilliantly choreographed, and the overall visuals are great, drenched in Gunn’s trademark vibrant, bloody colour palette. For the most part, the acting is good, with the cast clearly having a massive amount of fun with the script. However, if there’s a glaring issue that stops this from reaching the top tier, it’s that beneath all the gore and laugh-out-loud jokes, it’s really nothing "new" for superhero movies. It follows the exact same structural beats, tropes, and generic third-act CGI battles that we’ve seen a dozen times before in the genre.
Ultimately, The Suicide Squad is a highly enjoyable, slice of comic book cinema that knows exactly what it is. It might not reinvent the wheel or break any new ground in the superhero landscape, but it executes the familiar formula with a massive amount of style, heart, and bloody humour. James Gunn has delivered a cracking, entertaining ride that is well worth your time, even if it doesn't quite leave a lasting, groundbreaking cinematic legacy.
It’s a fun, bloody good time that proves even the most generic superhero tropes can be an absolute blast when you put the right misfits in charge.
The Suicide Squad sits in an interesting place in recent comic-book cinema: too gleefully excessive to be dismissed, too structurally conventional to be considered truly distinctive. Gunn is clearly a filmmaker who thrives on affection for his characters, and that warmth keeps the film alive even when its third act defaults to the expected. Whether you find that balance satisfying or slightly frustrating probably says more about your tolerance for the genre's rhythms than it does about the film itself. It went on to serve as something of a launchpad, with Cena's Peacemaker getting his own HBO Max series and Gunn eventually being appointed to oversee the entire DC Studios operation. So, for better or worse, this is where the current DC era quietly began. Not with a bang, then, but with a giant shark and a lot of very colourful blood.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2021 | Watched: 2026-07-07
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for The Suicide Squad (2021) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Watch in the US
Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel · YouTube TV · HBO Max
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
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