The Suicide Squad

 2/4

Starring: Idris Elba, John Cena, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, Peter Capaldi, and the voice of Sylvester Stallone

Rated R for Strong Violence and Gore, Language Throughout, Some Sexual References, Drug Use and Brief Graphic Nudity

The superhero genre is officially dead.

There.  I said it.

Actually, I've been saying it for ten years, but of course no one listens to anyone or anything but the almighty cash register, and superhero movies still bring in big bucks.  I'd blame fandom, but I honestly believe that it's because action junkies like me have no other choice.  I mean, for spectacle, what else is there?  "Star Wars," I guess, but I digress.

We have seen the supers attack every genre.  They've been in summer action movie mode (the MCU), Oscar bait (Nolan's Batman trilogy), psychological melodrama ("Joker"), you name it.  It hasn't just gotten really old and derivative, the genre has done everything it can possibly do.  There is no ground left to till.

The 2016 film "Suicide Squad" was, by all accounts, a disappointment.  Neither fans nor critics liked it, it was dogged by studio interference, and had a troubled production.  It did make a lot of money, but it wasn't until now, when James Gunn was (temporarily) ousted from making "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" that a next installment was produced.  Gunn has stated that this isn't a sequel or reboot, but it "is what it is."  Probably the best thing to describe it, really.

Storywise, "The Suicide Squad" is generic superhero stuff.  A coup has taken place in a small Central American country.  Intelligence suggests that the new people in power intend to use something called "Project Starfish" on the US population, so Amanda Waller (Davis) sends in a group of supervillains, including Harley Quinn (Robbie) and agent Rick Flagg (Kinnaman) to take it out.  The first group is annihilated, but luckily Waller has sent in a second team as a back up.  These include master assassins Deadshot (Elba) and Peacemaker (Cena), the rat-loving Ratcatcher 2 (Melchior), the nervous Polka Dot Man (Dastmalchian) and the humanoid King Shark (Stallone).  Flagg and Harley Quinn have survived, and are pursuing their own agendas.

The acting is adequate.  Big time talents like Idris Elba and Viola Davis do no more than what is required to earn their paychecks.  Margot Robbie brings back Harley Quinn, her personal Jack Sparrow, but she isn't given enough to do to overcome the boredom of the story.  Joel Kinnaman and John Cena (neither of whom has great range) have the best moments.  Peter Capaldi is invisible.  The strongest performances come from Alice Braga (no surprises there) and the unknowns, Daniela Melchior and David Dastmalchian.  Hopefully they get more roles in the future.

James Gunn was given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted with this movie.  He honestly shouldn't have bothered.  Gunn has a skewed sense of humor and genre, but the snazzy touch he brought to his contributions to the MCU and the screenplays he wrote don't pay off.  The jokes are retreads and the story is lame.  There is almost no chemistry between the cast members and the tone is too flippant and ironic to care about them or their mission.  The action scenes, which were nicely staged in the "Guardians" pictures, are bland (if super gory).  What little energy this movie has is undone by the bloated running time.

Note to Hollywood: if James Gunn can't create a good superhero movie, no one else can.

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