The Suicide Squad 2 (2021)

The Suicide Squad 2 features a slew of DC's forgotten and mostly underused comic-book characters which is maybe why it’s so easy to pick them off one by one (Now taking bets on who survives!)but then what do you expect when you join a group with Suicide in the name? Well they are dying to save the world!

Great Movie despite the fact that many will die. Suicide Squad 2 written and directed by James Gunn who is most noted recently for Guardians of the Galaxy, does have a lot of heavy hitters as far as actors goes starring in this second installment (even if they don’t last for very long) we have Michael Rooker as Savant, Sylvester Stallone as the voice of King Shark,and Idris Elba as Bloodsport. It seems Gunn enjoys putting an odd ball team together and making unique heroes out of them weather they like it or not.

From the start you wonder about this new team which except for Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and Harley (Margot Robbie) from the original Suicide Squad, everyone else is new and considering that they are suppose to be the worst of the worst this group doesn’t quite look deadly enough to survive, except the one smart enough to try to desert. It isn’t until after the opening credits that you see just how the story is going to progress.

Just as in the first Suicide Squad, the somewhat super-powered criminals are given a choice of joining Task Force X to shorten there sentence (10 years) or live in hell. If that doesn’t work, well everyone has a weakness and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) who runs Task Force X under the Argus program won’t hesitate to exploit it. The back drop of the story is the infiltration of Corto Maltese which is almost remnant to the real life current situation with Afghanistan (at the time of this writing). It’s a third world country in turmoil and power struggles between fractions that are violent and deadly in which our anti-heroes must save the day for the common people.

As to be expected the team doesn’t trust each other at first and have issues to work out but each character does have a unique back-story that does eventually come to light. This story is a journey for each character to work out their deep seated issues that made them villains in the first place. Of course this movie also has it’s adorable characters, a weasel, a king shark, which is supported by fantastic costume design, but lets not also forget the rats, (This is why I’m not a pet person!). Aside from their many issues the fight and action sequences are definitely worth watching which offset the laughs you will definitely have.

Our main heroine Harley explores her love and relationship issues but still shows how the psychiatrist turned sexy super-villain is even more deadly and like in the first installment, steals the show. She does help to lighten up the violence that you can expect to see in almost every scene but you can’t help but notice how she begins to look more and more like her past love interest the Joker. She also does have her heroic moments on-top of the of the comedy that makes you smile when revenge is served up as the soup of the day. This is where it’s handy to be a psychopathic homicidal maniac having a tender moment.

Although most of the movie is comical it does have it’s intense dramatic moments but even during the intense scenes Gunn finds a way to slip in a bit of comedy to take the edge off. The sound track is unique and eclectic, geared for each character rather than just being a back drop as the movie moves along. There are unexpected twist, like bad guys being good, good guys being bad, and of course bad guys being bad guys. The special effects was spectacular even if at moments comical and the ending will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. But it was satisfying to see our anti-heroes (those that actually survived) get the rewards that they have earned for going on another suicide mission.

In the end our anti-heroes learn the true meaning of being a hero: Self-sacrifice, to do what’s right, even if your talents are all wrong and that even the weirdest or lowliest of creatures have a purpose. The lesson to take away, villains aren’t born the way they are, same as heroes, they are made.

Spoiler Alert!: James Gunn does drop us an easter egg and as with all comic book movies, make sure to stay through the credits to see what is coming up next!