I sincerely hope that comic book fans find more to appreciate about The Suicide Squad than I did, for I thought it was a garbled, at times incoherent, mess.
Under the radar, the US government engages the services of hardened criminals with special skills (read into that brazen killing machines).
They are sent on perilous missions, where the numbers are pitted against them.
The chances of them emerging intact are negligible, but if they do, they benefit from a sentence reduction.
In The Suicide Squad, two such teams of state-sponsored mercenaries are deployed.
The first is all but eviscerated and includes Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who is captured and tortured.
The second comprises characters with names like Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone), Ratcatcher (Daniela Melchior) and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian).
Let me just say that the shark’s vocabulary is severely limited, Ratcatcher can channel hordes of vermin at will, while – as his name suggests – Polka-Dot Man flings lethal coloured polka dots at his adversaries (I kid you not).
They are tasked with infiltrating a fictitious small island nation off South America, named Corto Maltese.
More specifically, they have to eradicate a top-secret experiment – Project Starfish – that is housed in an airtight tower.
As for Harley Quinn, she continues to laugh and smile her way through one dangerous situation after another.
Extreme violence is the name of the game as people are dispensed with – blown up, shot up, decapitated and eaten – as if they were confetti. No beg pardons here.
I am afraid I found the whole thing ridiculous and stupid, basically a lame excuse to destroy stuff.
It is not that I have anything against comic representations on screen, but I want a decent storyline, which we didn’t get here.
A giant marauding starfish that spews out thousands of small starfish that render humans into a zombie-like state. Spare me.
And the plot felt drawn out to the billy-o.
It took two thirds of the film for the motley crew to reach its “target”.
Robbie does all she can to have fun with her role.
Elba is solid enough, but the blarney from Polka-Dot Man (who has a thing about his mother) stretched credibility beyond any reasonable bounds.
The pulsating soundtrack works well and is in keeping with the boisterous nature of the piece.
Still, the original Suicide Squad (which didn’t have “the” in its title), released in 2016, was underwhelming and so is this one.
Written and directed by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), The Suicide Squad scores a 4 out of 10.