The Suicide Squad 4K UHD Review
“The Suicide Squad” is one of the better DC films as of late.
In the sequel to “Suicide Squad,” “The Suicide Squad” finds Amanda Waller sending 2 Task Force X teams to Corto Maltese to infiltrate and destroy Project Starfish held inside the towering Jotunheim. One of the teams fails (to put it mildly) while the other team comprised of King Shark, Peacemaker, Ratcatcher 2, Bloodsport, and Polka-Dot Man has a chance to succeed. Eventually Harley Quinn and Rick Flag tag along on the mission for better or for worse. In order to accomplish the mission, however, the team requires the assistance of The Thinker. Will they succeed or are they in over their heads?
Writer/director James Gunn hops over from Marvel to DC and brings his offbeat comedic sensibilities with him in the hard R sequel. The result? It’s a step up from the first film.
Tonally, the movie is all over the place. It often feels like there’s multiple movies in one with the Task Force X mission, Harley Quinn sometimes feeling like she’s in her own separate movie in spots and the final act feeling like a Kaiju disaster movie. Sure, it all comes together eventually, but the path to get there is bumpy and filled with weird shifts from comedy to drama to monster movie to mega violent action flick. Still, it’s clear that Gunn is paying homage to his influences here with mission movies like “The Dirty Dozen” and the source material (namely John Ostrander’s comics). It FEELS more like a Suicide Squad comic than its predecessor and in that respect it works.
Content wise, the film’s deconstruction of the American superhero and its exploration of antiheroes and the American Government are wildly ambitious for a comic book movie. Of course, the movie also once again explores rag-tag outcasts/outsiders as well. Where the movie gets a little murky for me is its seemingly contradictory views on life and death. Not to get into spoiler territory, but some characters have a change of heart, some characters come to their senses, and some characters want to do what’s right. The notion that everybody deserves to live comes into play which would be impactful if the movie didn’t spend so much showing people needlessly dying (the guerilla fighter sequence comes to mind). Yes, this is Suicide Squad where characters could die at any moment, but it seems like James Gunn undercuts his own messages in spots which I found puzzling.
Character wise, Ratcatcher 2 steals the whole movie. For the relatively unknown Daniela Melchior to come into a movie filled with stars and stand-out like this, that’s a testament to her talent. I will not be shocked to see her become a big star because she deserves to be. Idris Elba does a commendable job in the starring role as Bloodshot. Normally I’m not a fan of John Cena’s movie roles, but he’s actually solid here. I can see why the character of Peacemaker is getting his own spin-off series in January. You don’t need me to tell you Margot Robbie is great as Harley Quinn. She truly makes the role her own. It was nice to see Joel Kinnaman do more in the sequel than in the first film as Rick Flag. Viola Davis continues to shine as the ruthless Amanda Waller. A lot of people enjoyed King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) but it didn’t resonate with me. I’ve seen better interpretations in other mediums. There was a lot of potential for Polka-Dot Man, but unfortunately, I thought the character was ultimately kind of wasted. David Dastmalchian crushed as always though. As for Captain Boomerang, I will say both he and Deadshot were missed in this film (particularly their chemistry with Harley Quinn) too. Yes, Boomerang is in the movie but it’s all too brief.
Video/Audio:
Presentation: 1.85:1 2160p. How does it look? A pristine print. This is a 4K disc at its finest.
Audio Track: Dolby Atmos. How does it sound? Unsurprisingly, this action packed sounds incredible in Atmos.
Extras:
* Digital copy
* DC Universe Infinite free trial
* Blu-ray copy
* Commentary by James Gunn
* 4 scene breakdowns for “It’s A Suicide Mission,” “My Gun’s Bigger Than Yours,” “Harley’s Great Escape” and “The Fall of Jotunheim.” Behind-the-scenes extras that look at the making of these 4 sequences. Cast and crew interviews are included.
* War Movie, Horror Movie, and Buddy-Cop Retro trailers
* 17 ½ minutes of deleted/extended scenes. You can see why these moments were cut out.
* 10 ½ minute amusing gag reel.
* “Bringing King Shark To Life” featurette
* “Gotta Love The Squad” covers the influence of John Ostrander’s comic books and the characters.
* “The Way Of The Gunn”- A look at James Gunn’s directorial approach to the movie.
* “Starro: It’s A Freakin’ Kaiju” is all about, you guessed it, Starro.
2 Comments »
Leave a Reply
Share This Blog
Robert Ham
dmanderson
Andrea
nicklyons1
DVD Corner's blog 
I’m looking forward to that 4K Blu-ray release, especially since that movie was never released locally because local cinemas were shut down since the pandemic started. The local cinemas are preparing for reopening but I doubt Warner Bros. would do a belated release of The Suicide Squad on the big screen.
Unless it’s a second run theater, I would assume the theater would just be showing new titles.