I lately rewatched 2021’s The Suicide Squad with my HBO Max subscription, and it jogged my memory of why I just like the film and why I really like director James Gunn’s method to superhero films. It’s not simply the needle drops and the humor; it’s that the films are enjoyable. The MCU, and particularly the outdated DCEU, can simply be too severe at instances. Too dour. Let’s deliver the enjoyable again to comedian e-book films!
The Suicide Squad Is Foolish In All The Finest Methods
I used to be impressed to revisit The Suicide Squad as a result of I lately watched Peacemaker Season 1 for the primary time after John Cena’s cameo in Superman this summer time. I kind of tuned out the DCEU in direction of the tip of its run, as a result of, let’s be sincere, the films weren’t very a lot enjoyable. I perceive the enchantment that Zach Snyder’s films have for some followers, however they didn’t do a lot for me. Now that we now have a newly rebranded and rebooted DCU, I made a decision it could be vital to catch up.
After I began with Peacemaker, I spotted how little I remembered about The Suicide Squad, which was Cena’s first look because the dopey, however hilarious Peacemaker. It’s vital to notice that it positive looks as if The Suicide Squad is canon for the brand new DCU, which formally kicked off its live-action first part (dubbed “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters”) with Superman, additionally directed by Gunn, a few months in the past.
The Suicide Squad has one thing that Gunn is nice at doing in his films: pleasure. It’s a wild trip, with a stellar forged, and predictably nice music; it’s additionally campy and cartoony, in the most effective methods. I have a look at these outdated DCEU films, like Batman v Superman: Daybreak of Justice and Justice League, and they’re such a bunch of downers. Once more, I get the enchantment of darkish comedian e-book adaptation, however for me, I would like issues which can be gentle and enjoyable.
Making Comedian Films Foolish Shouldn’t Be A Destructive
Superhero comedian books, at their essence, are enjoyable and foolish. Not less than my favorites are. Someplace alongside the way in which within the final 20 years or so of comedian e-book diversifications, the movie trade veered too far into the darker themes of newer comics. That is true of each DC and Marvel-based films. The Suicide Squad and Gunn’s three Guardians of the Galaxy movies all embrace the goofy, foolish facets of comics, and I want extra of that within the DCU going ahead (I want extra of that within the MCU too, which discovered a few of that with The Implausible 4: First Steps).
It doesn’t should be all goofy. Gunn walks the road brilliantly between heartfelt and foolish, particularly within the third Guardians movie, and to some extent in Superman, and I really like how gentle and brilliant his films are. The scene in The Suicide Squad the place Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) shoots up the palace with flowers exploding is a superb instance of this. It feels like a comic book, not like a whole lot of the outdated DCEU to me.
I’m actually trying ahead to the upcoming DC films and seeing what James Gunn and Peter Safran deliver to all of them because the artistic minds answerable for the franchise. Up subsequent, the animated Creature Commandos, which I additionally haven’t seen.