Movie Review: THE SUICIDE SQUAD...

Several hours ago, I went to my local AMC theater to watch The Suicide Squad...the newest cinematic installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU).

Needless to say, The Suicide Squad was very entertaining! Unlike 2016's Suicide Squad—whose original dark tone was minimized with humor added at the last minute, as a response to backlash caused by the dreariness of that year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice—The Suicide Squad already had a nice blend of humor, gore and emotional elements in it thanks to director James Gunn, who previously saw comic book movie success at Marvel Studios with 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy (GotG) and its 2017 sequel.

The biggest strengths of The Suicide Squad were the cast members and their amazing performances. Margot Robbie was back as the energetically unstable Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman returned as the stoic Colonel Rick Flag, Jai Courtney (briefly) reprised his role as Captain Boomerang, and the ultra-talented Viola Davis once again played the tough-as-nails but conniving Amanda Waller.

The newcomers in The Suicide Squad were commendable too...with Michael Rooker (who already worked with Gunn on the GotG movies) as Savant, Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Flula Borg as Javelin, Mayling Ng as Mongal, Pete Davidson as Blackguard, David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Sean Gunn (James' brother and another GotG veteran) as Weasel, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, Peter Capaldi as Thinker, Julio Cesar Ruiz as Milton, Alice Braga as Sol Soria and Sylvester Stallone (who appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) as the voice of King Shark.

And of course, The Suicide Squad's badass group of villains-turned-heroes was led by the formidable Idris Elba as Bloodsport, and John Cena as the ironically-named Peacemaker.

The Suicide Squad was filled with lots of awesome and equally-violent action sequences, with the final confrontation pitting Bloodsport, Harley Quinn and Co. against Starro the Conqueror highlighting the delightfully-absurd nature of James Gunn's take on this DC comic book property.

Along with the 2017 Wonder Woman movie, 2019's Shazam and Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League earlier this year, The Suicide Squad is an excellent addition to the DCEU. Even though it won't be connected to DC's cinematic universe, here's hoping that 2022's The Batman will be as well-made as the films mentioned above. Godspeed, Warner Bros.