Psycho Bastardo’s Suicide Squad 2 Review

I can’t remember being more jaded by the film critic scene (let alone film industry) than this current point in my life. It’s hard to take any of it seriously when every big budget movie is great and doesn’t have any flaws. At least that’s what the critics like to say only because they like getting special treatment from production studios… 

So what does any of that have to do with Suicide Squad 2 (yeah I put a number at the end. Deal with it)? Because every checkmark on film twitter has been giving glowing reviews for a movie that hasn’t even had its world premiere yet and James Gunn said it’s the best movie he ever made. Every well known artist says their latest is their best because… What else are they gonna say? That their newest project is bad lol 

I saw it at Aero Theater last night which was meant to cap off Beyond Fest’s James Gunn curated week of programming. Before the movie began, trailers for movies James wrote and directed were played on repeat until a specially recorded greeting from James Gunn played on screen. Which doubled down on his thoughts that it’s his FAVORITE film he ever made. This for some reason speaks louder to me than him saying it’s his best. 

It could be because I recently watched the Scream franchise for the first time at New Bev Cinema last weekend, but I can’t help but draw a correlation between the way both Suicide Squad 2 and Scream start. We open with Michael Rooker killing tweety bird (It’s cute, it’s small, it’s yellow, it’s in a WB movie. It’s fucking tweety dude) before being deployed with half of the suicide squad we spend our 2 hours with. Almost everyone in his faction including him, fucking die in the opening scene…

Right out the gate this movie does infinitely more with its “Don’t get attached” promise of a tagline than Army of the Dead did with the same tagline. Funny enough Zack Snyder is a part of this as an executive producer which when you connect this dot with the legion of Starro controlled zombies The Suicide Squad has to eventually fight we totally get a Dawn of the Dead reuinion.

Whoever was in charge of casting needs a cookie because everyone was perfectly chosen. Lloyd Kaufman gets a fun blink-and-you-miss-it style cameo which got me thinking “Is James going to reference everything he ever worked on in the film?” He totally fucking does btw. Polkadot Man, Harley, and Bloodsport killing goons in an office space on one floor whileKing Shark playing with slug shaped biters on another floor in the same scene. 

This movie was made by a man who straight up went ahead and blended everything he ever liked about his prior work to give us a deliciously twisted smoothie of a movie. More or less R rated Guardians of the Galaxy. Which would not have been possible without Disney trying to cancel James Gunn as Mel Gibson was going to be given the movie in another timeline. Dodged a Peacemaker bullet with that one. The only problem I had which isn’t even a problem is that the best character in the film (Sylvester Stallone as King Shark) didn’t really have an iconic gory moment that hit in the way the rest of the squad did. 

I otherwise was taken back by this the way that many of the critics have been as it truly is a showcase of what everyone involved is capable of. What makes DC preferred over Marvel to me is that the science in making their movies isn’t as concocted as the ladder. Whether it’s horrible or amazing, you’re going to remember watching a DC film. This really is DC at their best and I’m gonna see it again opening weekend.