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HBO Go review: James Gunn gets 'The Suicide Squad' right

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Fred Hawson

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="David Dastmalchian, John Cena, Idris Elba and Daniela Melchior in " The="" Suicide="" HBO="" src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/news/11/07/hbo.jpg"/><figcaption>David Dastmalchian, John Cena, Idris Elba and Daniela Melchior in &#x27;The Suicide Squad.&#x27;<em> HBO Go</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>The Suicide Squad is a ragtag group of super-criminals assembled by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) for the US government to take on deadly black-ops missions in exchange for shorter hail time. This time around, the new team of criminals from the Belle Reve prison were sent the island nation of Corto Maltese to infiltrate and destroy a Nazi laboratory called Jotunheim which was conducting mysterious experiments called &quot;Project Starfish,&quot; involving an alien creature that can kill and take over mass groups of people. </p><p>The first attempt to introduce this DC Comics group of super-villains in a film in by David Ayer in 2016. While Margot Robbie stood out as Harley Quinn and Will Smith looked cool as Deadshot, the rest of the squad felt miscast, from Jai Courtenay as Capt. Boomerang to Jared Leto as the Joker. The rated PG-13 treatment of the violent material did not go over well with critics who shot it down early with negative reviews. However, audiences still lapped it up at the box office. It surprisingly even won an Oscar for Hairstyling and Make-up, the first DCEU film to do so. </p><p>This new reboot still had Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, but the rest of the cast is new. The team was led by a reluctant Bloodsport (Idris Elba), and was composed of ruthless killer Peacemaker (John Cena at his most obnoxious best), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) with her ability to make rats obey her will, Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) with his serious mommy-issues, and a man-eating hybrid King Shark (Sylvester Stallone, in a most memorable role). </p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uwCNNdkqHmA?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>Despite being a very violent film, director James Gunn did not shy from using bright colors. Harley Quinn had an exhilarating escape from a building full of goons dressed in a blood-red gown. Polka-Dot Man produced pastel polka dots, but these cute innocuous disks had great destructive power in them. The pink and powder blue giant Starro the Conqueror rampaging through the Corte Maltese town like a giant kaiju Patrick Starr, while shooting out multitude miniatures of itself from its axillae, was quite a sight to behold. </p><p>Gunn, brought in from the rival Marvel company, where he directed &quot;Guardians of the Galaxy&quot; (2014) and its sequel (2017), both massive box-office hits, has certainly proven that he can manage films about motley crews of lesser-known super-beings and make them into a cohesive team. This new Suicide Squad film had more graphic scenes of blood-splattering gore, but its tongue-in-cheek humor kept all the team members, ruthless killers as they were, quite likable, even endearing. </p><p>This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, “<a href="http://said-fred.blogspot.com/2021/11/hbo-go-review-of-suicide-squad-2021.html">Fred Said</a>.”</p>

The Suicide Squad is a ragtag group of super-criminals assembled by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) for the US government to take on deadly black-ops missions in exchange for shorter hail time. 