Yes, it's been about 4 months since the last review on Any Good? but with the pandemic currently seeing a minor hiatus in the UK (fingers crossed) and having just watched The Suicide Squad, it's a good time to hit the cinemas again...
As the age of Marvel's cinematic universe slowly feels closer and closer to insignificance, the world needed a super-movie shake-up - and last night I watched it.
The Suicide Squad is written and directed by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) and easily boasts the most outlandish and full-on violent array that a superhero film has given us since... well... ever - to be honest. It's so ridiculously stupid, ultra-violent, highly stylised, a little too immature at times but, on the whole, awesome.
It's a remake of 2016's disastrous film of the same name, which sees the return of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Viola Davis's Amanda Waller (among others) in a morally perplexing blood-fest about a group of imprisoned superhumans that are looking to get a little time off their sentence by joining 'The Suicide Squad'. Their mission? Inflitrate the defence of a South-American island nation and destroy some data hiding within.
And it's a vast improvement...
It's a fairly simple premise, but the execution will shock you to your core. The film is not afraid to 'go there' on almost every level and right off the bat lets you know that it's not hanging around and won't be letting itself or the characters involved get at all comfortable.
Yet, amongst all the blood, gore and strange/totally inappropriate humour there's a real sense of heart. Unlike the original film there's a depth to the characters involved that will surprise you and force you to actually care about what happens to them.
Margot Robbie is a huge standout, involved in one of the more outlandish action sequences of the film but also a bit of fairly questionable dialogue too. It's Idris Elba's assassin (bloodsport) who's the true star though, cool as a cucumber but understandably terrified of rats. This becomes a problem when it comes to teaming up with someone that can command that particular animal. Sylvester Stallone as King Shark though, the suprisingly amiable half-man half-shark, is yet another merchandise-selling show-stealer.
As the title implies, a lot of these ridiculous yet undeniably sympathetic characters are pried away from you without remorse. And that's what's to love about the film. You'll never be bored. You'll constantly second-guess whether someone may unexpectedly meet their end or some unimaginably strange ability or character will present itself. It throws every punch it can, and whether you like it or hate it - you have to at least respect it for bringing something genuinely fun and new to a very over-crowded genre.
Margot Robbie has openly called it the "best comic book movie ever made", and while it's certainly no Dark Knight, it's clear to see where she's coming from. It's quite literally like watching a (very) graphic novel play out in front of your eyes, and may well be the best of this genre to have come since then... at least since Ragnarok.
Any Good? Disgustingly so.