The Suicide Squad

James Gunn’s 2021 film reached the screen by an unusual route. Disney parted with Gunn in 2018 over old posts, Warner Bros. offered him a Superman picture, and he took this one instead. The studio wanted a rating open to a wider audience, but Gunn made the adult rating a condition of directing, and DC let him kill any character, Harley Quinn included. For the villain he passed over Superman and took Starro, which he found ridiculous and frightening at once. Both permissions show up concretely. The opening mission wipes out most of the squad you just met, so the real roster assembles only after you have invested in the first one. The finale then asks you to find a giant starfish absurd and to take it seriously in the same scene, so the mocking tone and the emotional landing collide. Producer Peter Safran says it is not a sequel to the 2016 picture, only that some characters carry over. Filming took place in Atlanta, Panama and Portugal. Made for one hundred eighty five million dollars, it opened on HBO Max the same day as in cinemas and finished near one hundred sixty eight million. A fit if you accept that characters you warm to are killed without warning. Not a fit if dismemberment on screen turns your stomach.