"The Suicide Squad" a blast of weirdo energy, freewheeling characters, and lots of gore
The Suicide Squad (2021) This is what the DC Comics adaptation should have been the first time. An exhilarating trailer did not quite translate into an exhilarating final cut for 2016’s “Suicide Squad,” thanks to some common studio interference. Five years later, second’s time a charm. Whereas chaos reigned in the editing room for the hot mess that even director David Ayer himself disowned, writer-director James Gunn’s do-over/sort-of sequel “The Suicide Squad” is full of controlled chaos and feels exactly like the movie he wanted to make. It’s all very much Gunn, the offbeat dude who gave us “Slither,” “Super,” and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies on the Marvel side, and he brings a freewheeling, rambunctious, weirdo energy—and lots and lots of over-the-top gore—that feels just right for this material. Viola Davis is back to being ruthless and nearly popping a blood vessel while playing government official Amanda Waller. She assembles a team of bad-to-the-bone prisoners fo...