Welcome back to another installment in the Margot Robbie filmography watch through! We’re quickly approaching a point where we are about caught up on her current filmography. But we’ve got a couple of big hitters to still cover and that starts with another portrayal of Harley Quinn in…The Suicide Squad (2021).
Title: The Suicide Squad
Director: James Gunn
Released: July 28, 2021 (Belgium and France)
Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes
Available to stream on: HBO MAX
Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) continues to be up to no good. This time around she is assembling two separate Task Force X teams, better known as the Suicide Squad. The Suicide Squad is made up of current inmates who agree to do Waller’s nefarious bidding in exchange for commuted sentences. Although, there’s a catch. Each member has a bomb installed in the base of their skull. That’s right, if they go astray from Waller’s mission, she can detonate the bomb.
The assignment is to make landfall in Corto Maltese and to destroy a secret laboratory. To say that things get off to a rough start would be quite the understatement. The first team to land is almost immediately obliterated by the Corto Maltese military. As it turns out, one of the members sold out the whole team. They were sitting ducks before they even hit the shore.
Luckily for her, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) survived the military onslaught. Despite surviving, she is quickly captured by the military and then escorted to Corto Maltese’s dictator. He happens to have a thing for Harley Quinn and insists on marrying her.
Meanwhile, team two is successful in making landfall. The members include Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) and King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone). Through communications with Waller, the team learns that team one leader, Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), survived the onslaught. Now their mission is to rescue him before continuing on to the secret laboratory.
How will Harley Quinn cope with a dictator wanting to marry her?
Can the Suicide Squad rescue Rick Flag and complete their mission?
In full disclosure, this was not my first viewing of The Suicide Squad (2021). I originally saw it in theaters on opening weekend and then a day later on HBOMAX. This was a third viewing for me and my opinion on it has not changed.
I love it.
Admittedly, I was not familiar with the Suicide Squad comics at all. What I knew of them I learned through the 2016 version titled Suicide Squad. However, James Gunn wrote the script in a way that makes these characters approachable for those who know little to nothing about them. The film provides enough information throughout to fill in most informational gaps.
This is just a lot of fun all the way around. We are given a B-list group of superheroes, but they’re presented in a way that gives them meaning and purpose. And on top of that, we’re able to see them at their best and worst. There is no polished version of what a superhero is here. In fact, the film sometimes makes you question whether any “good guys” exist at all.
To that point, everyone here is fantastic in their respective roles. While yes, it was a blast to get to see John Cena really let his hair down here, and his banter with Idris Elba is great, it’s Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn that steals the show. She dives further into the psyche of the character while thriving in the R-rated comedy sphere.
I could go on and on, but I’ll wrap things up by saying that if this is a sneak peek as to what to expect with James Gunn heading up DC, I’m excited.
If you haven’t seen The Suicide Squad (2021), definitely go give it a watch. If you’ve already seen it, no better time than now to give it a rewatch.
So, if you have seen The Suicide Squad (2021), what did you think of it?
Leave a comment below or reach out to me on Bluesky and let me hear your thoughts!
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