Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Other Doctor Lives: The Suicide Squad (2021, R)

Oh, it does make me happy to get new Peter Capaldi content, and it’s awesome to see him in a big blockbuster like this. Despite consistently killing the TV game for years, between long-running masterpieces like his performance in The Thick of It, crushing it in the short-term on series 2 of The Hour, and of course his wonderful Twelfth Doctor, he hasn’t gotten a ton of movie love. As such, it’s cool that he’s a part of the monster cast in this ultraviolent extravaganza, and that it’s such a fun blockbuster for him to be in! I had a great time watching this film.

Amanda Waller, black ops handler and resident DC hardass, runs the Suicide Squad, a group of convicted supervillains pressed into service for the government, with promises of reduced prison sentences if they cooperate and kill chips implanted in their brains in case they don’t. When rumors of a possibly-alien weapon in the hands of the politically-unstable Corto Maltese reache U.S. ears, Waller sends the Suicide Squad in to investigate and dispatch, hoping that the disparate group of mercurial felons can hold it together long enough to get the job done.

The story of this film long preceded the film’s story, if that makes sense. This is a “not exactly a sequel” to Suicide Squad, an early DCEU film that stumbled at the finish line. There are certainly elements from that movie that carry over into this one: key actors/characters – namely Viola Davis’s Waller, the always-welcome Harley Quinn as played by Margot Robbie, and Rick Flagg/Joel Kinnaman – and it’s hard to shake the feeling that Idris Elba’s Bloodsport is a somewhat-transparent replacement for Will Smith’s Deadshot from the first film. Who knows if we’ll ever get a Suicide Squad “David Ayers cut” down the line, but for now, the property has been handed over to James Gunn of Guardians of the Galaxy fame. After Disney fired (but later rehired) Gunn from Guardians 3 over old offensive tweets, DC picked him up and offered him The Suicide Squad, and the resulting film is incredibly James Gunny, albeit with way more gore, F-bombs, and dick jokes than the PG-13 Guardians movies.

It’s a rollicking good time. I’d be tempted to compare it to the Kingsman series, which deftly combines vulgar comedy, homage, and audacious graphic violence, but the film does feel like its own thing. Even with a stunningly large cast of wildly-specific D-list DC baddies, the film, juggles everything pretty well. Those who only make brief appearances each get at least one memorable moment, and those who form the main team bring both laughs and heart to their characters.

Elba and John Cena are reliably good as Bloodsport and Peacemaker, two alpha-male types with similar skill sets but very different sensibilities. Their interactions as they jockey for leadership of the group are fun, with the two of them continually sparking off of one another. For my money, Harley spends too much of the film separated from the main group and not used to her best effect, but Robbie remains delightfully cracked in the role and sells every showcase scene with gusto. But even with those heavy hitters, Daniela Melchior and David Dastmalchian both leave big impressions as Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man respectively. Ratcatcher 2 becomes something of the glue/heart that holds the team together, and the film does a nice job fleshing out such a seemingly-ridiculous character as Polka-Dot Man.

Other familiar faces in the stacked cast include Michael Rooker (Yondu!), Nathan Fillion, Pete Davidson, Sylvester Stallone, Storm Reid (Meg Murry!), Joaquín Cosio (lately of Narcos: Mexico,) and Taika Waititi(!!) I do need to mention that there are allegations of sexual assault against Sylvester Stallone, which is gross and pisses me off.

Peter Capaldi plays the Thinker, one of many baddies in the film but not really a member of the Suicide Squad. Instead, the mercenary supergenius is the one studying this potentially-alien asset in Corto Maltese, the man Waller sees as the Squad’s possible opening to infiltrate the base/lab and put a stop to it. He’s not one of them, but he’s also not the big bad (even though he is quite a piece of work.)

The Thinker is brilliant, arrogant, and quite the opportunist. He doesn’t suffer from a surfeit of moral fiber or courage, and he has little concern for collateral damage. His priorities are mainly his own personal interest and his research. It’s a small role, but Capaldi plays it well. It would be easy for an evil genius with some sort of cranial augmentation sticking out of his head to be played really over-the-top, but Capaldi plays him more like a regular guy, albeit one who’s also an evil genius. It’s an effective take on the character – a bit of scenery-chewing can be a lot of fun (for the audience as well as the actor,) but the more subdued performance makes him both a little more relatable and a little creepier. Because an over-the-top comic-book villain is supposed to do this kind of shit, but someone who’s more just like a person? That gets cold.

Accent Watch

Oh, Peter Capaldi. It can be hard to tell sometimes if he’s doing a softer Scottish accent or some kind of not-entirely-successful English accent, usually RP. I feel like he’s probably going for RP here, but there are quite a few Scottish notes poking through.

Recommend?

In General – Yes, as long as you don’t mind graphic violence and profane humor.

Peter Capadi – I would. Even though it’s not a big role, I really like what Capaldi does with it, and again, the mere fact that he’s in a big DC movie tickles me.

Warnings

Lots of the old ultraviolence, language, sexual content/references, drinking/smoking, gross-out humor, strong thematic elements, and involvement by an alleged sexual predator.

No comments:

Post a Comment