In July 2018, the happy before times when we knew nothing about the coming pandemic, James Gunn having provoked the ire of Trump supporters was fired from his position as the director of the 3rd installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, the first two under his writing and direction had clear more than 1.5 billion at the box office, when Disney panicked over a faux twitter outrage generated by said Trump supporters fixated on Gunn’s years aged and already apologized for shock and bast taste humor on that platform.

Meanwhile Warner Brothers Studios licked their wounds from the critical disappointment that was their feature release Suicide Squada superhero film where the featured characters were in fact villains pressed into government service in a dangerous mission to save the world. Wb desperate for a win compared to the juggernaut that is Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, a license to more money than many countries, they wasted no time and hired Gunn for the sequel to their villains turned heroes series and thus was born The Suicide Squad.

If you are expecting a clone of Guardians in tone, humor, or even needles drops, then you may be disappointed by The Suicide Squad. The humor is darker and more cynical, the action more violentand quite graphic compared to Marvel’s generally bloodless combat and the music ques trend to more modern selections in contrast to Guardians favor for classic rock.

With the exceptions of fan favorite Harley Quinn and Colonel Flag, Gunn, given a free hand by the studio, selected a new roster of villains to constitute his world saving anti-heroes, and that line-up to is too extensive to fully detail here but includes; Ratcatcher 2, who inherited tech to control rats from her father, Polka-Dot Man, who throws polka-dots of disintegrating energy, Bloodsport and Peacemaker a pair of high trained, testosterone-poisoned mercenary assassins and of course King Shark, a humanoid barely speech-capable walking super-strong and always hungry shark.

This assorted murderer’s row along with a number of other are dispatched of a fictional island nation of the coast of South America to destroy a facility and its secret project “Starfish” that has landed in unfriendly hands due to a recent coup. Things go wrong and a great deal of curing and violence erupts and the villains are faced with a threat that far outmatches them and one that no all of them will survive. After all it is titled The Suicide Squad.

I enjoyed but did not love this movie. It is fun, it revels in its R rating, and Gunn let the characters be themselves without bogging the pacing down with excessive set-ups. That said there were elements, usually style induced ones that kept rubbing against my suspension of disbelief. For example, instead of a simple title card or subtitle to inform us we were jumping back three day in the story to show us something vital Gunn would place the letters in the scene, such as in foam forming on a toilet seat, or in billowing flames and that was too self-ware for my own tastes.

That said I am glad I watched this in a theater where giant action set pieces played out far larger than life. So, my recommendation is see it, but be aware it doesn’t work for everyone.