The Suicide Squad Review Roundup: Here’s What Critics Are Saying

The Suicide Squad official reviews have been released online now that the embargo is up – so what are critics saying? Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is doing his own take on the bloody hijinks of Task Force X – a new vision of the franchise Warner Bros. is hoping will impress DC fans more than the 2016 Suicide Squad film. A lot of fans are placing their bets on Gunn’s unique filmmaking style to be a match made in heaven with the classic Suicide Squad comics concept – not just because of his success with Marvel, but also because of his experience making violent, fun, romp like Slither and Super.

So, did James Gunn give the Suicide Squad franchise a new lease on life? Here’s what critics are saying:

Welcome to The DC Universe

Comicbook.com’s Jenna Anderson says in her review of The Suicide Squad that James Gunn has not only revitalized the franchise – he’s also built a foundation for a much better DC Movie Universe to build on: 

There are so many things about The Suicide Squad that are revolutionary, from the extraordinary ensemble cast to the compelling and downright absurd story. But the most surreal element of the film might be the way it showcases the endless potential of the DC universe, with a feeling of wonder that those who have spent hours thumbing through back issues at their local comic shop will probably recognize. The Suicide Squad not only raises the bar for just how much a superhero movie can accomplish in one sitting, but it proves that the weird and oft-forgotten comic characters are superstars deserving of your attention. I have never seen a superhero movie with such a refined sense of identity and such a love for the source material — and if I never see one like it again, I’ll only be a little disappointed.

2nd Draft Is Better

Indiewire says The Suicide Squad it Warner Bros.’ second draft attempt at this franchise – and Gunn’s draft is far better: 

The most fun and least depressing superhero movie in a very long time, Gunn’s deliriously ultra-violent “The Suicide Squad” wears the yoke of its genre with a lightness that allows it to slip loose of the usual restraints, if not quite shake them off altogether. It must be liberating to make a $150 million (give or take) mulligan for a widely maligned disaster that still managed to gross almost a billion dollars despite becoming a punchline along the way, and that’s really what this unhinged carnival of R-rated cartoon mayhem amounts to at the end of the day: Not a reboot of or a sequel to 2016’s “Suicide Squad,” but rather a second draft.

Garbage With Style

Variety says the pulpy, B-movie feel of The Suicide Squad is everything that makes it fun: 

“The Suicide Squad,” make no mistake, is a grandly scaled down-and-dirty throwaway. James Gunn has directed it like a bad boy, but that was his mandate. In fulfilling it, he’s proven himself to be a good boy (which is why he was rehired by Disney to make “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”). But he knows how to dip into the gutter with style.

Gunnverse > Snyderverse

THR is pleasantly surprised by the fact that The Suicide Squad earns its own existence as Warner Bros.’ mulligan of David Ayer’s (read: the studio’s) 2016 film, while offering a more fun (and brighter) vision of DC movies than Zack Snyder did (you know the comparison was coming): 

Gone are the charcoaled-up primary colors of Zack Snyder’s logy DC superfriends, and gone, thank Jor-El, are references to that world. Superman’s name is dropped once (Bloodsport put him in the ICU with a kryptonite bullet), but references to Joker are indirect, and nobody else is even worth mentioning. That’s only one of the welcome surprises in The Suicide Squad — a movie whose biggest surprise is that it deserves to exist at all.

DC’s Best Film In Years

IGN goes so far as to call The Suicide Squad a do-over that fully paves over the original, and is DC and Warner Bros.’ best film in years: 

The Suicide Squad isn’t so much a reboot or a sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad as it is a complete do-over — and this time, they knocked it out of the park. In fact, this irreverent, ultra-violent romp featuring F-list villains is DC’s best film in years.

Does Blockbuster Right

The Guardian says that The Suicide Squad does everything right that fans want in a big, bold, loud, comic book blockbuster this summer: 

Not everything works here, but the sheer crazy confidence-through-chaos of the Suicide Squad and their bizarrely dysfunctional MO makes for a mighty spectacle.

The Gunnverse

EW gets the ball rolling by deeming James Gunn the architect of his own unique Gunnverse, which bridges both his Marvel and DC projects:

Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) is given sole credit as writer and director, and there’s a sense that this Suicide is as much a part of his own extended universe as the DC one.  

It’s FUN

Empire breaks it down to the one thing that DC fans and general moviegoers want to know: is The Suicide Squad fun? 

The Suicide Squad is a fundamentally absurd idea. It has second tier (or below) DC supervillains, with frequently dumb powers, teaming up to do secret government missions. Even in a world of people flying around in their underpants, that is ridiculous. David Ayer’s 2016 film didn’t really respect that absurdity. It tried to bend the concept to fit the standard superhero mould, keen to find the goodness in its bad guys and with precious little sense of humour about the whole thing. James Gunn gets it. His take on The Suicide Squad is unashamedly silly, but crucially never stupid, and keeps the baddies at least morally murky. Most importantly, its primary aim is to be really, really fun.

The Suicide Squad will be in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6th. You can watch our interviews with the cast above.