The last movie I saw in theaters before the pandemic was Birds of Prey. It seems fitting that the first movie I see in theaters is The Suicide Squad. My fiance was all about watching this on HBO Max, but I missed going to a movie. I convinced him to see this last Friday and get out of the apartment. The Suicide Squad rocked and it’s probably one of my favorite movies DC has ever made.

The Suicide Squad is a ragtag team of supervillains sent out on literal suicide missions for the US government. Led aggressively by Amanda Waller (played wonderfully by Viola Davis), Waller puts chips in their necks. Any deserter gets their head blown off which is featured quite gruesomely in the first half of the film. The squad is sent to Corto Maltese to investigate Jotunheim where something of alien origin is supposedly housed. Their mission is to find what’s there and destroy it, so Corto Maltese doesn’t have access to it.

This movie is downright ridiculous. Harley (played by Margot Robbie) is flirtatious and fun to see on screen. Robbie does such a great job and seems to genuinely enjoy playing as Harley. While Harley is the one to watch, it feels like each of the main Suicide Squad members gets their time to shine. Ratcatcher 2 (played by Daniela Melchior) is one to keep tabs on. While controlling rats may seem like a silly power, she plays an important role later in the film. I found myself drawn to her when I didn’t think I would be. If you think controlling rats is silly, wait until you see Polka Dot Man. Yes, James Gunn the director of Guardians of the Galaxy brought Polka Dot Man into this movie. Polka Dot Man (played by David Dastmalchian) serves a purpose here. There are several hilarious scenes with Polka Dot Man that I won’t spoil.

John Cena plays the Peacemaker who is obsessed with peace and will kill for it. Hypocritical much? Peacemaker was written for Cena as he seems at ease playing this character. Rick Flagg (played by Joel Kinnaman) has a much bigger role in this film than the previous Suicide Squad movie. He comes off as a born leader and helps bring the team together to rely on each other, so they can all survive. As a fan of the Harley Quinn animated series, I was elated to see King Shark. King Shark is the MVP of this movie. He tears through enemies and gets to feast on flesh as he does so.

James Gunn does a marvelous job at balancing all these characters. There are several story lines going on simultaneously until everything converges at Jotunheim. This easily could have been a mess, but Gunn adds in various hints to keep the watcher aware of where everyone is at. There’s jumping around at certain times, but it doesn’t feel out of place. The Suicide Squad can be a lot to handle, and James Gunn was the perfect director to make this film.

Without spoiling, there’s a certain character death that completely shocked me. I was fully expecting this to be a joke and the character would get up and walk around, but no. This character was DEAD. This threw me for a loop.

Both me and my fiance were blown away by how good this film is. As many know, DC’s films are a hit or a miss. There’s no in-between. I’m happy to say that this is so worth the watch. I’m excited to re-watch this on HBO Max. Let me know in the comments who your favorite character is from The Suicide Squad.