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What do critics think of 'The Suicide Squad'?

Make way for the Suicide Squad

Reviews for The Suicide Squad are in, and they are much, much more positive than those for Suicide Squad (2016), which were brutal, to say the least. Critics praised The Suicide Squad for director James Gunn's re-invention of the "Suicide Squad" concept, as well as its gory action and colorful characters. According to the reviews, these positive elements largely overshadow more awkward storytelling beats and keep the film fresh.

The Suicide Squad is a kind-of-reboot, kind-of-sequel. It keeps some characters from the original film, like Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), but also introduces new villains like Idris Elba's Bloodsport and John Cena's Peacemaker, who go on a mission to the country of Corto Maltese in order to destroy a sinister laboratory.

Here's what critics have to say about The Suicide Squad.

A massive improvement

Mashable, Alison Foreman

Instead of a mixed-and-matched mess of half-bakes ideas, The Suicide Squad presents a unified vision from Gunn that, while not without its flaws, actually delivers the initial concept we were all so excited about in 2016. The premise of high-stakes adventure where the bad guys are forced to be good guys was never Suicide Squad's problem, and seeing it done even close to “right” is a thrilling experience.

The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey

Gunn’s distinct and self-assured vision, which he’s said was left untouched and unbothered by studio interference, puts The Suicide Squad alongside the very best of modern comic-book filmmaking.

The Hollywood Reporter, John DeFore

Gunn’s gleefully violent new picture mostly ignores David Ayer’s 2016 dud but isn’t a reboot. Not only does it find the nastily enjoyable vibe that eluded its predecessor, but it also tells a story worth following — while balancing its most appealing character with others whose disposability (they aren’t sent on suicide missions for nothin’) doesn’t prevent them from being good company onscreen.

IndieWire, Dave Ehrlich

While the tone of Gunn’s film isn’t far removed from that of its misbegotten predecessor, this one actually has the chutzpah (and the creative freedom) to make good on Harley Quinn’s whole “we’re bad guys — it’s what we do” routine.

Credit: warner bros

A delightful new squad of characters (and actors)

SlashFilm, Hoai-Tran Bui

Gunn performs the magic trick we’ve seen him do time and time again: he makes us care for these terribly immoral, most likely doomed, characters. (Well, except for Weasel, he can go back to the dumpster from hell that he crawled out from.)...It’s clear that Gunn cares for each of these characters, bringing to The Suicide Squad some of the earnest empathy that he honed in his Guardians movies.

Variety, Owen Gleiberman

As Bloodsport, a mercenary with a complex set of guns that only he can use (and a teenage daughter who hates him), Idris Elba takes a while to come into focus, but he ascends in authority as the movie goes on, his charisma seeping in kill by kill, putdown by putdown. John Cena is perfectly cast as Peacemaker, a square-jawed douche who wears a modified Captain America suit topped by what looks like a toy metal helmet (which Bloodsport, at one point, accurately compares to a toilet).

USA Today, Brian Truitt

Those who adore Rocket Raccoon and Groot from Gunn’s Guardians will get a kick out of Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), a nap-happy young woman who can control rats, and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), who has a death wish as well as an inter-dimensional virus that spawns destructive polka dots. Sylvester Stallone also voices the man-eating, scene-stealing King Shark and it’s pretty much as awesome as it sounds.

More than earns its R-rating

Entertainment Weekly, Leah Greenblatt

In last year's Birds of Prey, Quinn's homicidal tendencies were a clearly marked but mostly cartoonish add-on. Here, Gunn seems to revel in the squishy viscera of it all, earning his hard-R rating again and again with a kind of casual brutality that treats collateral damage like a bonus, not a bug; why merely kill a man when you can rip him in half sideways, then watch his spinal cord waft in the breeze?

The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey

Where 2016’s Suicide Squad was all posturing, Gunn’s follow-up delivers the goods and never flinches while doing so. The death toll is high and surprisingly indiscriminate. Thanks partially to the presence of King Shark (played by Steve Agee, but voiced by Sylvester Stallone), there are enough torn limbs and blasted brains to ensure that no one ever forgets Gunn’s roots in B-movie style horror.

SlashFilm, Hoai-Tran Bui

The Suicide Squad is brutal in such a way that I started to feel my limits for gross-out violence being tested. To count the number of heads that are exploded or faces that are ripped off would involve sitting here all day, but the deaths in The Suicide Squad are admittedly so absurdly imaginative that you’re never in danger of getting bored.

The Suicide Squad is in theaters and streaming on HBO Max (with the ad-free plan) Aug. 5.

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