Film

Suicide Squad

Name: Suicide Squad
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Released: 2016
Cast: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis

Action
Crime
Relentless

A stylish action film built on a wonderfully weird premise: the US government recruits supervillains for suicide missions. It's less interested in plot coherence than visual flair and character chaos, with a soundtrack that does heavy lifting. A film for people who love comic book spectacle and enjoy rooting for the bad guys.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like ensemble team films built on jagged, mischievous chaos, where a cast of bad people bickering and bursting into set pieces matters more than moral tidiness.

Skip it if you need a tidy, coherent plot, because this one is crowded, scrappy and often more interested in flashy surfaces than holding its story together.

What it asks of you: Roughly two hours of brisk, noisy shifting between scenes, with lots of characters to keep track of and little room for slow reflection.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Guardians of the Galaxy2014

Ragtag team of misfits finding camaraderie while saving the galaxy, buoyed by a killer soundtrack and characters you didn't expect to love. Pure blockbuster fun with genuine heart underneath.

But The plot is fairly simple, and some moments lean hard on sentimentality. If you want weightier sci-fi, look elsewhere.

The Losers2010

Five military operatives on a revenge mission with style, humour, and wildly inventive action sequences. It doesn't take itself seriously and neither should you—pure entertainment with real craft.

But It's a bit dated now, and the dialogue occasionally veers into awkward. Not for anyone wanting substance over style.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)2020

Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn gets her own gleefully violent film with a female-led action ensemble. It's trashy, clever, and genuinely funny in ways that don't rely on winking at the audience.

But The tonal shifts are jarring, and if you hate needle-drops and narration, this will exhaust you. Also very R-rated.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Suicide Squad

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Dirty Dozen1967

The exact narrative DNA: military command finds soldiers nobody cares about, sends them on a mission they're likely to die on, and discovers they're capable of surprising things. Suicide Squad is Dirty Dozen in comic book drag.

The spiritual ancestor of 'assemble a ragtag team for a suicide mission.' Tough, cynical, brilliantly paced, and it actually invented this template while making it feel lived-in and morally ambiguous.

But It's 154 minutes and was made in 1967—dialogue scenes are long and the pacing deliberate. Some action feels quaint now. Requires patience and rewards it.

Deadpool2016

A superhero film that actively dislikes superhero tropes and spends two hours gleefully sabotaging them. Fast-talking, anarchic, and genuinely inventive about finding jokes in extreme violence.

But The fourth-wall breaking and self-referential humour can feel exhausting if you're not already on board. Some will find it adolescent.

Ocean's Eleven2001

A heist film where the ensemble cast matters more than the heist. Slick, funny, effortlessly charismatic, and proof that a film can be smart *and* purely enjoyable.

But Almost purely style and character work; if you want real narrative stakes or tension, it disappears in the suave talking. Very of its moment.

The Expendables2010

Action hero roster piece where ageing icons get to play real characters, not just themselves. Surprisingly effective at balancing spectacle with genuine camaraderie and humour.

But The action is sometimes hard to parse visually, and the politics are blunt. It's also very much a 'guys doing guys things' film.

Kingsman: The Secret Service2015

Irreverent spy action film that inverts class expectations, moves at a breakneck pace, and commits fully to being both gratuitously violent and genuinely clever.

But The tonal whiplash is constant, and the film's gender politics can feel muddled. Not subtle about anything, which some will find exhausting.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies2016

Takes a beloved novel and adds zombie action sequences with total commitment and style. It's ridiculous, but it's ridiculous on purpose and never winks about it.

But The novelty wears thin if you're not invested in either the source material or the absurdist premise. Some scenes feel genuinely clumsy.

RED 22013

Retired assassins and spies go on a globe-trotting adventure with charm, wit, and surprisingly effective action. It's unpretentious fun with a genuinely likeable ensemble.

But The plot is serviceable at best, and it relies entirely on movie star charisma. If that's not enough for you, it evaporates quickly.

The Suicide Squad2021

This is what happens when someone actually likes this premise and gets to rebuild it properly. Same squad, same world, opposite approach—proof that execution matters more than the idea.

James Gunn's radical rebuild of the concept: more violent, weirder, far funnier, and genuinely emotionally generous. It commits to the premise in ways the first film wouldn't dare.

But It's aggressively weird and the violence is graphic to the point of comedy. If you want coherent plot mechanics or tonal consistency, it'll drive you insane.

Severance2022

Both use genre spectacle to examine power imbalances and people treated as expendable tools. Suicide Squad wraps it in comic book action; Severance builds existential horror from the same moral skeleton. Both ask: what's a human worth when they're useful?

Corporate thriller about workers whose minds are split from their bodies, with mounting dread, visual brilliance, and the sensation of watching something completely original unfold. Hypnotic and unsettling.

But It's slow, methodical, and deliberately obscure about its mythology. Wanting answers will frustrate you. Some find it cold and alienating.