Five years ago today (August 6, 2021), James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (90% Critics, 82% Audience — Rotten Tomatoes) became the best-reviewed DCEU film of the time, giving Warner Bros. execs the response they had been chasing since their shared universe began. The general consensus amongst fans and critics was that it was a superior version to David Ayer’s studio-mangled 2016 Suicide Squad (26% Critics, 59% Audience — Rotten Tomatoes). But five years later, looking back, we might have been too quick to judge. Rewatching it now, without all the noise of that release-week comparison, the best verdict isn’t as settled as the Rotten Tomatoes gap might suggest. Yes, Ayer’s film is a mess (and we’re still waiting on his director’s cut), but it’s a mess that actually fits the tone of the DCEU of the time. Place it alongside the rest of the universe, and it works. Plus, the actors’ performances are strong, and the film is fun but also cinematic. Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, on the other hand, might be the smoother and funnier watch, but beyond the R-rating and the gore, it’s basically a Marvel movie hiding under the Warner Bros. umbrella.
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The Suicide Squad Is the Marvel-ification of a DC Property
The comparisons between The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy started during the film’s marketing already. And it’s easy to see why: it has the same director (which means the same visual style and needle-drop soundtrack), and it also focused on a group of ragtag heroes. In fact, watching The Suicide Squad now, five years later, it feels a lot like Gunn replicating his Guardians formula with Bloodsport standing in for Star-Lord and a CGI space-starfish standing in for Ego. Yes, the jokes land, the music is well-chosen, and the tone is goofy comic book fun. But it’s hard to deny that this didn’t quite fit the DCEU at the time. You couldn’t have Ben Affleck’s Batman or Henry Cavill’s Superman show up in this story.
Ayer’s original, however, is grim, uneven, and clearly stitched together from competing cuts, but the DNA under the seams is unmistakably DC: morally compromised anti-heroes operating in a world that’s already broken, with none of the quippy self-awareness that Marvel exported to every studio that tried to copy it. The Suicide Squad is a better-assembled movie. It’s a worse fit for the universe it’s supposedly set in.
Remember that “He does exactly what I do. But better” exchange between Peacemaker and Bloodsport? That’s exactly what the relationship between Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad is like.
The Suicide Squad is funnier, scene for scene, than 2016’s Suicide Squad is — nobody would dispute that. But funny isn’t the same as well-acted, and a lot of Gunn’s cast is working in service of a punchline rather than a person. In fact, if you take away the gore gags and the needle drops, many of the performances in the 2021 film thin out fast.
The Suicide Squad Performances Do More Work Than the Jokes
Looking back, Ayer’s cast actually gets more room to act. Will Smith’s Deadshot carries a real, quiet arc about fatherhood that the film keeps returning to instead of joking past. Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller is genuinely frightening in the original in a way the character never gets to be again. She’s a woman several steps ahead of everyone in the room, treated as a threat rather than a punchline waiting to be dismantled by her own team. Margot Robbie’s Harley is the one performance that’s strong in both films, but even she’s given more to actually play against in 2016.
None of that excuses the 2016 film’s pacing problems or its treatment of Enchantress, which remains a genuine low point. But strip away the editing damage and what’s left in Ayer’s cast is closer to actual performances than punchline delivery — and that’s a harder thing for a movie to get right than a good soundtrack cue.
The Ayer Cut Was Never Really About the Movie
Director David Ayer has spent years publicly disowning the theatrical cut of his film. He has even gone into detail about how different his original idea was, describing a version with a fully scored soundtrack, more conventional character arcs, and a stronger third act than what audiences got. Even Will Smith has publicly backed the idea of an Ayer Cut, saying there’s a lot of unused material he’d like to see make it to screen.
Following the success of the Snyder Cut campaign for Justice League, fans hoped that after years of pushing Warner Bros., they would get the same treatment for Suicide Squad. That never happened, and it might never happen. Gunn’s film is titled to read as the definitive article rather than a sequel to the 2016 film. With Gunn as the boss of DC, why would he release a film that directly competes with his version? Regardless of what the unfinished Ayer version might actually have been, it will never see the light of day, not when it would be direct competition with the current DCU’s own founding mythology — and Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, along with Peacemaker, is one of the few pieces of the old DCEU he’s chosen to carry forward into it.
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Five Years Later, the Better-Reviewed Movie Isn’t the Better DC Movie
The biggest problems with 2016’s Suicide Squad could easily be blamed on Warner Bros. The bad pacing, the lacklustre villain, the confusing script — that’s all WB, and it’s a big part of why critics turned on the film so hard while largely embracing Gunn’s do-over. But five years on, The Suicide Squad looks less like the definitive Task Force X film and more like a very well-made Marvel movie wearing DC’s characters as a costume. Ayer’s cast, working against a chaotic edit, still delivers the more grounded, more dramatically committed performances of the two films — and that’s the version that actually feels like it belongs to this universe, mistakes and all.
Looking back now, tons of scenes from the original stand out. Like the Batman/Deathstroke scene. Or what about those Joker bits that everyone claims to hate? You might not like Jared Leto as Joker, but I bet you remember his lines. Ask anyone what they remember about Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, and they’ll tell you the talking shark and the weasel.
