As great as the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are, The Suicide Squad finally offered James Gunn the freedom to fully spread his creative wings. Like most well-known directors, Gunn has both passionate fans and dismissive detractors. What's hard to dispute is that Gunn is a filmmaker with a style all his own, and while he's made a variety of films, there are usually elements in them that are recognizably his, and serve to let his fans know that they're watching yet another of his projects.
Starting out his career with infamous indie horror studio Troma, and learning under the tutelage of B-movie legend Lloyd Kaufman, Gunn also has things that clearly appeal to him as both a filmmaker and viewer, including graphic violence, dirty jokes, deadpan one-liners, and a general sense of the surreal. Even when things should be, judging by the narrative, deadly serious, Gunn loves to throw in gallows humor and quips so sharp they're liable to catch unprepared audience members off guard. Gunn's latest, The Suicide Squad, serves up many such moments as a perfect example.
The MCU Guardians of the Galaxy movies are, according to most, great efforts, and definitely bear many of Gunn's calling cards as a director and writer. That said, with The Suicide Squad, DC and Warner Bros. seemingly gave Gunn the gift Disney and Marvel likely never will, for one reason or another: complete creative control.
That's not to discount Gunn's mostly positive relationship with Marvel Studios, outside of the time he was fired by Disney over some old tweets. He's clearly proud of his Guardians of the Galaxy movies, as he should be, and Marvel loves them too. Still, the MCU has certain mandates it will probably never - or at best rarely - break, including making R-rated movies with excessive violence and gore, and overly crass and vulgar language. While Deadpool is now under the Marvel umbrella, and Disney says his movies will be R-rated, that doesn't mean the MCU overall is turning over a new leaf. Even if Marvel Studios trusts Gunn, they'll likely never let him indulge in the adult content the rest of his filmography contains.
With The Suicide Squad, DC and WB gave Gunn the freedom to go as crazy as he liked, throwing mountains of off-color jokes at the wall, spraying geysers of blood, littering the screen with corpses, and just generally doing whatever Gunn deemed necessary to give his audience a good time. The result, at least according to the majority of critical and fan takes out there, is a true triumph, with some arguing The Suicide Squad is the best movie Gunn has made to date. Whether that's true or not, it may way well be the most James Gunn of any James Gunn movie, boasting all his directorial trademarks, right down to casting brother Sean Gunn in multiple roles. One wonders if and when Gunn will be allowed to get this creatively unleashed again, as Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 likely won't provide the opportunity.
