When Suicide Squad came out in 2016, the DC Extended Universe was struggling critically and had a splintered fanbase. What resulted was a 26 percent rotten rating on the Tomatometer, and only 59 percent fresh from the audience. Despite this, the DCEU pushed on with a sequel, but they made some major changes, which resulted in a better movie, according to critics and viewers.
Thus far, The Suicide Squad has been widely loved and appreciated by both fans and critics. The critic’s Tomatometer rating is certified fresh at 91 percent, with a high audience rating of 83 percent. From the top to the bottom, the changes made all the difference in the world.
Anyone Can Die In 2021 Version
The one thing that made The Suicide Squad comics so fun was that anyone could die in any issue. In most comic books, the superhero team is always safe outside of a rare important death. In The Suicide Squad, even the deaths seem unimportant, as the characters are all expendable. The 2016 movie didn’t feel like that was true.
For starters, there were only a couple of deaths - one early during an attempted escape, and one at the end in a sacrifice. That disappointed the fans, who expected more carnage. In 2021, James Gunn fixed that. He killed more than half the team in the opening action scene, including one original member. He also had several shocking Suicide Squad deaths in the last battle, something the original movie refused to attempt.
The 2021 Version Has More Sense Of Family
The first Suicide Squad movie has a team that comes across as a troop of soldiers sent into a war zone to save Amanda Waller. They eventually came to terms with working with each other and even became friendly after the scene in the bar, but outside of Deadshot and Harley Quinn, none of them really seemed to care about one another.
The 2021 version made the Suicide Squad look more like the Guardians of the Galaxy, another James Gunn-directed movie. This time around, Rick Flag and Harley Quinn remained close, while Bloodsport, Ratcatcher 2, and King Shark all bonded on the mission. The second movie made the team feel like a genuine group, and not just people thrown together to fight.
The Humor Levels Out The Violence In 2021
In 2016, David Ayer directed the movie, and he had a history of making serious action movies like Fury and End of Watch. When he made Suicide Squad, it was clear the idea was to make a gritty action movie with the B-level DC villains. Unfortunately, the movie lacked a lot of the fun that fans expect from comic book releases.
In 2021, The Suicide Squad never took itself seriously for one minute. While there were small moments of introspection from some characters, it always followed up with a light-hearted moment. Some jokes failed to land, but they were there and made the new movie fun, something the 2016 version avoided.
The 2021 Version Has More Heart
There was only one genuine moment in the 2016 Suicide Squad where a character showed any heart, and that was with Deadshot and his daughter. Harley Quinn kept up her toxic relationship with Joker, while the rest of the team was mostly mercenaries. El Diablo had a tragic moment, but the movie did not flesh it out.
The Suicide Squad was very different and carried a lot of heart. Ratcatcher’s moments talking about her father were heartbreaking, and she broke through to Bloodsport as well. King Shark was someone who initially had no one and in the end, he had a family thanks to Ratcatcher 2. Even Harley Quinn had moment after a surprising Suicide Squad character's death that showed how far this movie's version of the character had come from the original.
The 2021 Version Has Crazier Villains
The 2016 version of Suicide Squad had two villains that were basically immortal sorcerers. They could have fit into any comic book film and seem normal. However, James Gunn never shoots for normal in his movies.
In The Suicide Squad, the main villain was a giant alien starfish called Starro the Conqueror. It launches out mini starfishes that take over humans, and then, he talks and attacks using them. He is straight out of the DC mythology - the first-ever Justice League villain in comics - and he might be the craziest villain that will ever show up in a superhero movie.
Deadshot Vs. Bloodsport
There was one thing in both versions that were very similar to each other. In both movies, one of the principal villains was a man who wanted to protect his daughter. This was Will Smith’s Deadshot in the 2016 movie and Idris Elba’s Bloodsport in the second. They were even both villains who used a gun as their primary weapon.
However, these two characters turned out to be very different. Deadshot was a villain whose daughter wanted him to stop fighting, and he turned himself over to Batman for her. Bloodsport was a man who put Superman in the ICU and whose daughter hates him. Deadshot joined the Suicide Squad to gain the right to see his daughter again, and Bloodsport joined to keep his daughter out of prison. They were similar, but they were at very different places in their lives.
Amanda Waller Is A Worse Person In 2021
Many fans feel that Amanda Waller is a terrible person. She does what she does to protect the United States, but she is also a brutally evil director who seems to have no problem with killing people who she sees as expendable. This is the same as the comics, which is why she has so many enemies in heroes, like Batman and Superman.
The first movie saw her using the team for her own protection. In the second movie, Waller showed her true colors when she threatened to have Bloodsport’s teen daughter put in prison for shoplifting, murdered a man for running in fear, and then told the Suicide Squad to let innocent men, women, and children die to further her goals. She was a bad person in the first movie, but an evil woman in the second.
The 2021 Version Doesn't Force DCEU Connection
One problem with many earlier DCEU movies was that they all tried to force a connection with each other. In Suicide Squad, Ben Affleck’s Batman showed up early and arrested Deadshot and Harley Quinn. He also showed up in the post-credits scene and verbally sparred with Amanda Waller. Aditionally, there were moments with the Joker that seemed thrown in just to connect to DC.
In 2021, The Suicide Squad did this playfully, never feeling forced. The obvious moment was when Amanda Waller mentioned Bloodsport put Superman in the ICU with a kryptonite bullet. This was an Easter egg pulled from the comics, but the movie never felt the need to throw in extra characters just to tie into the DCEU.
The 2021 Version Is Rated-R
2016’s Suicide Squad had a team of mercenaries go into a war zone to save Amanda Waller. Armed with guns, sharp boomerangs, and swords, it appeared they were going to kill anyone and everyone they needed to so they could achieve their mission. Sadly, as a PG-13 movie, it held back a lot of the violence.
James Gunn’s movie held nothing back. The movie was rated R and seemed almost more like Gunn’s work with Troma Studios than in Hollywood. The Suicide Squad was a bloodbath with some wild kills and gave comic book fans what they wanted.
Harley Quinn Is Less Eye Candy In 2021
The first Suicide Squad movie had Harley Quinn running around the entire movie in short-shorts. The camerawork even emphasized this by lingering on her body and slowly moving up it during the action and walking scenes, almost more intent on showing what she looked like rather than what she was doing.
Birds of Prey tried to fix that by making Harley a serious killing machine and The Suicide Squad kept that template for her in the 2021 movie. Instead of lingering shots on Harley's body, the camera pulled back and allowed her to tear through armies as a one-woman killing machine.