The Suicide Squad (2021) review

Government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) - director of the Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans (A.R.G.U.S. for short) - puts together a team of super criminals, including Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) to infiltrate a secret laboratory and destroy a project called "Project Starfish" which is a threat to humankind.  Gunn's trying to make the whole thing irreverent and wacked out - as opposed to the "seriousness" of the Marvel movies - but like 2016's Suicide Squad (with Will Smith) and 2020's Birds of Prey at this point the formula is achingly familiar and worn out, so to try to "spruce" things up he jacked up the graphic violence to the point where I felt like I was watching a compilation of all of the Fatalities from Mortal Kombat 11.  Individual bits somehow work - I still like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn (the scene with her imitating John Wick in a hallway - which suddenly morphs into a cartoon - is visually appealing) and no one gives a political rant like Peter Capaldi (who has mini LED flashlights protruding from his cranium) - but taken as a "whole," I can only grumble.