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http://www.spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com -  The superhero genre has been deified to the point that each new release has a potential to be a culturally significant touchstone or a violently divisive expose of fandom toxicity.  Expectations are atmospherically high as it is nearly impossible to please the endless social media prison yards and wild west saloons.  We live in an age where everyone has an opinion which will be heard and where an off comment or tweet can see your entire career end in an instant.  Safe, family friendly adventure films in which teamwork and sacrifice allow heroes to overcome their differences and rule the day is the formula, and there will be sequels.   Leave it to James Gunn to take the formula, run it through a pitch-black filter or blood, brains, and absolute mayhem to create one of the most socially conscious cape films in history.  On the nose, this is a brilliant satire of the genre, however, beyond the humor is a terrifying critique of everything wrong with American culture and its appalling foreign policy.  Featuring an unapparelled ensemble of talent, mind blowing sequences of gore and carnage, and a slyly subversive script, Gunn's The Suicide Squad is one of the best films of the year.   The Suicide Squad is given another mission...again.  The heroes have to save the world...again. They will come together and defeat evil as a team...again.  Gunn was hired to write and directed after he was let go by Disney due to years old offensive tweets.  A disgraced comic book director writing and directing a sequel to a maligned film that is part of an extended universe that is mostly spoken of with disdain (with a few notable exceptions) is a story that practically writes itself.  The result?  A film that should not exist.  The standout is John Cena's The Peacemaker.  Aside from being Cena's best performance, his embodiment of everything wrong with American exceptionalism is a terrifying wonder to behold.  There's a plethora of Gunn's trademarks; violence and crude jokes, but Cena anchors the severity of the subtext in virtually every one of his scenes.  Another bright spot is David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man.  It's no surprise that one of the most undervalued actors of his generation could take a throw away, forgettable character and turn him into a paradoxical existential heart warmer.  Rounding out the best performances is Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2.  If Dastmalchian is the heart, Melchior's memorable performance is the soul of a film that carries itself as not having one and this the center of Gunn's dissent.  There are wonderous ideas within comics; dark terrors, and unforgettable miracles of hope and kindness, and yet safety and an unbreakable adherence to the formula reign above everything else.  This entire film is a gamble, removing the constraints of blockbusters to reveal an admittedly flawed, but absolutely hysterical and accusatory good time.   No one is safe from Gunn's ire.  American foreign policy is excoriated as the US government once again uses a third world country as its military playground.  Jingoism is filleted with Cena's peace at ANY cost Peacemaker, while the regrettably predictable third act end of the world Kaiju cliche' that exists in almost every single superhero film is hilariously parodied by one of the best surprises of the film.  Now playing and streaming on HBO Max, The Suicide Squad is a blood soaked carnival of the absurd.  Combining elements of big budget pageantry, grindhouse sensibilities, and buckets of black humor, Gunn deftly weaves a tapestry of superpowered carnage. The end result is a breath of fresh air into the spandex pantheon that shows creativity and artistic freedom can exist within the machine, and hopefully as a result of Gunn's opus, it will.  --Kyle Jonathan