Ed Potton of The Times opened his review of "The Suicide Squad" with the simple, assured "Now that's how you do it" of a man who's seen the first "Suicide Squad" and has a firm grasp on how poorly things could have gone. The Telegraph says that "The Suicide Squad" is "such a drastic improvement in every respect that you almost feel sorry" for the original movie. "Empire" called the film's premise "a fundamentally absurd idea" before awarding it four out of five stars, branding it "unashamedly silly, but crucially never stupid." Across the board, praise is heaped on writer/director James Gunn, who brings his patented brand of narrative funk to the proceedings, offering MCU-level feels with a hard R-rating.
At the lower end of the approval spectrum, EW's Leah Greenblatt gave the film a C+, decrying a script that "herks and jerks along with a sort of forced-festive glee, its mounting body count buffeted by goofball banter and pounding soundtrack cues." Even so, the critic couldn't help but enjoy a film that "celebrates the nonsense" with the enthusiasm present in all of Gunn's work.
