Director James Gunn takes the helm for a playful and occasionally gory sub-franchise outing that wears its comic book roots on its sleeve.

An invigorating blast of bloody, disreputable comic-book cinema, "The Suicide Squad" turns its titular criminals into a collection of lovable anti-heroes set loose in a dazzling, surprisingly emotional adventure.

The thing that makes The Suicide Squad so singularly distasteful is closely related to its factory-installed cynicism: the unconscionable glibness that grows out of it.

As a standalone feature, The Suicide Squad is pure delight: fast-paced, profane, irreverent, ridiculous. But, given the spectre of 2016’s Suicide Squad, it’s hard to see it as a standalone feature.