Peacemaker review: Yet another hit “from the horribly beautiful mind of James Gunn”

3.5/5

Story: A distraught Peacemaker (John Cena) recovers from his near-fatal injuries after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021). Haunted by his murder of Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), Chris Smith aka Peacemaker is seemingly set free once discharged from the hospital. This is in spite of the fact that he hasn’t completed his sentence at Belle Reve prison. However, his old ‘friends’ from A.R.G.U.S are waiting for him at his trailer lodge on his return to recruit him for a new mission — Project Butterfly.

Review: The art of creating compelling stories around comic book characters, that have faced ridicule or even been forgotten, has been perfected by James Gunn in recent years. The astounding success of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and the film’s influence on filmmaking is a testament to Gunn’s command of the genre. His 2021 DC film The Suicide Squad, may not have lit the box office alight due to the global pandemic, but it certainly won critical acclaim. Unlike Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Gunn was afforded more creative freedom for DC's The Suicide Squad owing to the film’s R-rating, making the jokes darker and raunchier, the action more bloody and violent, and the characters more absurd and ‘colourful’. But in the midst of all of this chaos is a visually striking film with great music and design and an engaging story. The spin-off TV series, Peacemaker, follows a similar template to The Suicide Squad, but understandably without the cinematic grandeur.

The series does present itself as a story that doesn’t appear to take itself too seriously. But underneath its silly exterior is a nuanced story of a man coming to grips with what he has become. John Cena tackles the role of the titular character with aplomb highlighting the various complexities in his character. Peacemaker’s trauma of killing Rick Flagg in The Suicide Squad has forced him to introspect his life and his actions. The once ruthless killing machine who was willing to kill “men, women, and children” in the name of ‘peace’ gains a new perspective on life and death. This puts Chris aka Peacemaker in an unusual predicament where his skills as an assassin become redundant to the people he works for.

The story keeps the audience in the dark about the true nature of the threat Peacemaker has been tasked to undertake. His new team consists of a few familiar faces from The Suicide Squad — Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and John Economos (Steve Agee); as well new members such as Leota Abedayo (Danielle Brooks) and Clemson Murm (Chukwudi Iwuji). The team also ends up recruiting another anti-hero named Vigilante (Freddie Stroma). The narrative also focuses on Peacemaker’s backstory and how it has shaped him to become the anti-hero, and his relationship with his villainous father Auggie Smith aka the White Dragon, a white supremacist. Each of these characters plays a vital role in establishing the crux of the story as well as Peacemaker’s evolution as a character.

While most of the characters are inspired by the comic books, Murm and Abedayo are original characters created by Gunn for the series. Stroma’s Vigilante aka Adrian Chase is the only primary character in the series who has had another live-action adaptation. The character was played by Josh Segarra in the hit DC TV series Arrow. But the mentally unstable yet hilarious Vigilante who works at a diner in Peacemaker is a sharp contrast to the serious District Attorney in Arrow. This re-imagination of the character by Gunn may polarise the comic book faithful, but this surprisingly goofy take on the character has more substance than what meets the eye.

The TV show has managed to successfully integrate thought-provoking and complex themes involving family, friendship, freedom, race, trauma, and redemption. While these are certainly not subtle, it does not hinder the pace of the overall narrative and works well with the context of the story. And like most successful TV shows in recent years, the episodes are engrossing, offering just the right amount of intrigue at the end of each to keep the audience wanting more. The dark humour and the performances by the cast go hand-in-hand in elevating the TV series to a much higher standard than it has any right to be.

Verdict: It’s not often a live-action adaptation of a comic book drastically improves on the source material. But James Gunn’s Peacemaker has certainly achieved this unique feat in style. John Cena deserves immense praise for far how he has evolved as an actor and successfully established himself as a serious star after transitioning from the squared circle of a WWE ring to the silver screen.