I actually didn't have a problem with
The Suicide Squad's running time – in fact, I couldn't even tell you how long it was. I was just all in on it from opening scene and it never really let up.
Also, in quite a few ways it is structurally pretty much the best Predator movie since
Predator 2.
That scene with Peacemaker and Bloodsport, you know the one, has to be a riff on Dutch and company's attack on the camp in
Predator, and like in
Predator, this movie too soon after twists into a sci-fi horror outing in tandem with the core over-the-top action.
Spoiler
Also, the grisly Starro experiments in the lab were so gruesome (hell, the whole movie was) and rivaled some gory 70s/80s horror in the best possible ways before mutating into a kaiju-type showdown for the final stretch of the film. Starro is one of my favorite wacky comic inventions and I was overjoyed with how he was adapted to screen here (though I do wish that at least one main character had gotten Starro mind controlled, but ah well).
Cool too is the film's commentary in the way that it contorts the whole American system responsible for generating a "team" like the Suicide Squad in the first place into the true bad guys of the film (which Peacemaker, in his crass and disturbed quest for "Peace," is loyal to to the very end – it is going to be very interesting to see where his show goes) what with the control of media and attempt to scrub a squeaky clean image in the public eye with zero accountability for the horrors and devastation that they are actively causing overseas. Corto Maltese has control of Starro specifically because of American imperialism, and America - embodied here by Amanda Waller and her goons running Task Force X - could care less about that sentient weapon of mass destruction itself, just their own involvement in its "creation." The Suicide Squad aren't sent to destroy Starro specifically (and like Waller said, she saw Starro running rampant in Corto Maltese as potentially a good thing for America's own interests which is... repulsive, to say the least) and Peacemaker was there following those orders to destroy any and all information about America's involvement in Project Starfish a T in the name of his warped definition of "Peace."
It's actually like Starship Troopers, in that sense, though in Starship Troopers basically every single character is Peacemaker. The rest of the Suicide Squad, outside of Peacemaker, have enough of a sense of awareness to recognize that they are actually fighting for the wrong side on this one and end up disobeying their orders and actually do take on Starro to protect the citizens of Corto Maltese. It is no shock to me at all that the Comedian is what Alan Moore came up with for Watchmen after realizing he couldn't use Peacemaker in that slot. I really hope the HBO Max Peacemaker goes full Verhoeven with the character.
This is honestly my favorite comic book movie in years, since
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in 2017 and
Aquaman in 2018, and probably the bloodiest and most overtly violent mainstream blockbuster in a lonnngggg time.