Within the first 10 minutes of the James Gunn sequel, you can already tell it’s going to be better than 2016’s “Suicide Squad.”

First off, yes, it’s a sequel — a standalone sequel with a subtle connection to the first, but still a follow-up over a reboot.

In “The Suicide Squad” (note the title’s “The”), which will be leaving streaming on HBO Max on Sunday, we blast into the action immediately with a kind of bullet point revision of the rules at play when the convicted villainous metahumans (humanoids with various powers or abilities) are recruited for this black ops mission headed by the hardened head of the division, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis reprises her role). She delivers these quick facts that make viewing the 2016 film pretty much unnecessary: A device will explode if you try to escape or go off mission, if you complete the task successfully, you get 10 years of your sentence knocked off.

The mission for the team is to land on a small South American island nation that has recently experienced a military coup, unseating the American-friendly heads of state in favor of an anti-American regime. They must find mad scientist The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), have him take them to a facility that keeps a terrifying weapon called Project Starfish and destroy it.

After a bloody opening salvo in which all but a couple of members of Task Force X survive but are captured by the military — Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) — we follow the remaining members of a secondary group led by assassin-for-hire and really crappy dad, Bloodsport (Idris Elba), assassin-for-peace, Peacemaker (John Cena), rat whisper Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), sweet but disturbed Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) and a walking, talking shark called King Shark/Nanaue (voiced by Sylvester Stallone).

Together, they make their way to the capital city and rescue Flag, who as it turns out was actually saved by the revolutionary forces who also want to topple this new government, then return to their regularly scheduled mission.

Meanwhile, Harley has been captured by the said government and been given a decent-ish proposal of marriage by the new president Luna (Juan Diego Botto) while he unveils his plans to unleash the secret project on the world. But since Harley has had some major growth between her initial outing in the first “Suicide Squad” on through 2020’s “Birds of Prey,” she sees too many red flags in this potential relationship. She shoots him, escapes and rejoins the team.

But there is more to their mission than meets the eye.

What works so well in this iteration of the violence-filled group project is that the audience gets the chance to really get to know these characters, and we feel for them by the end. That’s not to say they do a 180 from their supervillain MO’s, but we care if they win or not. And what’s even better is the assembled cast is stronger and has a more cohesive fit.

Gunn knows what movie he’s making, and while there are definite similarities between this and his other superhero project “Guardians of the Galaxy” with Marvel, “The Suicide Squad” still finds its own place.

They also really embraced the R rating of it using many practical effects mixed with CGI to achieve some pretty brutally gory images, but they all fit within this universe perfectly and never to a grindhouse extent. Some of it is downright beautiful in the way it’s composed on screen.

The entire movie is fun, from the perfectly cast squad to the trademark Gunn wit and needle drop-laden script. Plus it has some subtle digs at American relations in Latin America and quiet use of the female gaze, having female characters be their own heroes, unlike its predecessor.

It shows that when a studio seemingly allows its director/writer to have more creative control on a project, it can yield better results and nearly completely eradicate the memories of the first attempt at a villain team-up movie. Go figure.

“The Suicide Squad”

132 minutes

Rated R for strong violence and gore, language throughout, some sexual reference, drug use and brief graphic nudity.

3 stars