Suicide Squad Review

            I think that it’s pretty clear by now that I am not the biggest fan of the DC Extended Universe.  Man of Steel was easily one of the most crushingly disappointing films that I ever saw and actually caused me to rethink my then hostile attitude towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Then Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came along and somehow ended up worse and felt like some kind of negative antithesis to the MCU; as if the gods had decided that for having one overall pretty good comic book movie universe we had to have one that was truly and utterly awful.  Because of this and that low Rotten Tomato score, I went into Suicide Squad with about the biggest chip on my shoulder one could have.  This was a film that I went into expecting to utterly despises and to be the final nail in the coffin that was the DC Extended Universe. As it turned out though, the film wasn’t all that bad.  Before I continue, however, I need to make one thing clear; the film is not great.  On the whole, it doesn’t amount to being much then being an average action movie at the tail end of summer nor does it even begin to compare to most of the efforts of the MCU.   But as far as the DCEU goes, it’s a breath of fresh air that helps clear the stunk of Batman v Superman away and feels like the first step in the right direction for these films.

            The film begins sometime after the end of BVS with a government official named Amanda Waller convincing her superiors to form a group known as Task Force X; a team that is primarily made up of C and D list supervillains who will perform whatever task Waller requires in exchange for reduced sentences.  Not long after, an ancient witch with a personal connection to squad leader Rick Flagg manages to get free of Waller’s control after freeing her brother from his ancient prison.  Soon after, they being to construct a doomsday machine powered by her magic and it’s up to our team of supervillains to save the day while the Joker harasses the squad in an attempt to get Harley Quinn from their hold.

            One thing that can be said in the films favor is that the initial premise is pretty good and when it finally picks up, it delivers the goods.  While the actual plot involving Enchantress and her plot to destroy the world isn’t the most novel, it does do the job of providing our protagonists with a heavy foe to unite them all against.  It also does a great job of establishing just why it is a group like this is needed.  As Waller puts it, Superman is dead and who is to say that the next Superman to come along will be a good guy?  And if they don’t weaponized these people and try and use them for something good, someone else will.

            The big problem with the plot is pacing and direction.  David Ayer is a decent enough writer/director but his work here sometimes has trouble pulling out the right emotion out of an audience.  Sometimes a moment that is meant to make us cry fails to pull that emotion out of us.  Sometimes the jokes fall flat and some moments that are meant to make us cheer just…don’t.  The second problem is pacing.  The film literally spends the first third of its running time as set up before the inciting event of the main plot even occurs.  Up until that point, the entire movie is made up of montages and flashbacks that explains the backstories of all of these characters and how it was they were captured.  As a result, the first hour or so feels extremely clunky and can’t help but draw attention to itself as the exposition act of the film that does nothing to move the actual plot along.

            Unfortunately, this contributes to the film’s biggest problem: the character development.  For the most part, the film fails to properly develop the characters in what was obviously supposed to be an ensemble piece or give them any fully realized arcs.  For better or for worse, it’s pretty clear that it was going for a Guardian’s of the Galaxy feel; i.e. a band of morally compromised thieves and killers coming together and forming a deeper friendship and comradery that surpasses their own selfish interests.  The problem is that we really don’t get this impression up until the very end and there seems to be a lack of a middle act for their developments.  One moment they barely know or trust one another and the next thing we know they all pull a 180 and start going on about thinks like family, friendship, honor among thieves and sacrifice.  What makes it even worse is the fact that it’s pretty clear that they have only known one another for about a day and really stretches one’s suspension of disbelief.  Minor spoilers in the rest of this paragraph but the best example of this come at the end of the second act of the film.  During this scene The Joker successfully gets Harley away from Waller and the rest of the squad.  In response, Waller orders Deadshot to kill her in exchanged for his freedom as well as full custody of his daughter.  Yet when he has Harley in is sights, he “misses”.  The idea is that he has grown to like Harley and feels a loyalty to her that surpasses his personal interests.  But again, he has known this woman for less than a day and he is giving an otherwise fantastic deal to kill her and he just doesn’t.  The film is full of head scratching moments like this and can’t help but call attention how poorly structured and paced the whole thing is. 

           

         On the whole, however, the cast is actually the film’s biggest strength.  Will Smith’s Deadshot might not be the self-loathing sociopath of the comics but the man does manage to bring a level of likeability and charisma to a character who ruthlessly kills people for a living and is one of the few who gets a fully realized story arc.  Margot Robbie is about as perfect as one can get to being a live action Harley Quinn.  Sure she doesn’t have the character’s classic outfit but her personality and backstory perfectly match that of the source material; a mentally unhinged nutball with an extremely dangerous, unhealthy relationship with an even more mentally unhinged nutball who is all at once annoying, charming, tragic and horrifying.  Joel Kinnaman doesn’t have that much to work with as Rick Flagg, but he does do a decent job as the straight man in a group full of psychos.  Like Deadshot he is also one of the few who gets a fully realized character arc in gaining an increasing amount of trust and respect for his team as the film goes on.

Jai Courtney probably gives the best performance of his career as Captain Boomerang.  The character doesn’t really have anything resembling an arc but Courtney does a great job of playing this character who is completely and utterly despicable and probably deserves to be in prison more than any other.  Likewise, Jay Hernández’s El Diablo lacks a believable arc but he is believable as a guy who has clearly done bad things but no longer wishes to.  Killer Croc brutally kills people and throws in some good one liners.  What more can you want?  By far the best, however, is Viola Davis as Amanda Waller.  The woman manages to perfectly encapsulate everything that it both great and horrible about the character, showing us a woman who is undoubtedly a horrible person who does bad thing for a greater good.  She is an overall commanding and intimidating presence and you fully buy Davis as this woman who would kill everyone in a room if she thought it was for some hypothetical greater good. 

           

          The one main weak length in the cast is Jered Leto’s Joker.  Now to be fair, this may not have entirely been the actor’s fault.  By now it’s common knowledge that a big chunk of the character’s scenes were cut out of the film and when watching it, it’s pretty clear that he was meant to be a reoccurring pest for the team that caused Harley to question where her loyalties were.  But ignoring this, this version of the character just made me feel...dirty to watch.  Unlike Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger or Mark Hamill, this version of the Joker just isn’t scary.  If anything, the character comes off more as a sexual predator than anything else.  After getting out of the theater, I felt like I needed a shower after watching this character on screen and I just can’t buy this version as Batman’s greatest nemesis.  And then we have the look of the character.  To be fair, the majority of the characters don’t look like their comic book counterparts but the design of this one is simply ridiculous.  It is a look that I could see the Joker trying out at some point but the “jailhouse gangster in his 20s appearance” is one that comes off as some idiot’s idea of modernizing the look of the character and is most distracting aspect of the film.

            What one cannot deny, however, is that the film is fun.  The characters might be underdeveloped but they all have great chemistry with one another and helps sell the humor.  They all get in good one liners and the situational humor really hits even if it’s clearly not the director’s strong suite.  The action, though nothing special, gets the job done and manages to be entertaining by playing to all of the characters’ unique abilities.  The special effects are also pretty good with the enemy army coming off as convincing and the work on Killer Croc being perhaps the most convincing makeup job ever done on a comic book movie character and really goes to show what can be pulled off through practical means. 

            In the end the film is okay.  It’s not great and doesn’t amount to being much more than an average action film with above average cast at the tail end of summer.  However, it really feels as if DC and Warner Brothers are finally taking this movie universe in the right direction.  It’s a good way to spend a couple of hours and an otherwise decent way to spend a summer that has been mostly flooded by disappointments.  I say give it a watch.

            So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook Page, and follow me on Twitter.  Until then let’s hope that D.C. can keep the momentum up with Wonder Woman.