SUICIDE SQUAD (2016)
WARNING: MILD SPOILERS!
Well, guys. This is it.
The Big One. Arguably the most anticipated film of the year. Suicide Squad. This film has had massive
hype for the past year. The trailers looked cool, the cast was interesting, and
most importantly, this looked like the ultimate palette-cleanser after the
disappointment that was Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice, signaling that DC could pull off their own
cinematic universe. Does it live up to those expectations? Well….
Now, wait a minute! Don’t
click out of this review just yet. I actually liked the film. Sure, it has a
lot of problems and probably isn’t very good at the end of the day. But, I’d be
lying if I said that I wasn’t entertained by it. I guess I’m more disappointed
than anything else. I came across this project when I was looking up DC’s
future films. And when I saw the premise, I said to myself, “This could
definitely be DC’s answer to Guardians of
the Galaxy. I mean, a film about a bunch of unknown comic book villains
(save for Harley Quinn and the Joker) operating as a black ops team, being
written and directed by the same guy who gave us Fury and End of Watch?
This practically writes itself!” So, yeah, I’m definitely let down. But again,
there are a lot of things in the movie that I liked.
Story: Government agent
Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) proposes putting together a team of super-humans
just in case somebody with the same powers as Superman wants to destroy the
world instead of protect it. So, she enlists the help of a bunch of hardened
criminals, including sharpshooter Floyd Lawton/Deadshot (Will Smith), beautiful
nutcase Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), troubled pyrokinetic Chato Santana/El
Diablo (Jay Hernandez), human reptile Waylon Jones/ Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje),
Australian boomerang expert Digger Harkness/ Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), grappling
expert Christopher Weiss/Slipknot (Adam Beach) and witch-possessed
archaeologist Dr. June Moon/Enchantress (Cara Delevingne). But soon, the
Enchantress takes over Dr. Moon’s mind and causes her to summon her brother,
Incubus, so they can take over the world. It’s up to the Suicide Squad (or Task
Force X, as they are called in the film), along with the guidance of Waller, Col.
Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), and his body guard Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana (Karen
Fukuhara) to stop the Enchantress and save the world, while dealing with the
crazy antics of the Joker (Jared Leto).
As an old friend of mine
always said, “Eat your veggies first, then get to the good stuff later”. So, I
will metaphorically eat my veggies and discuss the things I didn’t like about
the film. My biggest problem with Suicide
Squad is the editing, especially in the first half. When the characters’
origin stories are explained by Amanda Waller, a lot of the scenes feel as if
they belong in some weird music video. For example, in the origin scene for
Harley Quinn, a lot of the scenes speed up and then slow down, and are also
shot through some odd purple filter. It actually reminded me a lot of the wonky
editing in Ghost Rider: Spirit of
Vengeance. The editing also succumbs a bit to what I like to call “ADHD
Editing”, where a lot of the shots go by very quickly, and no shot lasts more
than one second.
Also, the editing in the
first half makes it feel very out of order. For example, the squad comes
together right after the Enchantress goes rogue, and it’s been a little while
since they’ve been introduced. It feels like it was supposed to go like this:
the squad comes together, Enchantress goes rogue, THEN they go to stop her.
Now, there are a lot of rumors going around that there were two separate cuts of
the film, one that pursued Ayer’s original vision and the other one that Warner
Bros. did themselves (you can read the full story here and draw your own
conclusions: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/suicide-squads-secret-drama-rushed-916693).
So, maybe we can attribute the out-of-order editing to studio interference, “maybe”
being a keyword.
Another big problem with
the film is that there are a lot of characters and plot-threads that feel like
they were supposed to be a big deal, but really aren’t. Again, this is a
byproduct of the editing in the first half. For example, there’s this little
side-plot with Col. Flag and Dr. Moon being romantically involved, which would
have made for an interesting story, i.e. the “killing somebody you love because
they’re an evil monster” story from The
Fly. But, it really doesn’t go anywhere and adds very little to the story.
By that same token, the twisted camaraderie between the Squad feels very rushed
and forced. We don’t see many scenes of them interacting with one another, save
for the bar scene at the end of Act 2, which feels like it should have taken
place a lot earlier. For example, there’s a scene where Harley Quinn calls
Deadshot her “friend”, but because they shared only one or two exchanges, I was
constantly asking myself:
One of the reasons that
the camaraderie feels forced is because a lot of the characters in this film
aren’t developed very well. The worst of the lot is Enchantress, who only
serves as the incentive for the Squad to save a big city and has no other
purpose. Captain Boomerang is funny (nice to see that Jai Courtney can have
some charisma) but doesn’t get a lot of moments to shine, Killer Croc is pretty
boring, Katana is also very underdeveloped, and Slipknot may as well be absent
since (SPOILER ALERT) he gets killed off pretty early on.
And speaking of
unnecessary characters, holy cow, is the Joker awful in this. When they
announced that Joker was gonna be in this film, I was mentally preparing myself
to not be disappointed if this performance wasn’t as good as Heath Ledger. And
truth be told, I wasn’t a huge fan of the punk-rocker vibe they were going for
with him. But, they chose an award-winning actor to portray him, so as long as
he had charisma, what could go wrong? Well, unfortunately, Murphy’s Law won
this round. Everything that could go wrong with this character has gone wrong. Not
only is he completely unnecessary to the plot – he spends only a total of about
ten minutes in the entire film – but the portrayal is just terrible. He has
absolutely no charisma and it feels like he’s just half asleep or drunk most of
the time. In other words, he is basically Apocalypse from X-Men: Apocalypse.
OK, so I’ve eaten my
veggies. Now, for the good stuff. Well, my five favorite characters in this
movie are Waller, Flag, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and El Diablo. Will Smith does
a good job at playing a sardonic hitman who wants nothing more than to come
home to his daughter. He delivers the comedic dialogue with ease, and when the
film decides to have him interact with other people, he does that very well,
too. Viola Davis is also great at playing the cold hearted government agent who
rules over the squad with an iron fist. As Will Smith says in the movie, “[she’s]
gangsta”. Joel Kinnaman does a nice job of playing a no-nonsense colonel who
finally comes to accept the squad as more than just “bad guys”. Margot Robbie,
unsurprisingly, is charming as Harley Quinn. She’s not quite the live-wire
show-stealer that we were all anticipating her to be, but she does well enough
for people to be charmed by her. She’s got the New-Jersey Drescher-esque accent
down pat, and she also does a nice job at balancing her crazy side, her funny
side, and her emotional side (she’s surprisingly good at the last one).
But my favorite out of
those five is El Diablo because he had the best character arc, in my opinion.
He starts off not wanting to fight because he’s afraid of what his power can
really do, thanks to a past tragedy. Throughout the course of the film, though,
he finally comes to realize that he can use his powers for something good,
namely saving the world from a witch. And the final scene where he realizes his
full potential is just awesome. I won’t spoil how, but I will say that it’s
worth the price of admission.
And the best thing that I
can say in this movie’s favor is that it’s trying to have fun. Unlike the last two
DC Extended Universe outings (BvS and
Man of Steel), which were packed to
the brim with preachy dialogue and superficially philosophical ramblings, this
film doesn’t take itself too seriously and is just trying to be a fun ride. And
I give it full marks for that. There are even times when this movie is
legitimately funny. And not in the Marvel way, but in its own sick, twisted way.
I don’t know if DC quite has its style of humor down yet, but we’re still a
year away from Justice League, so
maybe they’ll have time to perfect it.
So, objectively speaking,
Suicide Squad is not that good, and it
does kind of leave me wondering if DC even knows what they’re doing anymore.
But, I can’t bring myself to say that I didn’t enjoy it. For me, it’s a guilty
pleasure at best and a disappointment at worst.
As for whether or not you
should go see it? Well, that really depends on what you’re looking for. If you
were really disappointed by Dawn of
Justice and you think Suicide Squad is
gonna be the savior that convinces you that there’s hope for the DC Extended
Universe, this probably isn’t the film for you. But, if you’re looking for a
dumb, fun summer movie, then I’d say it’s worth a matinee. So, take that for
what it’s worth and see for yourself!
Well, those were my thoughts on Suicide Squad! Stay tuned for my next review!
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