Suicide Squad

Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Cara Delevigne, Adewale Akkinnyoye-Agbaje, Common, David Harbour, Ezra Miller (cameo), Ike Barinholtz, Adam Beach, Scott Eastwood, Karen Fukuhara, Ted Whittall, Ben Affleck (uncredited)
Directed by: David Ayer
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: A group of metahuman criminals are reluctantly formed into a Suicide Squad to battle the Earth's greatest threat.

Review:

Tim: I am always, always going to prefer Marvel over D.C., so there is some part of me that enjoys the MCU achieving great success, while the DCEU struggles out of the gate. That being said, I don't actively want DC to fail. I'm going to watch every movie they put out, so it would be nice for the films to be successful. It might even help prevent Marvel from getting complacent. Man of Steel was really good and although decent, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was still disappointing. There was a lot of hope for Suicide Squad, a very different entry into the budding DCEU. I was pretty excited to see the film. Unfortunately, it proves to be a mess of the movie and so far, the worst film in the DCEU.

There's so many issues with Suicide Squad that it's hard to know where to start. The idea of a movie about a group of villains is interesting- it hasn't been tried before like this. I was hoping it would succeed, but this movie never cracks the code. The main characters are all bad guys, but we are supposed to care about them. The film tries to give us reasons to care, but it just muddles it up. Deadshot is supposed to be this deadly assassin, but he has a little girl, so we should care about him. Harley Quinn is an evil psychopath, but she's fun in a crazy way, so we're supposed to identify with her. This movie tries to have it both ways- to tell us these characters are the "worst of the worst", but we should really get invested in them. It doesn't work. There might be a way to pull this off, but this film doesn't achieve that. I either didn't care about the characters or I didn't feel like they were all that menacing.

Another issue with this film (which Marvel had in its early days) is the sheer number of characters is totally overwhelming. We are expected to learn about Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Diablo, Captain Boomerang, and the Enchantress. But don't forget Amanda Waller, the Joker, appearances by Batman and the Flash, as well as Rick Flag. Crazy right? Oh, and don't forget about Slipknot and Katana. There's probably people I'm forgetting. There's just so many characters to learn about and remember. The issue is that we don't get enough time with any of them. This movie tried to introduce way too many characters into the DCEU and it's overwhelming. Deadshot and Harley Quinn get the most time, which is appropriate. But the rest are fairly shortchanged. Why should we care about any of them? The movie should have cut many of these characters out. There's no point in having Slipknot or Katana here. Captain Boomerang could easily have been cut, he doesn't really do much. And that brings me to The Joker.

One of this film's biggest selling points was Jared Leto as the Joker. Here's the problem- he's not very good in the role. Some of it isn't his fault- whomever picked up this role next was always going to be in the shadow of Heath Ledger's unbelievably amazing performance. Ledger made the Joker memorable, creepy, off-putting. Leto plays him without any depth. He's all flash, no substance. His performance is annoying and too over-the-top and it never makes the needed impact. Part of this is Ayer's fault, as well as the writers. Joker should have been in one scene. His presence here was unnecessary, it further clogged the film up and adds very, very little. If we understood the relationship between Joker and Harley Quinn, that would be enough. As is, Ayer totally bungles the Joker here and severely hurts the overall DCEU.

There's just so many issues throughout the film as well. We're repeatedly told these are bad guys, yet they often act like heroes. They do this not because it makes any logical sense for their character, but because the writers needed them to do it. The whole climactic scene at the end doesn't make any sense if these were actually villains. That whole thing was just fumbled.

The cast is actually pretty good. Will Smith makes a good Deadshot and he really did his best, given the material. Margot Robbie is terrific as Harley Quinn. She's totally bonkers and just dives into this role. It was great fun seeing her embrace this completely unstable character. Viola Davis was good as Amanda Waller, although it felt like she was slumming it a little bit for this movie. She's better than this. Jay Hernandez blew me away as Diablo- I really liked his performance. As mentioned, Leto is not good at all. Joel Kinnaman continues to make we wonder why anyone hires him. Jai Courtney just didn't work, but a lot of that was beyond his control. Cara Delevingne just seems silly. I did enjoy Ike Barinholtz in a small role, he is able to add to the film. I like Adam Beach, but he was totally wasted here.

The film does have redeeming qualities. It's fun to see at least an attempt to tell a story using villains as the main characters. DC has some decent characters and I didn't know much about most of them. It was fun getting to know some of these lesser-known people. The visual effects are strong. It's kind of absurd, but this movie actually won an Academy Award- for Best Makeup. So, that counts for something. The movie moves along so that you're never totally bored, although you will be groaning about the plot holes and lapses in logic.

I really wanted to like Suicide Squad, but director David Ayer really made a mess with this one. This is easily the worst DCEU film so far. I'm hoping they figure this out soon, because this series is not heading in the right direction. This is easily one of the most disappointing films of 2016.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice