Review of Suicide Squad (2016) by Mrmoviebuff — 04 Aug 2016

The best thing I can say about David Ayer's 'Suicide Squad' is that it's better and more clearer in terms of narrative than the disjointed 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' (2016) (unless you saw the "Ultimate Cut" which did improve the structure, but nothing else), however, the film in general can be a different story.

This is the third film in the DCEU, and instead of focusing on their A-List characters like Batman or Superman, this time, they decide to bring us something different and introducing us to a group of misfits and troublemakers that we know as the "Suicide Squad". The movie is about a government official named Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) who plans to assemble some of the most dangerous criminals around for a mission since the tragic death of Superman which can be seen in 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' (2016). The people she has in mind include; Floyd Lawton aka "Deadshot" (Will Smith) who pretty much kills for a living, and is very good with his aim. Then there's Harleen Quinzel aka "Harley Quinn" (Margot Robbie) who has had some personal times with another deranged lunatic that is the iconic Joker (an underused Jared Leto). They even bring in; Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney who is not terrible for once), Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and even June Moone (Cara Delevingne).

The Squad are left to be taking orders from Co. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) who has some history with June's character. He tries to keep this team of misfits focused and keeping on track with the task, but obviously their behavior can range from ignoring to down right crazy and not following the rules whatsoever. However, it is said that if they disobey, then Col. Rick Flag will make sure that they will not make it out alive. So they have to stick to the rules, which is something they might find hard to do.

Director David Ayer ('End of Watch' and 'Fury') does a capable job of handling all these different characters and sometimes rather unusual or unfamiliar ones to those who don't know that much about the DC comics. The actors in this movie all do amazing in their roles as they do absorb their characters rather well...for Jared Leto as The Joker, almost too well, if you've heard about his off-screen behavior and some of the rather unusual and scary things he has been doing.

The problems that this movie had was the fact that the main characters who we're supposed to root for, seem almost one-dimensional at times...apart from Smith's character, Deadshot, as we learn he has a daughter that he so desperately wants to see. The others just seem to join, but with someone like Captain Boomerang, for example, we don't seem to learn that much about him, but we know he can do some pretty neat things with his set of skills.

The villain in this movie is also a weak spot...I will not spoil who it is, but when you see this villain, it almost feels cheap and rather generic.

Cara Delevingne was also one of the weak spots of the movie, you know she plays the Enchantress, and her voice sounds almost like that time when Angelina Jolie played Maleficent in the tedious film that was 'Maleficent' (2014). She had the look and style for the character, but her emotional depth felt forced and unconvincing.

This movie tries to be a bit more like 'Deadpool' (2016) with its strange, sympathetic character(s), choice of music and outright breaking the rules just to get the mission done quickly. But, we all know that 'Deadpool' was a better made movie and did feel more fun and seamless than this did. This film was fine for the first hour, but it quickly transitioned into generic superhero spectacle.

What I did like however, was the romance between the characters Harley Quinn and the Joker, their chemistry worked well that I think it's almost on par with the romance in 'Deadpool' (2016). That's where I felt more emotionally involved, it's just this movie didn't take all the time to focus on that enough.

The DCEU seriously needs to start going back to the drawing board, three average movies in, and my excitement for the 'Justice League' in the next year is beginning to deteriorate.