Review of Suicide Squad (2016) by Advyfe — 14 Aug 2016

After seeing Suicide Squad this past weekend, I was left disgruntled by the awful choices Warner Brother Studios has made this year with their expansion of the DCEU. Though they handled some things well, like the casting of Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley, director David Ayer and accomplices at WB studios failed to make a completely coherent film yet again. I'll start with the negative first and there is a lot of it, reader beware.

My biggest issue with the film was its tonal inconsistencies, in one moment you’re in a gritty side street being ambushed by Batman, and in the next you’re watching a quirky montage of our anti-heroes suiting up for battle to Eminem's “Without me” - what's worse is that this type of scene/cuts happen consistently throughout the film and it just takes you out of the moment.

My second issue with the film is what I call the “Army Aspect”. The villain gathers an army to distract the protagonists of the film, while he/she does something evil and maleficent behind the scenes. My problem is that we’ve seen it done already! Not once, but twice with both Avengers films. How many more times must we watch a group of “heroes” fight an army of foreign species? Whats even worse is when they finally defeat the “Army” and confront the main villain of the movie - Enchantress - she is just standing there babbling nonsense and doing weird twitching movements. Frankly she looks like she is about to have a very serious stroke. They then proceed to have this long drawn out fight sequence, which ends up being useless because she just decides to disarm them, it's really jarring to actually watch happen. The movie is a mess in a lot of places.

The movie seems to have been severely tampered with the studio because there are just some disgusting and rudimentary cuts throughout the film. There are scenes that were obviously docked from the film, parts that would have more than likely made the film better a la Batman V. Superman: Ultimate Edition. For the life of me, I cannot understand what goes on over at Warner Brother Studios that makes them want to produce garbage film when they have the resources to make them complete and coherent. I wait anxiously for Wonder Woman, hoping that WB studios have learnt from their last two flops.

Though I made the movie seem like a steaming bag of dump, it wasn't all bad. There were small glimmers of hope, specifically with Jared Leto’s portrayal of The Joker. Though he is no Heath Ledger, who is arguably the best Joker, Leto’s portrayal was unique and fresh. I personally did not like the fact that he was a gang banger mob boss type, but I feel as though if it was expanded upon and explained in some detail it might be an easier pill to swallow. I also feel like Margot Robbie gave a great performance as Harley Quinn even though her character wasn’t written particularly well. Her on screen chemistry with Jared Leto was also great. Will Smith, as well as the writers, did an excellent job with Deadshot giving him character depth and making him relatable. My last qualm with the film is lack of character explanation for Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang, they just felt divisive and shoe horned into the movie.

The movie could be better, a lot better and a huge piece of me wants the DCEU movies to be great. I hope that directors and Warner Bros Studio learns from their past DCEU filmography and drastically improves it. I wait anxiously for Wonder Woman later next year as well as the proposed Ben Affleck directed Batman movie.