Review of Suicide Squad (2016) by Jack F — 22 Mar 2017

The good news: with "Suicide Squad," the third entry in the DC Extended Universe, the company appears to have (slightly) eased off its rumored "no humor allowed" declaration. While it's by no means light-hearted, it's a downright laugh riot when compared to the melancholia of "Man of Steel" and "Batman v Superman.".

The bad news: it isn't any better than either of those two movies.

On its face, there was some potential here. By assembling a team of supervillains to do dirty work for a shadowy government official, the eponymous "Suicide Squad" could've been like the inverse-"Avengers"; whereas the heroes are bound by their morality, this team of depraved ne-'er-do-wells could let loose and act a bit recklessly. And when the aforementioned government official is played by the powerhouse (and now Oscar winner) that is Viola Davis, the potential increases mightily.

But, like the aforementioned "Batman v Superman," there's a built-in problem with "Suicide Squad" that the film just isn't equipped to handle: this is, essentially, another team-up movie in which we don't know-and, as a result, don't really care about-much of the team. Most of the "Avengers" squad had their own movies before teaming up (and even those who didn't at least appeared in other movies prior to "The Avengers"). The key players in "Suicide Squad" are strangers making their first cinematic appearance.

To be fair, the film does make attempts to flesh out a couple characters, like Will Smith's assassin Floyd Lawton, aka Deadshot, by providing a little backstory. But this particular backstory is woefully clichéd, involving a young daughter he just wants to provide for, which I guess makes him the Hitman with a Heart of Gold.

The movie fares a bit better with Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), the demented girlfriend of none other than the infamous Joker himself. Quinn's presence is both a blessing and a curse as Robbie is hands-down the best part of the film, infusing the unstable Harley with a live-wire energy that pops off the screen. She's a perfect live-action representation of the popular character, amusing but mischievous, funny but dangerous, sexy but deadly.

We also get a few glimpses into her past and see hints of her tumultuous relationship with the Clown Prince of Crime, played by Jared Leto. But this actually turns out to be rather frustrating as when I say "glimpses," I mean just that. We don't get to see enough of Harley's history, and it feels kinda like a tease. She has one of the more fascinating origin stories of Batman's rogues gallery, dealing with such heavy issues as psychological trauma and an abusive romantic relationship (physical, mental, and emotional). I know that this isn't the point of the movie, but it's telling that the brief looks into Harley's life are more interesting than the plot of the movie itself, and it's surely no coincidence that she is getting her own spin-off movie with Robbie reprising her role.

And the plot is the biggest issue of "Suicide Squad." Writer/director David Ayer has been pretty open about the issues with making the film (rewrites, reshoots, cuts, studio interference, etc.), and it shows in the finished product. Oftentimes what we're seeing doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and when it does, it's just rather boring. Davis' Amanda Waller assembles the Squad to assist in the takedown of the Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), an ancient evil goddess who intends to conquer the world by turning people into weird, dirt-like zombie things...or something.

The Enchantress doesn't really leave much of an impact. The Marvel movies have taken a lot of flack for the underwhelming villains in their movies (with Tom Hiddleston's Loki a noticeable exception), but I'd argue that there's a few good-to-great ones in their catalogue, like Ultron, the Red Skull or the Mandarin. And most all of them leave the Enchantress in their dust; she's all crackling electricity, weird gyrating, and subtitled dialogue delivered in a deep, enhanced voice. While I feel like Delevingne is miscast (she doesn't come off as particularly threatening), I think the problem is more with the character.

Gee, if only the film had another villain they could've utilized, maybe even a famous, popular villain known pretty much throughout the world...a certain clown villain...

Ah yes, Leto's hyped appearance as the Joker has polarized audiences and fans; some enjoyed his performance, but it seems to me that most have been pretty hard on it. As for my opinion, well, it's a little hard to say as he wasn't in the film long enough to really make an impression on me. Certainly I'm curious about him as this iteration of the Joker is the most physically different from any other big screen versions we've seen thus far, what with the numerous tattoos and the silver capped teeth. But his total screen time only amounts to a couple minutes. He has virtually no impact on the story at hand, and we never really get to see what Leto can (or can't) do in the role.

Ayer has since acknowledged that he probably should've made the Joker the main villain of the movie, and as I alluded to above, this becomes painfully obvious when we briefly focus on Harley Quinn's origins. A story exploring their relationship would be complex, fascinating and disturbing; at the very least, it would leave some kind of mark, which is more than I can say about "Suicide Squad.".

There are some nice visual moments. I particularly liked the shot of the Joker lying down in a circle of knives, guns, and other assorted weaponry; not only does it look pretty cool, but it offers a quick glimpse into the madman's twisted psyche. And Davis and especially Robbie are tailor-made for their roles.

But Ayer makes a couple other odd filmmaking decisions, including inserting musical cues every few minutes that can seem either cheesy or showy, giving off a bad music video vibe. And the other members of the Suicide Squad, like Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), who may be a front-runner for the worst villain name ever, or Killer Croc (Adewale Akkinnuoye-Agbaje) are basically non-entities (though Croc looks amazing, it must be said).

I was really hoping that this film would right the DC ship, especially given the appearance of so many Batman baddies. (The Bat himself makes a brief appearance and, again, this hints at the possibilities of a decent movie, although likely not one based on the Suicide Squad.) But it looks instead like that unenviable task is now going to fall squarely on the shoulders of Wonder Woman, whose film comes out this summer. If that one crashes and burns as well, it's going to be awfully hard to have any kind of anticipation for the upcoming Justice League movie...