You know, I’ve
never read—nor have I ever collected—the comic books from which this film is
adapted. Criticisms of the movie may have
to be given to the writers of the comic book rather than the writers of this
production. However, to me, it’s up in
the air and whomever the blame may lie upon, you can decide for yourselves. What I do
know is that this film takes place within the constructs of the DC cinematic
universe, not only of all the latest DC films but also the ones that will be
coming into fruition soon.
With that
said, I’d opted not to see this film when it was released in theaters this past
summer. It had been on my personal watch
list, albeit not that high up where I’d really felt the need to see it. I was hot-and-cold on the news of the
production—I’d been excited to see Jared Leto’s own interpretation of The
Joker, but the description of the story and what it entailed seemed a little
lackluster. Sure, the trailer showed us
that Ben Affleck’s Batman would be making some sort of cameo, but I figured
it’d be a very small part of the whole story (and I was right…spoiler alert),
but that wasn’t enough to convince me. Therefore,
shortly after this film’s release, I’d made a conscious decision to wait for
its distribution onto home media, forgetting about it until I’d seen its
availability on Netflix a week ago.
Even as it
appeared in my mailbox the other day, I had to push myself to pop it in the
machine to finally see this film and decide on whether I’d liked it or
not.
So…did
I? Well…let me break down the synopsis
of Suicide
Squad first.
A secret
government agency, run by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), recruits some of the
most dangerous incarcerated super-villains—Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn
(Margot Robbie), Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Killer Croc (Adewale
Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and Slipknot (Adam
Beach)—led by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and with minor help from Katana (Karen
Fukuhara), to form a defensive task force.
Their first mission: save the world from the apocalypse caused by The
Enchantress (Cara Delevingne). All the
while, The Joker (Jared Leto) thwarts the group every step of the way.
One thing
that I’d wondered before seeing this, and while witnessing the first of a few
trailers that had been released, was how these villains were going to be put in
check and not run off when they were assembled for this group. Seeing this movie the other night finally
answered that speculation and just provoked disappointment from me rather than
satisfying my inquisitorial thoughts.
Seems that the writers, producers, comic book authors—whomever—couldn’t
think of a better way to solve this without ripping off the John Carpenter
classic, Escape From New York. Yes, the answer was to inject tiny explosive
capsules into the necks of each villain—with an identical mechanical hypodermic
to boot—and threaten them with the assurance that they’d be killed if they
tried to cut and run. I literally shook
my head as this part of the film played out.
Let me go
over this group of villains who are apparently needed to form this anti-hero
heroic group.
Deadshot
seems to be the main character of the group and his talent is that he’s a
really good shot with firearms, able to hit the same exact target with
micro-precision—we’re talking about hitting the same exact bullet hole over and
over again. He doesn’t have any super
abilities, like strength or senses, just the capability to shoot a gun
perfectly and accurately. Deadshot does
appear to have some sort of military background, definitely has some sort of
combat experience, so he gets a pass on being needed for this team.
The
requirement to have Harley Quinn as part of this group puzzled me throughout
the whole movie. She has no superpowers,
she’s insane, she’s tied to the recently escaped Joker who’s still on the
loose, so I don’t know why she’d be needed—let alone allowed—to be in this
team. Margot Robbie is definitely
included here as eye candy for prepubescent boys who’ll undoubtedly be gaga
over seeing her in this film, but it’s senseless to include her in this squad.
Diablo has
some cool pyrotechnic powers, but reserves them until later, citing his vow to
be peaceful and not to lose control due to him killing his wife and child a
while back. It was really getting on my
nerves throughout the film when trouble would arise and he just stayed back,
not helping the situation.
And speaking
of keeping to the background without helping, Killer Croc does NOTHING except
follow the group around until—lo and behold—the soldiers need to swim through
the flooded sewers to get to the battle zone and he jumps in to show off his
super swimming skills. Sure, he fights
here and there, but so do the no-name soldiers you see in these quick-cut
scenes.
Captain
Boomerang seems wasted as well, not really doing anything throughout this
story. Sure, he throws a few boomerangs,
even has a boomerang drone (think of the physics and logistics of how that
would work) that he uses to spy on the battle ahead, but besides a few
one-liners that fall flat (in fact, ALL the one-liners you hear in this flick
are not funny at all), Cap is wasted in this ensemble.
In charge of
this group of desperados is Rick Flag, the military leader who keeps the
villains in check with the threat of detonating the charges in their necks
(which he demonstrates on one of the rogues who has the shortest screen time in
superhero movie history).
Of all the
characters mentioned, there is not one ounce of chemistry seen between any of
them, making anything they say to one another seemed forced and unbelievable. Some characters go from hating each other to
suddenly having a comradery. Case in
point, at the beginning of the film, Deadshot tells Flag a few times that he’s
going to kill him when he gets a chance, showing hatred and a determination in
his words. Yet, shortly after, the men
are nearly sharing a bromance. I really
didn’t feel anything for these villains, yet I felt the soldiers and the
government they’d worked for weren’t any better. When there are no characters you care for or
any heroes you can get behind, the movie usually falls flat…and that’s what
happened here with Suicide Squad…at times.
Before
seeing this movie, I’d hoped my intuition would’ve been wrong and that it was
going to be better than I’d thought, but the film is just a rushed and thinly
plotted story that didn’t make sense at times.
For example, Amanda Waller’s reasoning to put this group together was to
thwart an attack of an evil entity of Superman’s ilk. Meta-Humans like Enchantress made sense and
so did Diablo, maybe even Killer Croc, but all the other rogues were just
humans that wouldn’t stand a chance against something with Superman’s strength.
And wasn’t it a weird coincidence that
Waller was pushing for this RIGHT BEFORE the shit hit the fan? The biggest puzzlement of all—for me at
least—was why Batman is nowhere to be seen when the shit goes down in this
movie. After seeing the involvement of
Batman during some of the backstories, you’d think he’d be available to help
solve this problem that has put the city’s population in danger. But, no…I guess Batman’s on vacation.
Finally, I
had such high hopes for Jared Leto’s Joker and looked forward to his inclusion
most of all. He definitely had some big
shoes to fill as Heath Ledger raised the bar so high on that character that I
really couldn’t see anybody ever playing the part again. But The Joker is Batman’s biggest villain and
he’d have to be included sooner or later, but Leto’s performance left me a bit
flat. Sure, there were some cool
moments—making Alex Ross’s artwork come to life being one of them—but I can’t
really accept this tattooed punk-rock star with silver fronts as the new Joker. I’m sure Leto tried to veer away from
Ledger’s performance, but I couldn’t help hear the same vibes and accents in
the few scenes we see in this film.
Hopefully he’ll work out the kinks by the time we see him again, perhaps
in the standalone Batman movie.
So…may final
“bit” on Suicide Squad???
I’m sure on
paper this seemed like a good idea—good, not great. The acting throughout the production was nice
and made it feel like it was a comic book come-to-life, especially from Smith,
Robbie, and occasionally Courtney. The
stylized way it was produced and directed gave us that feeling as well, but I
think all the effort was put into how this film was going to look rather than
getting a good story together. The plot
was very thin and wasn’t a very good foundation to place this on top as it
seemed like the studio was banking on a huge blockbuster. Suicide Squad had its moments, but
they were few and far between. If you
want to see Will Smith put on a cool costume and shoot guns or if you want to
see Margot Robbie walk around in a skimpy outfit as she carried a baseball bat
around or if you want to see a few cool special effects—both in CGI and
practical—then you might like this movie.
It definitely kept my interest, for I’d wanted to see how it was all
going to end, but it left me cold and I’m a little torn on whether I would
recommend this movie or not. I’ll leave
you with this: if you want a mindless movie to sit back and eat some popcorn,
maybe to keep on as background noise, this is the movie for you; if you want a
really engaging film with an intriguing plot, I’d skip it.
Here’s my
bonus “bit” to Warner Bros. and DC Comics…
Warner Bros.
and DC: if you’re listening (or reading), you better do something about the
quality of these films in your so-called Cinematic Universe. If Justice
League doesn’t fair better, you’re going to have a mess on your hands…and
from what I’ve seen of that released footage, it’s not looking too good. Suicide Squad reminds me of the
announcement from Sony a while back, saying they were going to release a
Sinister Six film—a film about Spider-Man’s villains grouping together for a
standalone movie. They were smart enough
not to do it, why weren’t you? It just
seems you’re trying to keep up with—or even trying to overtake—what Marvel
Studios has already accomplished. Forget
them…take your time and do this right.
The more crap you put out, the fewer people you’ll get in the theater
seats when you release the following movies of this DC filmic world.
For the rest
of you, thanks for reading!
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