NOTE: This is a review drafted on 12/31/2016 on a different blog that is no longer in use. I decided to transfer content from that website to this to maintain consistency.
Suicide Squad - Spoiler-Free Review
Starring: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Viola Davis, Joel Kinammen, Ben Affleck, Cara Delevinge, Jay Hernandez, Karen Fukuhara, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Adam Beach
Blurb/Synopsis: Figuring they're all expendable, a US intellignce officer decides to assemble a team of dangerous, incarcerated super villains for a top-secret mission. Now armed with government weapons, Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc and other despicable inmates must learn to work together. Dubbed Task Force X, the criminals unite to battle a mysterious and powerful entity, while the diabolical Joker (Jared Leto) launches an evil agenda of his own.
Expectations/Background: With the release of Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman both receiving mediocre to low critical reception, Suicide Squad looked to either cement the DCEU's darker tone or turn it around. The first images of the Suicide Squad themselves looked insanely accurate and good, The first image of Joker was the trigger that caused the entire world to pause for a moment and wonder what exactly David Ayer and Warner Bros. were doing with their extended universe. While controversial, Jared Leto's Joker was not the only piece of promotional material that caused the fans to wonder. The trailers themselves were highly contradictive. The original comic con trailer was dark, brooding, gritty, and everything that DC had promised from its cinematic universe. However, once Batman v. Superman was released, DC did a double take and released another trailer to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which was also met with huge fan approval. And then rumors began to circulate that this film was undergoing heavy reshoots, and David Ayer was having to fight Warner Bros. for control over his own movie. However, I myself remained super hopeful that this film would be the one that would right the ship. And I clung on to hope that the superb cast of Will Smith, Viola Davis, Jared Leto, and Margot Robbie would make the DC Cinematic universe come into the light with the critics.
The Movie: This movie was a disappointment. There are certainly great elements of a film, but they are buried in a pile of dead weight. The cast (going to that later) was decent, but a lot of them were very forgettable. The plot was lazy, it was boring, and it was confusing. The character's motivations were either not told, or written off in about five seconds. The characters were flat, boring, and the motivations were just awful. Exposition was told like nobody's business. The dialogue was poorly written, and after reading that the script was written in something like a month, I understand why. Without spoiling anything, lines like, "We're the bad guys" are said over, and over, and over again. I understand that the characters are the bad guys, but please, do not beat that over my head with dialogue; show it with the actions of the characters. Taking a break from complaints for a second, let's go into some good things. The visuals are mostly on point, with some interesting locations and sets. The squad itself look great, and there are a couple action sequences that are great. There is also a little bit of humor in the film, which if the film did not have, would have cost the movie the little bit of gravity and levity. Again, the performances are good for the most part, and they carry the entire film, and the plot, while confusing and boring, was not terrible. It was not like X-Men Origins: Wolverine or Green Lantern, and held up decently enough. Going back to negatives though, this movie looked exactly as the reports had said; it looked like fifty different people and studios came in and each edited about 10 minutes of the movie, leaving about 500 minutes of footage, and David Ayer had to take the movie and cut it down to 130 minutes. The editing was choppy, at times it looked like a YouTube video, character's backstories are written across the screen in giant neon letters, it's just not a good way to orient a film. In short, this movie was flat, boring, had terrible character motivations, terrible dialogue, some great visuals, some great characters, and a whole lot of potential.
The Music: This is a new category that I'm adding to the reviews because as a musician myself, the music can either make or break certain scenes. And let me say, the music in this film was awful. Because it was mainly not a soundtrack, it was a mashup of a bunch of recent and older pop songs mixed together. I could clearly see the editing committee was trying to copy the music from Guardians of the Galaxy, but the difference between these two films was that Guardians had a singular vision by James Gunn who thought that inserting the music would create a unique new flavor in the film. This film inserted the music so randomly and so all over the place just because they felt it. The music selection was not warranted, at all.
The Music: This is a new category that I'm adding to the reviews because as a musician myself, the music can either make or break certain scenes. And let me say, the music in this film was awful. Because it was mainly not a soundtrack, it was a mashup of a bunch of recent and older pop songs mixed together. I could clearly see the editing committee was trying to copy the music from Guardians of the Galaxy, but the difference between these two films was that Guardians had a singular vision by James Gunn who thought that inserting the music would create a unique new flavor in the film. This film inserted the music so randomly and so all over the place just because they felt it. The music selection was not warranted, at all.
The Cast/Characters: With ensemble casts like these, what I like to do is rank the characters from best in terms of the character and acting from best to worst. And the ranking is:
There's something to be said about the performances, because some of them are actually very good. Margot Robbie stamps herself as a top-tier actress by taking a lunatic and a terrible script and making it believable enough. Her character was the most clearly developed and was the best part of it. Viola Davis also did everything that she could to play the central government figure head/puppet-master. Ben Affleck. For a guy who was the best part of Batman v. Superman but was in this film for a total of less than ten minutes, he stole the show. This is the definitive Batman, and under the right direction, and also with a lot less killing, Ben Affleck's Batman is perfect. Will Smith does everything he can as well, bringing the charisma that Will Smith can (also a great idea to skip out in Independence: Resurgence, but this film was not much better). But surprisingly, Jai Courtney was good in this film! For a person who was given a lot of bad talk for certain films that he's done, he was great for what his character was in the film. And Jared Leto's Joker was...interesting to say the least. He was barely in the movie to begin with, and that in itself is a sign that we didn't get to see enough of his character. But there were good and bad sides to his performance. There are certain scenes where he feels truly menacing, or like a psychotic maniac who has a brilliant mind, but there are other scenes where he seems like a man trying to look insane in white makeup. I don't know what direction that he was given, but it was truly weird, in all the worst ways. The rest of the Squad were forgettable, but oh my, Cara Delevinge. Her character of the Enchantress was given much more screentime than I had expected but that was not a good thing. Going from modeling to acting, it was truly bad, and very much cringe-worthy.
The Villain(s): The villain was garbage. I will not spoil anything because the marketing does not really reveal much about the villain. But the antagonist is truly awful. I had no idea where the storyline with this character/thing was going, but when it finally came to a head, I groaned, I moaned, because it was the same exact climax in every single movie, and the villain was just not necessary. **MINOR SPOILER ALERT** The Joker was not the main villain of the film, but he should have been. Given a clearer storyline and arc, I think Jared Leto could have pulled off a memorable performance as the Clown Prince of Crime. **SPOILER ALERT OVER** But instead, we get this villain, who was just truly atrocious to watch. I would even put this thing/person/whatever it was lower than Doomsday to be perfectly honest, and that is saying something.
1. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn
2. Viola Davis as Amanda Waller
3. Ben Affleck as Batman
4. Will Smith as Deadshot
5. Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang
6. Jared Leto as Joker
7. Everyone Else
8. Cara Delevinge as the Enchantress
There's something to be said about the performances, because some of them are actually very good. Margot Robbie stamps herself as a top-tier actress by taking a lunatic and a terrible script and making it believable enough. Her character was the most clearly developed and was the best part of it. Viola Davis also did everything that she could to play the central government figure head/puppet-master. Ben Affleck. For a guy who was the best part of Batman v. Superman but was in this film for a total of less than ten minutes, he stole the show. This is the definitive Batman, and under the right direction, and also with a lot less killing, Ben Affleck's Batman is perfect. Will Smith does everything he can as well, bringing the charisma that Will Smith can (also a great idea to skip out in Independence: Resurgence, but this film was not much better). But surprisingly, Jai Courtney was good in this film! For a person who was given a lot of bad talk for certain films that he's done, he was great for what his character was in the film. And Jared Leto's Joker was...interesting to say the least. He was barely in the movie to begin with, and that in itself is a sign that we didn't get to see enough of his character. But there were good and bad sides to his performance. There are certain scenes where he feels truly menacing, or like a psychotic maniac who has a brilliant mind, but there are other scenes where he seems like a man trying to look insane in white makeup. I don't know what direction that he was given, but it was truly weird, in all the worst ways. The rest of the Squad were forgettable, but oh my, Cara Delevinge. Her character of the Enchantress was given much more screentime than I had expected but that was not a good thing. Going from modeling to acting, it was truly bad, and very much cringe-worthy.
The Villain(s): The villain was garbage. I will not spoil anything because the marketing does not really reveal much about the villain. But the antagonist is truly awful. I had no idea where the storyline with this character/thing was going, but when it finally came to a head, I groaned, I moaned, because it was the same exact climax in every single movie, and the villain was just not necessary. **MINOR SPOILER ALERT** The Joker was not the main villain of the film, but he should have been. Given a clearer storyline and arc, I think Jared Leto could have pulled off a memorable performance as the Clown Prince of Crime. **SPOILER ALERT OVER** But instead, we get this villain, who was just truly atrocious to watch. I would even put this thing/person/whatever it was lower than Doomsday to be perfectly honest, and that is saying something.
The Verdict: The one thing I will say about Suicide Squad is that David Ayer was cheated out of his film, and there is truly a great deal of potential with the movie. But, with the film that we got, the final result is a mess of characters, backstories, editing, and flashbacks the all come to a head in the most generic climaxes that this superhero/supervillain film could have done. There were some great performances, and there were some awful ones, and I would not recommend watching this movie to anyone, even those who want to see the Joker. Just look up his scenes on YouTube and decide for yourself. Letter Grade: C-. Number Score: 5.5
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