Suicide Squad: A movie review of DC’s newest film.
I hate to be such a skeptic, but DC movies have scorned fans in the past so it’s hard to be an optimist. Since the beginning of Suicide Squad’s inception I have been hesitant. The actors were decent and the preview looked alright, but something about the whole thing made me dislike it. Maybe it was the fact that they introduced these characters in such a bizarre manner, or maybe it was the whole look of Suicide Squad in the first place. (he Joker and Harley Quinn’s look specifically. Regardless, the feeling sat in the pit of my stomach the whole movie and it definitely altered how I felt about it.
Deadshot and Harley Quinn Image via Collider
What went wrong, what went right, and what could have been done better.
Overall, Suicide Squad was a decent movie. There wasn’t anything glaringly fantastic about it and the bad parts were not awful enough to make me hate it. It was just there. The hype made it popular enough to beat Guardian’s at the Box Office, but the reviews I read really hit the mark for me.
Let’s talk about Will Smith. Deadshot is a character that has a big past in DC history and Will Smith is a fantastic actor with a big past in films. The pairing was great on the directors part. Honestly, if it weren’t for Will Smith, I would have hated this movie. He carried the film from the moment it began up until the very end with absolutely no one to challenge his ownership on the screen. He had full command over the movie, being the character with the most depth and involvement in every aspect of it. The story fell short and felt forced because of the bizarre villain and the supporting characters. Suicide Squad could have gotten away with literally just being a movie with Deadshot and Harley Quinn in it.
Who now?
Honestly, no matter how badass the supporting characters are, they had little to no part in the movie until the very end. El Diablo (who was co-created by the one and only Jai Nitz) stepped up to the plate and took bat at the weird, Mayan er something, bad guy. Katana was barely explained (I had about a billion of her HeroClix figures) but she really should have had more focus. She balanced the good and the bad out, which could have been a cool dynamic that fell short. Boomer was slightly comedic and relevant, and El Diablo was awesome but neglected. Overall I wanted more from everyone that wasn’t Will Smith.
Suicide Squad protecting Flag
Their mission was… what?
The movie needed to be shorter, two hours of very little action… come on. At the halfway point I was bored and wanted them to do something more than just walk and talk. Can anyone tell me why they couldn’t explain to the Suicide Squad that they were rescuing Amanda Waller? Can anyone tell me why they needed Suicide Squad to rescue Amanda Waller? I mean, she was obviously ruthless enough to do it herself, so what in the heck was the point?
They seriously could have done something better with the whole thing. Maybe just send them to where Enchantress was in the first place and have them battle it out? They could have taken 30 minutes off of the entire thing and made a lot of people happy! Though I suppose they had to add that whole walking and talking part in to show that The Joker was coming to save Harley Quinn, which was also pointless.
Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad
The Ugly
Let’s be completely honest, The Joker should not have had that big of a role in this movie. Jared Leto’s character was appalling. As some sort of creepy mob boss lunatic, his character did not make sense. He added absolutely nothing integral to the movie. Every time he came on screen I just wanted to fast forward past it. Don’t get me started on the Joker and Harley Quinn’s relationship and they fact no one seems to care that HQ has moved past that in Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti‘s current run with her (I HIGHLY recommend checking it out if you liked HQ in this movie, find it below).
I will admit that I like Harley Quinn’s character and that Margot Robbie really did a fantastic job. That being said, I wanted more from her. I wanted her character to have some motivation other than to fulfill what Joker wanted. Again, going back to her current character’s run, she is autonomous now and does things for herself because she wants to. Why they had to take that away from her is beyond me.
As A Whole
The Whole Team
The soundtrack really added a different element to Suicide Squad, it was redeeming in my opinion. They added the music in the best spots and helped create a feeling that would have been lacking without it!
All in all I felt as though Suicide Squad tried its best, but fell short in a lot of areas. The style of it looked great and the actors did a good job with their characters (aside from Leto). With less characters, less time, a better bad guy, and more focus on the main motivation of the characters I feel as though this movie would have been pretty freaking awesome.
Suicide Squad gets a solid 3 out of 5 in my book.
Check out Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner’s work here:
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