“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide; no escape from reality; open your eyes look up to the skies and see.” Ah yes, we’ve all heard Queen’s tune playing in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad trailer. So you can guess my exhilaration at finally being able to watch the flick after waiting for it all year.
Suicide Squad revolves around intelligence officer, Amanda Waller, (Viola Davis) opting to assemble a team of dangerous criminals in hopes of carrying out a top-secret mission. The squad is comprised of the elite hitman Deadshot (Will Smith), crazed Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), thief Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), monstrous Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and fiery ex-gangster El Diablo (Jay Hernandez). But despite the supposedly straight-to-the-point mission, could they really defeat the mysterious entity (Cara Delevingne) threatening to destroy Earth? And—hey! Where’s the Joker (Jared Leto) in all this? A dysfunctional adventure involving your favorite DC villains? You got it.
“Love your perfume. What is that, Stench of Death?”
I have mixed feelings towards the plot. On one hand, stories from an anti-hero’s perspective are always of interest to me; they have so many possibilities in the direction the plot can take. I’ll give Ayer points for that. However, I was really bothered by the thin, bland story-line. I mean, ok, we have the awesome idea of supervillains banning together…but what else? Furthermore, there were a couple of plot-holes that were distracting—particularly the stupidity of highly intelligent officials. While watching the flick, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why would your Einstein-self do that?” Another aspect I thought Ayer could’ve improved on was the inclusion of unnecessary subplots (other than Joker and Harley Quinn’s relationship –which was awesome). You could tell that Ayer was attempting to elicit emotion from the audience, if anything else. In reality, it came off as dragging the plot. Oh, and the clichés featured in Suicide Squad sucked—especially since they made the film predictable. Surely enough, the ending was wrapped up too quickly.
“Oh, I’m not gonna kill you… I’m just gonna hurt you really, really bad.”
Sorry to say it, but Joker is barely in the movie. This is especially a shame considering all the press Jared Leto was receiving in terms of his preparation for the film. Trust me, I was pretty disappointed too. Having said that, I had mixed feelings about Jared Leto’s performance. Normally, the guy’s amazing. But over here, I couldn’t *feel* it. He still did a great job—especially with bringing his own modern flare to the character—but he came off as more of an obnoxious-type Joker rather than a psychotic one. To be honest, I don’t know what to think of it. On the upside? Although Harleen Quinzel’s character was fairly weak, Harley Quinn was amazing. Margot Robbie did a splendid job bringing fun, crazy, and psychotic into a modern package. Another upside? The chemistry amongst the villains is perfect– especially Deadshot and Harley Quinn. Viola Davis is ruthless as well. All I can say was that the cast was on top of its game.
“What was that? I should kill everyone and escape? Sorry, it’s the voices. Ahaha, I’m kidding! That’s not what they really said.”
Moving onwards to the editing/cinematography…choppy editing made the plot a bit muddled at times. The beginning focus of Suicide Squad seemed a bit blurred because of this. Good news is the pace of the film kept you interested. And an additional plus side? A pretty colorful opening and pops of splattered paint and color throughout the film.
Another aspect I really enjoyed of the film was how connected Suicide Squad was with the DC world. From the quick backstories of the supervillains to the nice references/cameos of superheroes, Ayer’s flick really entwines itself with the DC world. Hoozah!
Extra Pro: the hilarity of the characters. I mean they’re bad guys, so of course they’d be saying inappropriate *cough* funny *cough* things.
“Are you the devil?”
All in all, I thought Suicide Squad’s positive aspects balanced out its flaws. Sure, it could’ve
been a terrible film, but it wasn’t. Could Ayer have done a better job? Yes? I had higher expectations for the film, but does it really deserve all the hate it’s getting? No. People just need to calm down.
Hint: There’s nice teaser for next film featured mid-credits, so stay tuned!
Hint-Hint: Do NOT watch the trailers and snippets because many of the good scenes shown in the trailers and the snippets revealed way too much of the film. Trust me, it’d make it disappointing. For your own good, don’t watch them.
Running Time: 2 h. 10 min.
Rating: PG-13
Final Verdict: B-/B