Suicide Squad is directed by David Ayer and is the second DC Extended Universe film to come out this year alone which has seen an enormous critical backlash and huge contrasting opinions amongst fans. Set in a world post the death of Superman, ruthless government operative Amanda Waller firmly believes a contingency plan should be set up should the next Superman be bad. This contingency plan goes by the name of Task Force X, or the Suicide Squad, made up of a team of numerous villains from DC Comics. When a catastrophic event befalls Midway City, the squad of misfits and criminals are tasked with solving the situation with a high risk of them losing their lives.
The real question here is do I think this movie is the disaster piece a lot of professional movie critics would have you believe? No! Suicide Squad for me was a hugely entertaining film from start to finish even if there are numerous storytelling, editing and script issues I could find with it. But for me, what makes this movie as entertaining as it is are the performances on show and the strength of its characters. For me it can boil down to one simple statement; the first act is close to perfect, the second becomes a little messy and loses some steam, but the third act sees an exciting and emotional climax which pulls everything together in a strong finish, winning me over in the end.
What I really appreciate about this film is how unashamedly bold, stylistic and charismatic this film is. David Ayer really goes for it with his direction of this film, making clear statements that this movie is meant to have a huge amount of fun with the awesome characters it has at its disposal. The overall tone created by the dialogue, the use of humour, the visuals, cinematography and soundtrack give this movie a huge amount of character, but in my opinion it also has enough substance to pull it through and create a good comic book movie. And on top of this, I have no complaints with how Ayer filmed the action sequences. They're nothing hugely memorable or ground-breaking, but I did really like how there was no use of shaky cam or quick-cut editing to mask poor stunt work. They serve a purpose in the end and are very entertaining.
And this movie is also the funniest in the DCEU so far, and the way they interject humour into the story makes the film a lot more enjoyable. After all, humans tend to gravitate towards humour and do try and deflect serious situations with jokes. And I believe it is done just the right amount so it doesn't become like a Marvel movie (like Guardians or Ant Man) or doesn't detract from the seriousness of the story.
The main performances are all fantastic and some of my favourite individual moments of the film either are a big character moment for one of them or see two or more characters interact and bounce off of each other. I was a little concerned with Will Smith's Deadshot going into the film but coming out I have nothing but satisfaction for what was done with the character. He never overshadows the whole movie, but has a good amount of emotional substance behind him for him to be humanised and for you as an audience member to care. Smith's comedic delivery was as on point as always, and I really enjoyed the way he bounced off of Joel Kinnamen's Rick Flag, another character who I surprisingly cared a lot about. I'm not a huge fan of Kinnamen but I did enjoy his character particularly the fact that he had a personal reason for being there and a vested interest in the outcome of the situation.
Another actor I'm not necessarily a huge fan of is Jai Courtney. But honest to God, he is phenomenal as Captain Boomerang, a character with no moral compass whatsoever. I love this character so much, and while this movie does tend to humanise a lot of its characters by showing them their backstory and how they got to where they are today, some characters are just assholes. Boomerang is one of them. Only he could crack open a can of beer when a horde of creatures are coming over to kill him. He is a hilarious character, and Courtney knocked it out of the park. But my favourite character in this entire movie was Diablo. He has a fantastic arc in his film, one which has a huge pay off once revelations are made about his character and stuff he has done in the past. He's the one I connected to the most.
Viola Davis plays Amanda Waller really well but two other standouts include Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Jared Leto's Joker. Harley Quinn pretty much steals every single scene she is in and because you see snippets of her past like Deadshot, you do strike a connection with her even if at the end of the day she is a crazed lunatic. The Joker's role in this film is very minimal and I can tell that will disappoint people. But his purpose is to flesh out Harley Quinn's character, a purpose he serves very well indeed. I enjoyed Leto's insane mob boss route he took and loved just how far he went with his committed performance. As for the character, the scenes with him in the past are the best, and the scenes with him in present day are the weakest. And ultimately, I wanted a lot more of him than just "the wild card". But hopefully, I'll see more of him in movies to come.
Some characters aren't as fleshed out as others but I feel that was always going to be the case. Killer Croc is essentially just used as comic relief, Katana is humanised a little bit but when it happens it seems too little too late, and calling Slipknot a plot device is an insult to plot devices. And this is where even though I had a huge amount of fun and entertainment with this film, I still found a fair amount of things I thought could've been handled better. Like Batman v Superman, my biggest issues stem from the editing. The first act is edited together perfectly, but the second feels as if there are so many scenes missing. From one watch alone, I could tell there were scenes involving The Joker, Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Amanda Waller and the movie's villain were just left on the cutting room floor. In the theatrical cut of BvS, a lot of the movie's cut moments were essential character moments. In Suicice Squad, it feels as if scenes which acted to stitch the narrative together were cut out which is ultimately a lot better than cutting key character moments out, but still makes the middle of the film feel disjointed.
There are also a lot of random scenes edited in there which felt out of place and didn't necessarily have the smoothest transition between them. For example, there is one scene of Harley Quinn's past life with The Joker and another involving Katana, both in the second act of the film which made it feel slightly choppy and messed up the narrative in some places. If these DCEU movies have taught us anything, it is that editing out those connective scenes is a really bad idea, and that Warner Brother's executives need to trust their filmmakers when it comes to the movie's final cut.
There are other moments of weak writing here and there which involve Diablo's character arc, a big moment with Rick Flag and the whereabouts of Amanda Waller, but I don't personally understand the criticisms people have of the eventual turn some characters make towards the end. In my opinion, the fantastically written "bar scene" is what made their turn believable to me. But for me the biggest disappointment was the villain. I didn't buy into the romance a certain character had with the person she possessed, and I believe the film struggled to write around the powers it had given her. But the worst thing about the villain is that it has no motivation for the things it is doing at all. That is the biggest aspect you're supposed to get right about an antagonist, and unfortunately the movie's script just does not give it any.
My personal flaws with the movie lie with its villain and some of the editing and storytelling in the film's second act on top of the way The Joker is used in scenes which occur in the present day. Like Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad has a load of really great pieces on the table, it just seems like studio interference means that these pieces aren't always put together in the best possible way. For me though Suicide Squad is a great time due to the performances, the fantastic characters, the brilliant soundtrack and the nods it has to it's growing cinematic universe. I don't agree with how harsh this film has been treated, and I will enjoy revisiting this movie many times more to refine my opinion on it in the future. For now, just know I had a blast with a movie which may at times feel messy, but overall has great things in it to enjoy:
Rating - B
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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