Suicide Squad SPOILER Review

So, here we are once again. A new DC film hit theaters, and so did we. Today we're going to talk Suicide Squad. To be honest, this wasn't one that I was really anticipating. I planned to see it, but I wasn't terribly excited for it. The first trailer for had seemed pretty cool, but everything after that had appealed to me less and less. So I didn't really go in to this one with too many expectations. I figured it would be something similar, story-wise to 2014's Assault on Arkham and left it at that.

And.... it was okay. I had fun with it, which is more than I can say for the last DCEU film I went to the theaters for. In fact, the first thing I wrote in my notes was (and I quote) 'the tone is already less depressing lol'. The film actually starts with a nod to the end of Batman vs. Superman* and the events of that film lead right into this one with a seamlessness that surprised me. So definite points there. In fact, that opener, and the mid-credits stinger between Amanda Waller and Bruce Wayne were handled with a deftness I was up to this point not sure the DCEU was capable of. Even cameos from the Flash and Batman were organic and related to the story, not dumped on you as exposition. That is not the say the movie was free from such a thing. Far from that, in fact. The whole first twenty minutes or so is one loud, colorful explosion of exposition laying out each character and what their powers are as Waller tries to get approval for her plan.

Literally this

  For each introduction, a different song was used that would illustrate the character's personality. The film, and especially the first part, is peppered with various songs. While I liked this in the sense that each one was 'personalized' for the character it introduced, and the fact that it started off with a strong classic rock vibe, it was jarring, especially as the movie progressed and it no longer fit as well. For the introductions, I liked it, but otherwise it was too much of a distraction. And the vomiting of exposition to get you up to speed on each character was enough on it's own, even without a cartoon feel more akin to that of The Ultimate Spider-Man.

Once we got into the story, it was pretty much what I expected: team assembled to do job, team hates situation and each other, shit happens, teams pulls together, team saves day. I don't really have much to say about the plot, to be honest. It was more or less straightforward and nothing terribly unexpected. Really, when it comes down to it, you aren't here for the plot, you're here for the characters because they are the interesting part. Or they're supposed to be, at least. So let's dive into the characters.

Deadshot- In my notes, I have written a few times things like 'is that the old Will Smith?' and 'welcome back, Will Smith!'. Because, for the first time in a long time, it felt like we were getting that guy back. Remember back in the days of Independence Day, Men in Black, and even the much-maligned Wild, Wild West? Back to the days of the cocky, snappy-one-liner action hero Will Smith that oozed charisma even without saying a word? It felt like we got some of that back. Deadshot is one of the most developed characters, with the balance between the relationship with his daughter and the enjoyment of who he is and what he does. He's also the closest to a 'good guy' on the team, or at least depicted that way.

Harley Quinn- Probably the most anticipated character in this movie, due of course to this being her big-screen debut. And Margot Robbie did an awesome job of getting the character and personality of Harley. The only complaint with her performance could be that her accent wasn't consistent, but with a character like this, it's not too big an issue. No, Harley was really well done. But her costume.... her costume was awful. I have hated this costume since day one and it was no better in context. I hate everything about it, from the heels to the collar to the shorts that so short they might as well just call them underwear. Even 'Daddy's Little Monster' splashed across her shirt is so cringingly on the nose. And it didn't have to be this way. In a flashback, we see Harley in the harlequin costume, and she even picks it up and hugs it at one point, only to put that other shit on.

They actually recreated this for five beautiful seconds. And it was glorious. And a cocktease. 

 
Amanda Waller- At first, I'd kind of hoped to see CCH Pounder in the role, as she'd voiced Waller in several different cartoon and game adaptations. That being said, Viola Davis killed it. She was hard, tough, powerful, and scary as hell. There's nothing really else I can say. She nailed it.

Captain Boomerang- I've heard all the jokes about Jai Courtney, but never really seen him in anything. And here, he was pretty good. He didn't have a lot to do but kill things, slur words, and be generally obnoxious. And it worked for him. So good on ya.

El Diablo- The guy with probably the most tragic backstory gets very little time. At least what he gets, he makes use of. This includes a surprising final form at the end which has a throwdown with Enchantress' brother, Incubus.

Enchantress- Turns out, she's the big bad of the film that the Suicide Squad ends up going after, along with her brother. Incubus, there's nothing to say about because he didn't do a whole lot. There was some set up for Enchantress, but once she was doing her magic thing with the big, swirly hole in the sky, she didn't do much other than stand in front of the thing and gyrate. She made a few villainous declarations, but that's about it.

The Rest- Killer Croc has very little to do and even less to say. The only noticeable thing about him is when he took his jacket off, his head seemed disproportionately large compared to his body. Katana gets a few lines of setup from Rick Flagg and has one very small scene before the battle but otherwise is hardly there. Flagg himself is okay, and they tried to make an antagonistic relationship with him and Deadshot that turned into something a bit friendlier, but it was meh. The Stephen King fan in me kept wanting to call him Randall, as well. Slipknot is in the movie for about five minutes and does almost nothing before taking his exit, and the only reason I remember his name at all was because I told myself 'Slipknot, same as the band'. That just leaves one more thing to talk about:

Yeah, this guy

  
The Joker- Let's not kid ourselves, a lot of people were looking forward to seeing the newest incarnation of the Clown Prince of Crime. From the first promotional image, and then through the trailers, they really played up The Joker without showing a whole lot of him. And we took that for a clever marketing ploy. But the truth is, he isn't really in the film all that much. He shows up in a couple of flashbacks, and has exactly two interactions with Harley Quinn in the story of the film and that's it. Which I'm not terribly upset about. I'll be honest with you all, I did not like this Joker. I didn't like the bling, the grills, the tats, or the wardrobe choices. But more than that, I just didn't like this Joker. Every time he spoke it was reminiscent of Heath Ledger's version from The Dark Knight, but with less volume and zero charisma. He had no menace about him, and worst of all, I felt no sense of fun. There was none of the manic, psychotic, enjoyment of what he was doing. The only thing they got right was that he and Harley had the right kind of fucked-up, unhealthy relationship, even if he did seem to actually care about her far more than most Jokers. He was horribly bland, and he had the worst laugh of any Joker I have seen. Definitely bottom of the list for incarnations of the character, and no where close to the perfection that is the Joker as voiced by Mark Hamill.

And he's a snappier dresser

Overall, the action in the movie was good and the fight scenes were a lot of fun. The pacing was quick, if a bit choppy in places, and the plot never dragged. This time, the movie actually remembered to be entertaining. And it definitely was. There were even some heartfelt moments, especially when they're sitting at the bar in a moment of low morale. There does seem like there was more to this movie, and I don't know how much of that came from reshoots or if there was just that much cut out of the film in editing. If there is an extended cut, I'd be up for watching it, even if just to see if some of the more underutilized characters get some more time to develop.

In conclusion, Suicide Squad was a fun movie. It wasn't game-changing, and it's attempt to mix Batman vs Superman darkness with Guardians of the Galaxy off-the-wall humor was a bit of a strange brew. But overall, it was a definite step in a better direction for the DCEU. I'd seen that it had gotten rather bad reviews leading up to release, but ended up breaking records in its first weekend, so I guess we'll see where we go from here. Because in the end, I had a lot of fun with it and it turned out pretty good. So, I'll take it.

Join me next time, as I will have a Batman: The Killing Joke review up in the next day or two. It was supposed to come before this one, but I ended up switching the order, so I hope you'll forgive me. I'm also looking at ideas to expand the content of the blog, so I will try to get out more reviews, as well as perhaps start looking at other media. In that, I may move into books/comics, video games, maybe music, or toys/collectibles. I'll see what happens.

Until next time,

The Scholar 


*I know it's called Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but that's long, unwieldy, and stupid so Batman vs. Superman it shall be in the interests of keeping it more concise.