Suicide Squad Movie Review

Suicide Squad was the newest DC universe movie featuring a bunch of convicts who are forced by the government to do their will. The government while trying to control these villains, accidently lets one loose, and she lets out her brother who together wreak havak all throughout the city. The remaining villains must now take down the converted.

This movie, for starters, has a pretty cool concept. The government needs their own supermen or “meta humans” to take down the next superman if he comes and turns out to be bad. They recruit the scummiest villains they can find and put nanites in their brain that are set to explode if they disobey. Thereby, the government has their own justice league.

                And overall I really liked this movie. Throughout the movie I just had a lot of fun seeing the characters from the comic book adapted on the big screen. There was a lot of good acting in this movie, and yes even from Jai Courtney. He was cool as Captain Boomerang (even if his character brought nothing) and brought out a snarky charisma that we’ve just never seen from him. Miracles do happen. However standouts for me include Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and Amanda Waller.

                Will Smith as Deadshot was the best part of the movie. Every time things get a little choppy you’re waiting for Will Smith to say something witty, and of course he does and lands it. Will Smith reprised his role as the most charismatic actor in Hollywood. They also did a lot with the Deadshot character. They gave him a daughter, so it wasn’t just money he was after, and he really had something to care about and let us relate to him. They did a fantastic job creating and casting the Deadshot character.

                Harley Quinn also stood out. Margot Robbie nailed the craziness of Harley Quinn while saying really cringey lines. However they are so crazy and so cringey that they become good and pass the Maryland point. It’s like in pacman when the character goes off one side of the screen and reappears on the opposite side. It was so bad, that it crossed over that last threshold to become good.

                And of course Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. Amanda Waller in the comics is suppose to be a scary women, and in this movie she was a scary women. She bosses people around, doesn’t take attitude from anybody, and would destroy you if you were her enemy. She was a real standout for me.

                However, the disappointing thing for was those three were the standout characters. The rest of the characters on the squad don’t really get enough time to shine. A couple do, but really the movie focused heavily on the backstories of two characters, Deadshot and Harley Quinn. Katana was barely in this movie. Killer Croc was reduced to grunting, or at least I assume since I couldn’t make out an audible word he said. Flag barely produced enough leadership to handle a pack of poodles and Slipknot didn’t even play a role. Seriously, it felt like there were only two characters on the suicide squad since they grabbed all the attention.

                They gave a brief description to the audience about each member and then barely gave them any screentime. They focused it all on Deadshot and Harley Quinn, which I turn out alright in the end, but then why even include all these characters if you're not going to use them.

                This may seem like an impossible task, to give character and make us love each member, but there is a great example out there, called Guardians of the Galaxy. It takes a bunch of misfits and by the end of the movie we’re “grooting” for a tree. In this movie there was only one scene in which they showed the backstory to a character, yet the audience still felt that they knew and loved each character. This was because they told us through dialogue rather than showing extensive flashback scenes.  

                They showed through dialogue who these characters were, what traits they possessed, what motivations they had. They also slipped in backstory through dialogue, forgoing the need for a flashback. Suicide Squad could have benefitted from this. By giving every character a chance to talk and share a little about themselves.

                However I think the movie also suffered from having too many character, that being there is less time to focus on everybody. But there is a simple fix for that, and it’s even in the title, you kill them off. Yes a couple heads did roll (or blow up), but there were still too many characters and a lot of them could've kicked the dust to give way to more interesting characters.

                The other character in this movie was the Joker. And again, I think he was so crazy that he was good. However I wished to see more of him. They should have just made him the main villain so they didn’t have to focus so much screen time on the Enchantress who leads me to my next point.

                I didn’t enjoy the Enchantress as the main villain in this movie. The suicide squad is comprised of a man who can throw boomerangs pretty well and a girl with a bat. Yet they were fighting, and defeating, a godlike sorceress and her brother.

                I think the suicide squad would have been more suited for a Ocean’s Eleven type movie. A heist movie from a secret facility in Russia, or maybe the Joker’s warehouse in Gotham, incorporating the Joker! Either way, it should have been something more down to earth. However I do believe the movie would be better as a heist movie. First of all it would give each character in the movie meaning. As in heist movie they need specialists, people who can do one thing really well. That could explain why they incorporated say, Captain Boomerang. Maybe they need a projectile to curve in just the right angle and hit something. Who knows? But it would make more sense having him on the team then. Flag doesn't like these people, but gosh darnit these are the only maniacs capable of getting the job done.

                Also, in a heist movie, the goal is more focused. Either breaking into a safe or stealing the goods, every character has rehearsed the plan and knows what to do, rather than just aimlessly drinking about. This could also give Flag a chance to be more of a leader. He could be a taskmaster who hounds them to get to the deadline, or scrutinizes their every work, being a general pain but keeping them together.

                And lastly it would be more in their element. The team could work together to solve problems that are real and grounded, not problems that can only be solved by having a bigger demon.

                For as much as I enjoyed this movie the plot was a little wonky to me. The other thing was the editing. You can tell very much that there was a lot left out. There are tons of unexplained scenes and missing character development for other squad members. The whole movie felt a little choppy, especially towards the middle/end, where every scene felt rushed and clipped. There was no time just to talk or have a scene last more than five minutes.

                However I did love this movie. The action, the humour, and the two characters on the suicide squad (forgot to mention Diablo but I liked him too) were all great. And I will give this a 8.5 out of 10. So do yourself a favor and watch suicide squad!