Perhaps one of the most anticipated movies for the year 2016 was David Ayer's
Suicide Squad. It promised the reappearance of The Joker since
The Dark Knight and an all-star cast with the likes of Viola Davis, Jared Leto and Will Smith. Needless to say, I was one of the many people that was excited for this film, and after watching it I wanted to share my thoughts and opinions about it.
Suicide Squad begins with Amanda Waller, a high ranking government official, assembling a team of hardcore criminals. Together they must destroy the evil Enchantress who is quickly taking control of the city with her monster army. Meanwhile, The Joker is attempting to reunite with Harley Quinn since her release from prison, leading to even more complications. Will this ragtag gang of bad guys be able to work together to save the world from complete annihilation?
My feelings were very mixed after watching
Suicide Squad. There were some shining moments in this film, primarily with its smart use of humor. It manages to blend action and comedy really well, delivering some great lines but not taking the humor over the top. I also loved Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and I wished that her character had made more appearances in the film. Will Smith surprised me by playing a great Deadshot and conveying the right amount of emotion behind his character. A final positive note is the aesthetic of
Suicide Squad. I love how this whole movie is dark but punctuated by bright colors. One of my favorite scenes in the film is the acid scene, where paint colors from The Joker and Harley Quinn are bleeding into the vat of acid.
My reaction to Margot Robbie's portrayal of Harley Quinn was polarized; I loved the attitude and humor of her character, but her "Boston" accent was terribly executed. This movie also flubbed with Jared Leto's portrayal of The Joker. I was really looking forward to how he would make this iconic character his own and take The Joker in a different direction that Heath Ledger's version. However, the final result just didn't work for me. The Joker's laugh sounded more like an old man's cackle than something ominous and evil. I also found the look of The Joker to be perhaps a little too over the top with unnecessary embellishments. The evil Enchantress, played by Cara Delevingne, was also a huge downfall for me personally. Her character was simply boring, that's the only way to put it. There simply wasn't anything about Enchantress' personality that made her a good villain. Adding to this insipidness was the action in
Suicide Squad. The problem was that because the main characters are so good at what they do, there simply isn't really much action. An entire sequence of the main team "fighting" bad guys ends with Deadshot shooting an entire group of monsters dead without breaking a sweat. The last negative point I want to make is how the main characters are introduced in the first twenty minutes of
Suicide Squad. Good movies should be able to tell the audience about all of the important aspects of a character through the progression of the storyline. However, Suicide Squad relies on a series of flashbacks simply because hardly any character development occurs in the actual storyline of the film.
Overall,
Suicide Squad proves itself to be superficially entertaining with fun humor, action and visuals. At the core of this film is a massive void though, with no substance or character development. I don't want to completely bash this movie, as there are some really well executed aspects about it. But they are significantly outweighed by how badly everything else was done. If you've been highly anticipated to see
Suicide Squad, then watch it but with restraint. If you build it up to be the bad-ass superhero movie of the year, you will likely be sorely disappointed.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action/Adventure
Run Time: 123 minutes
Release Date: August 5, 2016
