Suicide Squad Reviewed
I was on vacation when Suicide Squad came out so I didn't get to see the preview screening. But I heard good things from some very reliable sources only to get a panicked text message from my brother asking what was up with Suicide Squad. I checked the Rotten Tomatoes score and it had plummeted to a 36. What happened? I had to know, so I went and saw Suicide Squad as soon as I got back.
The idea of this movie sounded so good: a collection of villains teaming up to save the world. Sure, it's a movie that's been done before, but these guys have super powers. I was excited. The first 30 minutes of the movie are even good.
Suicide Squad takes place after the events of Batman vs. Superman. It opens with Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) telling some bureaucrats that the world needs a team of metahumans for protection in the event that another Superman were to come to Earth and turn evil. She then introduces several super villains with a presentation of vignettes, flashy graphics, and cool music.
We get Deadshot (Will Smith), an assassin who never misses; the clinically insane love interest of the Joker, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie); a Spanish gangbanger that can shoot fire; a crocodile man who loves BET; and a guy whose superpower seems to be that he's really good with boomerangs. Yes, some of this is weird, especially the boomerang thing, but you know what? I'm still in.
The idea of this movie sounded so good: a collection of villains teaming up to save the world. Sure, it's a movie that's been done before, but these guys have super powers. I was excited. The first 30 minutes of the movie are even good.
Suicide Squad takes place after the events of Batman vs. Superman. It opens with Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) telling some bureaucrats that the world needs a team of metahumans for protection in the event that another Superman were to come to Earth and turn evil. She then introduces several super villains with a presentation of vignettes, flashy graphics, and cool music.
We get Deadshot (Will Smith), an assassin who never misses; the clinically insane love interest of the Joker, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie); a Spanish gangbanger that can shoot fire; a crocodile man who loves BET; and a guy whose superpower seems to be that he's really good with boomerangs. Yes, some of this is weird, especially the boomerang thing, but you know what? I'm still in.
Margot Robbie played a very good Harley Quinn even if it did remind me of a darker crazier version of her Wolf of Wall Street character
With a team of super villains as protagonists you need a big, bad antagonist, one that can strike fear even to the biggest evildoers. So what do they do? They cast a tiny woman who spends the entire movie shaking her hips to create menacing magnetic clouds. Oh boy, did I not care about this movie's villain. The worst part about all of this is Jared Leto is sitting right over there in full Joker make-up twiddling his thumbs and playing pranks on his co-stars because he has nothing to do in this movie. I didn't even like Jared Leto as the Joker, honestly how could he compare to Heath Ledger, but maybe I would have if there was a point for him being there.
Is it possible that the movie's real problem is that it's for the fans and not the critics? The movie’s antagonist is important to the comic series but otherwise I never heard of and don't care about her; I'm a pretty big comic book nerd but even I know very little about the suicide squad and nothing about Enchantress. There are several allusions in this movie that are lost on audiences unfamiliar with the comic book world. But Warner Brothers did this in Batman vs. Superman, too—what up, parademons—but that is just not going to work in a tent pole movie made for a big audience.
This review was over 1000 words at one point with me going on about problems with the soundtrack and the final battle but all you really need to know is Suicide Squad is kind of a mess. The average movie-goer is not going to like this movie and a lot of that has to do with the movie's story. Director David Ayer admitted he wrote it in six weeks, and on top of that the studio demanded massive reshoots after the critics panned Batman vs. Superman for being too serious. Ayer tried adding more jokes to the movie, and the result is a total shift in the tone. There are a lot of good ideas in this movie are there; but none of them were executed confidently. I would see another movie with these characters, but the studio would have to do something big and bold, like not make ridiculous demands of a film throughout the movie-making process. C-
Is it possible that the movie's real problem is that it's for the fans and not the critics? The movie’s antagonist is important to the comic series but otherwise I never heard of and don't care about her; I'm a pretty big comic book nerd but even I know very little about the suicide squad and nothing about Enchantress. There are several allusions in this movie that are lost on audiences unfamiliar with the comic book world. But Warner Brothers did this in Batman vs. Superman, too—what up, parademons—but that is just not going to work in a tent pole movie made for a big audience.
This review was over 1000 words at one point with me going on about problems with the soundtrack and the final battle but all you really need to know is Suicide Squad is kind of a mess. The average movie-goer is not going to like this movie and a lot of that has to do with the movie's story. Director David Ayer admitted he wrote it in six weeks, and on top of that the studio demanded massive reshoots after the critics panned Batman vs. Superman for being too serious. Ayer tried adding more jokes to the movie, and the result is a total shift in the tone. There are a lot of good ideas in this movie are there; but none of them were executed confidently. I would see another movie with these characters, but the studio would have to do something big and bold, like not make ridiculous demands of a film throughout the movie-making process. C-
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