Directed by David Ayer, Suicide Squad follows U.S. Intelligence Officer Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) who assembles a task force of expendable incarcerated supervillains to be used in top secret government missions, as well as to protect the world from otherworldly threats in the absence of Superman. But when one of these supervillains goes rogue the rest of the task force, including Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and others, are brought together to stop the loose rogue from destroying human kind.
So I did do a review for this movie when it first came out, and I remembered really liking it, mostly because I was just so disappointed with Batman v Superman that I wanted something with more spunk and energy to come along and lift my spirits.
This movie has some energy for sure but, like the crazy villains in this movie, that energy is completely out of control, making up a movie that is hugely flawed as the result of a rushed script and huge amounts of studio interference. The movie was a huge hit at the box office but it certainly divided audiences, and then later on it gradually became more hated as time went on.
I don’t hate this movie. In fact, I feel the hatred this movie gets is hugely exaggerated, as it was the result of rushed production and god awful amounts of studio interference that led to a growing trend with the DCEU movies having constant studio interference. David Ayer directed and wrote this movie but he was forced to write it in such a short amount of time, he wasn’t able to form a cohesive narrative or establish compelling characters. Ayer has done better work in the past, but this seemed to be where he really started going downhill. This movie has a lot of great ideas circulating in it that are more than likely from Ayer himself, plus some style choices that I did like at times. It’s still a horribly written and edited mess, but there at least some things in it that don’t frustrate me as much as BvS, and make it worth rewatching.
To start with I think most of the cast is solid. Margot Robbie is the perfect Harley Quinn and is easily one of the best parts of the entire movie, delivering a fun yet violent performance as the clown princess of crime. She is funny and crazy, but when you get to see what led her to become the person she is now, it is quite tragic.
With the extended cut you do get to see a bit more of her origins with the Joker and some of the underlying mental abuse that was going on. There were supposed to be more scenes showing Joker treating Harley like total shit, similar to previous adaptations, but they were cut out, which understandably upset a lot of fans. But despite this she’s still a big highlight of the movie, and thankfully she was expanded upon in a great way in 2020’s Birds of Prey.
Another notable highlight many people liked besides Harley was Will Smith’s Deadshot, who did turn in a good performance and had some interesting development in the movie. I like the fact that, despite caring greatly for his daughter, he also has an underlying hatred for Batman, which I wish was a bit more explored. Also the action scenes where he was gunning down enemies with accurate precision was awesome to see, coming to life as if it was straight from comics.
I also really liked Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, who was dead on what the character is like in comics. She isn’t just some government suit, she is the baddest bitch you should never dare to cross. She was established really well, and for me she was also a major highlight that not many people talk about, because she’s an individual that gets what she wants and knows the biggest secrets of everyone, and she didn’t even need super powers for it.
Jay Hernandez played the most sympathetic character of the group, El Diablo, who had a rather interesting background and was given a good performance. Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang was also pretty good, capturing the asshole nature of his character from comics, but I do wish he was more fleshed out, considering how much of a core character he was in the source material.
Now before I discuss the non-highlight characters let’s talk about that elephant in the room: Jared Leto’s Joker. Now, admittedly, I do not hate his take on the Joker. I think most people hated his take mostly due to his scenes being largely cut, as well as the media buzz surrounding the things he did to get into the role. While I may not be a fan of the super tattooed modern gangster look he has in the movie, I did like how creepy and unsettling he was, especially when it came to defending his property, in this case Harley. Whether he actually cares for her or just uses her as a means to establish power in Gotham, which is hinted at in this movie and Birds of Prey, is unknown, but I liked the fact that he was ready to do the unthinkable to get what he wants. Had most of his scenes been kept in he could have maybe had better reception.
However, despite the fact that I don’t think he’s as awful as people said he is, I don’t think he should have been in this movie. He contributed very little to the plot and felt so unnecessary that if he was fully cut out it wouldn’t have changed anything in the story. Had he maybe had a role similar to Assault on Arkham maybe it could have worked out, but sadly that wasn’t the case here. Unfortunately he wasn’t the only character that suffered from wasted potential.
Rick Flag, Katana, Killer Croc, Slip Knot and the villain Enchantress were all very forgettable characters due to poor narrative development and poor acting. Joel Kinnaman was trying his best when playing Rick Flag, but he was written as your typical soldier character that doesn’t have depth or interesting qualities. They had an opportunity to connect him to the villain but that was barely explored (possibly due to the cuts or short deadline).
Killer Croc was also hugely unexplored and wasted, when he is one of the best and most underrated villains of Batman’s rogues gallery. His practical make up looked amazing but he pretty much did nothing, apart from a few fight scenes and some lines here and there. Same thing happens with Katana, played by Karen Fukuhara. She has zero development, and yet she’s such an interesting character in comics. Slipknot wa also a complete throwaway character who got no development whatsoever, and was used simply as a means to show off how the bombs in the Suicide squad’s necks work.
But by far the most problematic character is the villain Enchantress, played by Cara Delevingne. Despite having an honestly unique design, interesting set up and a very cool transformation effect in the beginning of the movie, she was so damn forgettable, with poor acting, and a motivation and powers that made no sense. Also putting the Suicide Squad against such a powerful being for their first film, rather than something more logical like infiltration into a foreign country or something more grounded, was a big mistake.
And frankly there were a lot of big mistakes in the writing, with so many things not making logical sense for both characters and the story in general. You want to feel attached to the characters but you can’t because most of them get no development and barely any team chemistry. It all feels so disjointed and all over the place, and the same could be said for the editing, which is horrible. It is a shame too, because to be honest there is some great cinematography present in this movie as well as some good effects, decent action and colors that you barely can get the chance to absorb because of the poor editing. It ends up making the movie feel very ugly in appearance, especially when horrible and unfinished effects come up and are focused on more than the good effects.
The score, while present, is completely overshadowed by a forced-in soundtrack that was so distracting and clashed a lot with the tone of the movie. Song after song after song kept on playing for no reason and didn’t feel natural, especially when compared to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
And speaking of tone that’s probably the biggest issue with the movie as a whole. Due to the huge amounts of interference this movie has no identity and doesn’t know whether it wants to be dark and twisted, or fun and wacky. It never goes one way or the other and it’s frustrating, especially with how restricted it all feels. The PG-13 rating definitely was a contributing factor to how restricted this movie was and it really affected the quality, especially when it came to the mass carnage that happens in this movie and yet no blood is spilled.
So many things went wrong with this movie, and yet somehow it does manage to have some entertaining and enjoyable aspects that make it worth coming back to. Like BvS, it’s not the worst movie in the world and it does have its fans, but it was clear that this movie needed so much more time to be written, and should have had a proper vision without interference. I’m going to give Suicide Squad a C.
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