Review: Suicide Squad
Is Suicide Squad the hit DC sorely needs or another subpar effort?
Suicide Squad as a movie has to do an incredible amount of heavy lifting as film. It not only has to introduce a large swath of DC’s deadliest villains (no, not Slipknot, he was never deadly. Ever.), But try and be both the critical and financial success that Batman v Superman failed to be. Is it up to the task? Well not really, but it’s not a bad piece of film either.
Don’t get me wrong, Suicide Squad has some massive structural problems. The main villain is kind of weak, most of the characters don’t get any development beyond their initial introductions (which is a fun but way overly long montage of them in action and how they got captured). The plot is your standard villain wants to take over the world and this group of ragtag ne’er do wells who barely seem like the deadly heartless psychos the movie claims they are but never really shows it is the only chance of the main villain being stopped. There’s a romance subplot between two characters that never really works.
So there are a lot of issues with Suicide Squad, but I think it still manages to be a fun time. There are some very enjoyable sequences throughout the film, and several performances stand out. Floyd Lawton/Deadshot is the most I’ve enjoyed Will Smith in awhile, and although it’s an ensemble film, he does most of the dramatic heavy work in the movie and gives a really convincing turn. Margot Robbie is an absolute treat as Harley Quinn, and definitely the most fun role in the film. Viola Davis is an extremely convincing badass/”one mean woman”. This is the first time I’ve liked Jai Courtney in well, anything.
Jared Leto is barely in the movie as the Joker and doesn’t interact with any of the main cast except Harley Quinn. That being said, definitely liked his portrayal. It’s very different from anything we’ve previously seen but still evokes a crazy, unhinged maniac who is just as likely to shoot you as shake your hand.
The rest of the cast doesn’t get much time to shine though. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje looks great as Killer Croc, but has maybe 5 lines in the movie. Katana is pretty much just there to slice up bad guys. El Diablo has a big moment near the end of the film, but doesn’t do much the rest of it.
Next: Rumor: Suicide Squad Had Huge Production Issues
So Suicide Squad is what you might call a very run of the mill comic book film. It’s got a weak plot and villain, some of the characters are underdeveloped, and it suffers from a montage overload. But I think the fact that there are several really strong performances help the movie rise above the subpar material. I had a fun time with it. It’s not the savior the DC film universe badly needs, but it’s an entertaining couple of hours with comic book characters you mostly haven’t seen on screen before.