*MINOR SPOILERS*
So people have been pretty pissed about the reviews coming out of this movie. I for one believe it’s just a journalist publicity stunt, but since I do this for no gain other than my own enjoyment, I would like to say those reviews are absolute crap. This movie was by no means worthy of a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes as It was a lot better than that. How much better? Well, let’s find out.
Suicide Squad is a 2016 action/adventure film directed by David Ayer, and is the third installment in the DC Extended Universe. The film stars an ensemble cast that features Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, and many more. The story follows the events of the previous film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as a team of antiheroes are recruited to execute a dangerous black ops mission and save the world from a powerful threat in exchange for clemency.
So let’s start things off by talking about all the things I thought were great about this film. This movie does a great job with its characters and the actors who play them. Will Smith and Margot Robbie who play Deadshot and Harley Quinn, both have a huge role in this film and they do a great job at portraying their characters. I think Margot Robbie was absolutely fantastic, and plays a perfect Harley Quinn. Not to mention her and Jared Leto’s Joker have great chemistry, and you can really feel it in this film. While on the topic, Jared Leto’s Joker is.. well, different. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just different from the other reincarnations that we’ve seen before him. The reason why I wasn’t 100% sold on his character is mainly because of the direction they decided to go with his character in this series. Ledger’s Joker was amazing because he was more thought driven, and had a plan that was much deeper than just killing people. Ledger’s Joker was maniacal in a different type of way, and we don’t see that as much with Leto’s interpretation. With that being said, I still think that Leto did a fantastic job, and I really hope we get to see more of him in the standalone Batman movie.
Not only did Suicide Squad have a great cast, but it also had a great soundtrack. I’m not talking about the score, because that was good on its own, but the old music mixed with the new songs released specifically for this movie are absolutely fantastic. This movie reminded me a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy when it came to the music featured throughout this film. Not only was the soundtrack great, but overall this film had a good feeling to it (when it wasn’t boring, but we will get to that later). I know that might not make much sense, but this film had a couple of really genuine scenes, for example the scene when they all enter the bar. I don’t know why but there was just some great chemistry between all the actors and it gave the movie (and characters) a real human aspect, as if they were all having a genuine conversation and not being forced to read a script. There’s no major plot twists or heavy thoughts, but that’s what I genuinely liked about this film. Yeah, it wasn’t what everyone made it out to be, but that’s what happens when you over hype a film (fanboys, I’m talking to you). That being said, it was exciting at some moments and I had a good time seeing it on the big screen. Is it worth seeing this film in the theater? Eh, we’ll get to that later.
Now although Suicide Squad had some good moments, it was by no means perfect. There were a lot of issues with this film mostly regarding it’s setting, villain, and pacing. So lets star off with the setting in this film.. It’s bleak, and it almost feels like they couldn’t afford more sets as the film takes place in like one dark city and that’s it. We don’t see much other than office buildings, streets, large interiors, or jail cells. Because of this Suicide Squad feels drawn out and dull. Although I thought this was a major issue, nothing seemed more flawed in this film than the villain. Cara Delevingne is a great actress, and I love most of her work, but her as the villain just didn’t add much to the film. Her Enchantress didn’t provide a good enough reason as to why she wanted to destroy the Earth as her only reasoning was because humans stopped worshiping her. Doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to me. Moving on, because of all these discrepancies we see major issues with pacing and plot development. This is why I would say that Suicide Squad had some really boring parts to it. Seriously, when this movie gets slow.. it gets really slow. Did I mention the Joker’s “death” scene? Oh, cause that was horrible too.
To wrap things up, Suicide Squad had some great performances by both Will Smith and Margot Robbie, and had a fantastic soundtrack. For the most part this film was pretty entertaining when the villain, pacing, and setting wasn’t holding it down. So for my review of the film I decided to give Suicide Squad an “Alright” on theVade Review Bar. This film could have been great, but just didn’t have enough life to make it better than what it was. I came into the film knowing nothing about the movie or characters, and walked out having felt my free ticket and $8 dollar drink was worth my two hours of sitting in the theater. “So Zach, should I go see it?” Well that’s a great question. If it’s raining out and you have nothing else better to do, then sure. But other than that, I think the only worth it has is renting it from Redbox 6 months from now.
