Suicide Squad is a sham. ON PAPER, The Dirty Dozen with superheroes is a great idea. ON PAPER, Margot Robbie and Will Smith are strong, awesome thespians overqualified to play their characters. ON PAPER, David Ayer is great when he writes and directs his own films. Unfortunately, DC’s gigantic black stamp makes this paper near unusable.
The fight between Batman and Superman has raised deep concerns for the US government, in particular Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). Waller has a big idea: take the bad people with abilities she’s captured, and channel them into a group that can be used and abused, depending on the scenario. The group consists of sharpshooter Deadshot (Will Smith), unhinged Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), newfound pacifist Diabolo (Jay Hernandez), among others. Meanwhile, the Joker (Jared Leto) has been frantically searching for Quinn ever since she got captured, throwing a dent into Waller’s plans.
This movie is textbook plot-driven decision making. In the rush to establish these characters, many of them are given one note to play. June Moon (Cara Delevingne) has her Enchantress under an uneasy control, and is supportive of Waller. That is, until Enchantress goes rogue and one ups Waller easily. So the Suicide Squad’s first team use is…to stop themselves? Not a good start. As the fight rages on, many characters make ill conceived choices like being pro-team or turning ruthless killer when there was no sign of that anywhere in the film’s first hour. But Jared Leto’s Joker is the biggest example and therefore, disappointment. Outside of the backstory of him and Harley, Joker shows up to keep the Squad from getting trapped, and then usually disappears again. Leto is fine as the famous villain, but what can you do with what feels like less than 10 minutes of screen time other than keep the plot going?
More infuriating are the seeds of better stories stuffed into this heaping gravity well of a film. The Harley Quinn/Joker backstory is one of the better comic book stories; the movie drops hints of a twisted psychological thriller, but too little is covered for the backstory to carry too much weight. Amanda Waller, as portrayed by Viola Davis, reminds us over and over again that she is a woman not to be messed with. We see this once, but that’s it? Katana (Karen Fukuhara) has a SPIRIT TRAPPED IN HER SWORD!!! Is this really the best David Ayer could do? Suicide Squad SHOWS us why Marvel’s the king of the superhill now: Guardians of the Galaxy is basically the same story and it SHOWS us why we should care instead of Suicide Squad TELLING us why we should care.
Three actors come out mostly unscathed. The aforementioned Davis always rivets away, regardless of her role. Even with the little material she has, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Margot Robbie is written to be oogled at, but that talented woman still makes Harley Quinn the most fascinating of the demented bad guys. Jay Hernandez also stands out, mostly because he’s the lone voice of non-violence in a sea of mayhem. Joel Kinnaman is fine as Rick Flag, the human leader of the super troops. But oh man, the rest probably wonder what they signed up for. Will Smith is too charming for Deadshot, at no point does he seem like a bad person, mostly because of who Smith is, lessening Deadshot’s menace. Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) could have been excised and no one would have cared (like Slipknot, who dies within 2 minutes of us meeting him). The most angry is probably Cara Delevigne, who gets the arduous task of closing her eyes, twisting her fingers, and dancing to music that isn’t playing while CGI nonsense parades around her.
I hate you, DC films. You’re taking some of my favorite super hero stories, actors, and directors, and putting them in crap like Suicide Squad. Man, just trying to write thing review is making me angry and upset. When is the next Marvel movie again?