'Suicide Squad' review

Suicide Squad is the latest entry into the DC Extended Universe, and after Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice left a lot to be desired with a lot of fans, the general hope has been that Squad could turn the franchise around. With the previous two films starring Superman, Suicide Squad is a different take on the superhero film with the story following a task force of criminals enlisted to do the government's dirty work, allowing the government plausible deniability if anything goes wrong. The task force is made up of various DC Comics supervillains, such as the skilled mercenary Deadshot (Will Smith), crazed clown Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), the boomerang wielding and aptly named Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and more, all now under the control of government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). Can this finally get the DCEU back on track?

(Left to Right) Harley, Croc, Katana, Flagg, Deadshot and Boomerang assembled.

The first thing to note about Suicide Squad is probably how well the cast do at portraying each member of the Squad. Will Smith leads the cast as Floyd Lawton, also known as Deadshot, and while the character isn't really a far cry from Smith's usual performance, he does an admirable job at portraying the merc with a heart. Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is definitely the secondary lead, and she does a great job at bringing the fan favourite character to screen. It felt as though there were low points in her performance at times, but it felt more that the dialogue written wasn't up to scratch or that her character was doing something weird in those moments rather than Robbie's performance being weak. Jai Courtney was a fantastic surprise as Boomerang, and manages to bring a colourful personality to him that makes you wish you could see this side of him more than the bland lead we saw in films such as Terminator: Genisys. Unfortunately, the character of Boomerang isn't really used a lot in the film, and Courtney rarely gets a moment to shine. Jay Hernandez turns in a great performance as the relatively unknown character Diablo, although it sometimes felt the character was too stereotypical. Nevertheless, Hernandez brings a weight to the character in the film allowing an unknown character to be memorable. Adewale Akinnuove-Agbaje stars as Killer Croc, a reptilian criminal, and there's really not a lot for him to do. Akinnuove-Agbaje struggles to portray the character without looking cheesy and rather dumb, and at some points in the film, like Diablo, becomes a little bit too stereotypical. Karen Fukuhara gives an interesting performance as Katana, but again simply does not get anytime to delve into the character. Finally, we are left with Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, and her performance is by far the weakest in the film. It's laughably campy and often feels as though she belongs in a completely different film, but then you have to wonder what the direction even was for a performance this out of sync with the rest of the film. The film also stars Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, who is an effective straight man for the wacky Squad to bounce off of but doesn't have a whole lot of personality going for him, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, who crushes her role and somehow manages to become the most terrifying presence in a film full of supervillains, and Jared Leto as the Joker.

Jared Leto's Joker is barely seen in the film, despite the marketing.

Since the announcement that not only would The Joker feature in Suicide Squad in his first cinematic portrayal since the Academy Award winning turn the late Heath Ledger gave in The Dark Knight, but additionally that he would be portrayed by Jared Leto (also an Academy Award winner), there has been a lot expectations for the character, and rightfully so. The marketing for the film has relentlessly showcased the character in his own posters and trailers to the point where many fairly assumed he would be the main antagonist of the film. While some may consider this a spoiler, I feel it is necessary to know that the Joker not only isn't the main antagonist of the film, but he's in it for about six to ten minutes. This would be alright if he was marketed in the same way Batman was, where a quick shot in the trailer let's the audience know that he's in the film, but not much. However, the way Joker was marketed I could easily see a great number of fans being disappointed in how little he featured, because I know I was. The Joker really only fits within the context of Harley Quinn's flashbacks. He does make appearances in the modern day, but in a very brief subplot that disappears all too quickly and ultimately has no real impact on the film. And for those of you wondering "Well how is he in the film?", it's not an easy question to answer. The Joker is such a strange and intricate character that to judge somebody's performance on such minimal time is difficult, especially when the editing makes it obvious that parts of his scenes have been cut. If I have to judge it on what I'm given, I'd have to say Jared Leto is the weakest cinematic Joker to date. The direction of the character with his "gangster" update didn't really fit so well with the character, and Leto's performance rarely came close to bringing me over to the new style. His performance isn't so horrible that I'd object to seeing him in future instalments, but with such a high bar for the character being set by his predecessors it isn't really enough.

The mission and story of Suicide Squad is its greatest weakness.

The biggest problem with The Joker is that it offers you this more interesting character before quickly ripping him away, and when the mission that Waller sends the Suicide Squad on is not nearly interesting enough to make up for the loss. The plot becomes rather generic once the team get onto their mission, right down to the blue beam in the sky, and it feels like a gigantic waste of potential for such an interesting group of characters, especially when one of the greatest antagonists of all time briefly features only for the film to get back to its mind-numbing, boring quest. An additional problem with the mission that the Suicide Squad embarks on, and therefore with the main plot of the film, is that is doesn't work for what these characters are established for. Waller insinuates early in the film, and trailers, that the use of villains is because the government can easily throw them under the bus if something goes wrong. However the film fumbles with the idea of assembling a group of metahumans (DC Comics' term for powered individuals) in case a more powerful metahuman emerges. However, not only does this not suit the Squad's strengths, but it makes for a less interesting plot with these characters. The mission in the film feels grandiose in scale, and therefore more appropriate for a group such as the Justice League than the Suicide Squad. And when the film is set in an established universe where we know that these heroes exist including The Flash, Batman and Wonder Woman, it's extremely hard to wonder not only why the government didn't put any faith in them (there's not anything that they need plausible deniability for with this mission), but why they don't hear of the events and turn up to help anyway. The story would not only make more sense but also be more interesting if we followed a more contained story with questionable morals involved, allowing the plot to be as different from other comic book films as it's protagonists are. Instead we end up with a generic, cookie-cutter plot that wastes the potential of its characters.

Like BvS before it, the editing of Suicide Squad is a major flaw.

Suicide Squad also suffers on a technical aspect. I've mentioned the sloppy editing making it obvious that several Joker scenes had been edited, which Jared Leto himself confirmed, but this is a problem that plagues the entire film making the flow an absolute nightmare. This, along with the story, is one of the film's biggest problems and is a constant jarring issue that makes it difficult to become immersed. The effects, for the most part, are well done, but the third act uses them too much resulting in a needlessly CGI-heavy finale. There are some interesting filmmaking choices here and there, such as a certain scene of Enchantress transforming in a room which is filmed rather smartly, but they are too few and far between. The pacing of the film is also an issue; one that probably stems from the poor editing. A large chunk of the movie is dedicated to reeling off the characters one by one with flashy, stylised title-cards so the audience gets introduced to them, and rather quickly after that the Squad are sent on their mission pretty early into the film, meaning the mission itself ends up becoming tedious to watch and slow in points. Furthermore, the strange and uneven stylistic choices of the first act don't carry over for the rest of the film. Suicide Squad features more humour than the first two instalments in the DCEU, but all the best jokes are featured in the trailer. Equally disappointing, the action of the film is disjointed and rarely as spectacular as it could be. The score for the film is serviceable but nowhere near as memorable as the scores for Man of Steel or Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice before it. The soundtrack for the film is bombastic, borrowing from countless pop hits and using new tracks created specifically for the movie by modern artists. This is somewhat to the film's detriment though, as it constantly bombards you with song after song, not giving each one its own chance to breathe or become iconic, to the point where after you struggle to remember all the songs and what scenes they correlate to.

In conclusion, Suicide Squad is certainly an interesting and fresh take on the comic book film genre, but unfortunately wastes a lot of the film's high potential. The interesting rag tag Squad that differ from the stereotypical protagonists of superhero films are lumbered with one of the dullest and most generic plots from comic book film history. The script doesn't balance its large ensemble cast well with some of the interesting performances being lost in the chaos without getting a chance to shine, and even the larger stars of the film struggling to bring extra depth to their characters. The editing of the film is a nightmare, and one that makes you wonder whether or not integral scenes have been ripped out and Warner Bros. plan to release them with a Suicide Squad: Ultimate Edition, similar to what they did with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Suicide Squad is some of the year's most wasted potential, and I hope we get a chance to see these interesting characters return in a better written and more well-balanced film in the future. For the time being, however, the DCEU remains controversially polarising.

Suicide Squad  -  4 / 10