Once again, the DC universe sings an all-too-familiar tune with their new superhero/supervillain flick. Wasted talent, music, and special effects lead the audience astray from their expectations going into Suicide Squad. The only decently written character in the film turns out to be Deadshot. Will Smith (Men in Black, I Am Legend, The Pursuit of Happyness) gives a refreshing performance as the assassin, leading a gang of supervillains to do good. Unfortunately, his gang is full of misfits with poor scripts and undeveloped backgrounds. David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch) seems to have tried a little too hard to make all of these characters relatable. The finished product moves quickly through all of their backgrounds, leaving a lot of plot holes and storylines that could be used as individual movies. Margot Robbie's (The Wolf of Wall Street, Focus) Harley Quinn was portrayed as a stand-out character in the trailers, but ends up as a surface character without depth. Her one-liners all fall short, detracting from any chuckles that I hoped to get out of the film. I understand that DC is going for a dark and grittier tone than Marvel, but we need a few decent laughs over the course of two hours!
Jared Leto's (Requiem for a Dream, Dallas Buyers Club) hype for the film through method acting also ends up going to waste. Jared Leto's Joker is barely in the film and barely fits into the story at all. This is a Joker that the audience has never seen before on the big screen. That's cool, but I have no desire to spend any more time watching this Joker. The Joker is supposed to be clever and maniacal, but Leto's portrayal is more of a mobster without any sort of purpose aside from gaining capital and bling. Maybe he is just set-up for the next Batman film, but I'd rather see a fresh villain surface in Ben Affleck's (Argo, Good Will Hunting, Gone Girl, The Town) solo Batman film. There is another main villain in Suicide Squad, but the villain is not even worthy of time talking about him/her, so I am going to refrain from even discussing that.
The best part about Suicide Squad is definitely the soundtrack, which deserves a lot of credit. The soundtrack helps to smooth out the jumpy cutting, bringing spontaneous rap and pop into the storyline. I also liked the flare in the color palette on the screen. Neon lights combine well with the music to give younger generations a flick that they can enjoy solely for the art. I really wanted to fall in love with this film, but DC is struggling to create decent scripts and storylines for their star casts to work with. Hopefully Ben Affleck's solo Batman film will introduce us to a better DC cinematic universe, but for now I will continue to be excited for Marvel films. When a Doctor Strange trailer plays before a DC film, you know that the DC cinematic universe is on a bumpy journey!
The Bottom Line: Suicide Squad is the best DC film since The Dark Knight Rises, but that's not really saying much.
Score: 5.5/10
Image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Will Smith & David Ayer, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49300595
Jared Leto's (Requiem for a Dream, Dallas Buyers Club) hype for the film through method acting also ends up going to waste. Jared Leto's Joker is barely in the film and barely fits into the story at all. This is a Joker that the audience has never seen before on the big screen. That's cool, but I have no desire to spend any more time watching this Joker. The Joker is supposed to be clever and maniacal, but Leto's portrayal is more of a mobster without any sort of purpose aside from gaining capital and bling. Maybe he is just set-up for the next Batman film, but I'd rather see a fresh villain surface in Ben Affleck's (Argo, Good Will Hunting, Gone Girl, The Town) solo Batman film. There is another main villain in Suicide Squad, but the villain is not even worthy of time talking about him/her, so I am going to refrain from even discussing that.
The best part about Suicide Squad is definitely the soundtrack, which deserves a lot of credit. The soundtrack helps to smooth out the jumpy cutting, bringing spontaneous rap and pop into the storyline. I also liked the flare in the color palette on the screen. Neon lights combine well with the music to give younger generations a flick that they can enjoy solely for the art. I really wanted to fall in love with this film, but DC is struggling to create decent scripts and storylines for their star casts to work with. Hopefully Ben Affleck's solo Batman film will introduce us to a better DC cinematic universe, but for now I will continue to be excited for Marvel films. When a Doctor Strange trailer plays before a DC film, you know that the DC cinematic universe is on a bumpy journey!
The Bottom Line: Suicide Squad is the best DC film since The Dark Knight Rises, but that's not really saying much.
Score: 5.5/10
Image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Will Smith & David Ayer, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49300595
