Review: Suicide Squad

Synopsis:

It feels good to be bad… Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity.  U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do.  However, once they realize they weren’t picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it’s every man for himself?

What We Thought:

Suicide Squad has more positives than negatives. I overall enjoyed it and would watch it again. I can’t say that about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

I’ll start with the positives. I actually really liked Will Smith as Floyd Lawton/Deadshot. I was hesitant about Smith being in this. At first it seemed like they needed a “big name” for one of the roles so they got him, but he surprised me. He’s probably the second best character in the film and Smith is really good in the role. The scene where he starts turning “good” and is just blasting the bad guys was pretty bad ass.

If Smith is the second best then Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is the clear-cut winner. She dominates the movie and you can tell they knew that early on because the film seems to revolve around her. Robbie is drop dead gorgeous, but is also a fantastic actress. She’s totally nuts (literally and figuratively) as Harley. Over the past few years, the Harley Quinn character has become a pop culture phenomenon that rivals that of Deadpool. Those in the know love these characters, but even non-comic nerds have latched onto Harley especially the ladies. She’s only going to get bigger because of Robbie’s portrayal. I expect a solo film and multiple appearances in the DC Universe for Harley.

I liked most of the characters. Ike Barinholtz had some good lines. Jay Hernandez was good as Diablo. I really liked Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje brought humanity and some one liners to Killer Croc. And Scott Eastwood is pretty good in a small role as well.

I liked the action in the film. It combines comedy and action and I’ve always enjoyed the combo. I grew up with Stallone, Arnie and Bruce Willis doing action movies with big one liners and I like seeing that it’s coming back. This isn’t quite the breakthrough action-fun movie Guardians of the Galaxy is, but again, I did like it. Also like Guardians, it has a great soundtrack. The music really sets the tone of the film.

Now for the negatives. Fanboys won’t like me for this, but I didn’t love Jared Leto’s version of The Joker. Joker performances are usually iconic. From Cesar Romero to Jack Nicholson to Heath Ledger or even Mark Hamill’s voice-over work, The Joker stands out from everyone else. I can’t say that about Leto. He’s perfectly fine, but Joker shouldn’t be just “fine”. Even when he’s supposed to be overpowering Harley, Robbie still dominates the scenes.

Cara Delevingne is not good as Enchantress. The character ends up having a much bigger role in the movie than expected (I won’t spoil it) so the character should have had a better “actress” playing her. I put actress in quotes because she’s not much of an actress. She’s just a stand in for a CG type character, but even with limited lines, she just doesn’t handle the role in the slightest.

I also didn’t like how they defeated the bad guy. I won’t spoil it, but you’re fighting this growing supernatural beast and you stop it that way? Come on. That’s lame. It’s pretty much as unexciting as the end of Ghostbusters and X-Men: Apocalypse.

After the disaster that was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice I had very low expectations for Suicide Squad. Overall I did enjoy it. It’s something I’d watch again and probably own. It has some pacing problems, some bad casting and one character shows up just to die, but Margot Robbie shines and Will Smith shows us why he used to be Mr. Fourth of July Weekend. Diehard comic fans might not like the differences in the characters and why these characters are actually part of the Suicide Squad, but you’re never going to please fanboys anyways. There’s a couple of cameos that work unlike the forced/out-of-place ones in Batman v Superman. Go in without sky-high expectations and you should probably have fun with it. Or at least go to see Margot Robbie.

OVERALL RECOMMENDED!

Cast & Crew: 

• Will Smith
• Jared Leto
• Margot Robbie
• Joel Kinnaman
• Viola Davis
• Jai Courtney
• Jay Hernandez
• Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje
• Ike Barinholtz,
• Scott Eastwood
• Cara Delevingne
• Adam Beach
• Karen Fukuhara

Recommended If You Like:

• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
• Justice League
• DC Comics