Directed by: David Ayer
Written by: David Ayer
Starring: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie
I know this one's a little early. I'm not skipping ahead, I'll do the other 177 reviews, but I finally went out and saw a movie opening night, so I'd like to take an opportunity to try and write something while the movie is truly fresh in my head.
In the simplest terms, Suicide Squad is a bad movie that had the potential to be a good one. There are a lot of things this movie does that come off as awkward or included at the last minute, and the tone of the film shifts wildly.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
Just to get it out of the way, I first want to talk about Jared Leto's Joker. The design of the character is shallow; he offers a few menacing lines and a creepy laugh, but literally nothing else. His character has absolutely no bearing on the outcome of the plot, and he seems jammed into the film awkwardly, solely for the purpose of selling more tickets. It seems clear that his character was included in the marketing purely by studio decree as a desperate move to try and recover from the negative attitudes people had towards Batman vs. Superman, which is doubly disappointing when you realise that he was given second-billing ahead of Margot Robbie's much more integral Harley Quinn. If you go to watch the movie purely for the sake of the Joker, you are going to be disappointed.
Now to the plot.
In the wake of Superman's death, covert government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) uses her influence to assemble a team of criminals called Task Force X, to be used to retaliate against any potential metahuman or extraterrestrial threats in the future.
We start the film with a 20-minute exposition dump about the Squad. These backstories don't add much, and are really just there to give you the gist of these characters' abilities. Deadshot (Smith) is an elite assassin with a daughter that he cares for, Harley Quinn is the lunatic girlfriend of the Joker, Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) is a thief who throws boomerangs, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) is a pyrokinetic, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is part-crocodile, and Dr. June Moon (Cara Delevingne) is a woman possessed by a millennia-old witch known as Enchantress. There's also Slipknot (Adam Beach), a character so insignificant that he isn't even included in the starting exposition and exists only to be killed off as a warning to the other Squad members.
The Squad is called upon when Enchantress releases a previously unmentioned brother that helps her break free of Waller's control and start building a machine designed to destroy humanity. It's a total cliche, and never ends up feeling threatening as the rest of the Squad makes her and her brother out to be completely incompetent. I was reminded of Fantastic Four (2015); Doom was annihilating everyone and only lost to the Fantastic Four because the plot demanded it, and the same goes here with Enchantress and her loss to the Squad. It doesn't help that the Squad are seemingly impervious to injury; there are three helicopter crashes in the film and none of the crashes leave any of the characters with even a scratch.
This is really the crux of my problem with the film: the constant tonal shifts. Harley's insanity is a joke in one scene and a serious and sad aspect of her background in the next. The movie would have us chuckling at one-liners as the Squad takes a break to have a drink but breaks that up with Diablo's solemn history. There's never a fear for the Squad's safety even though the movie touts that they could all die at any minute. The film can't quite figure out if it wants to be a serious movie or a cartoon.
That said, there are some truly good aspects of the film. Will Smith is definitely worthwhile as Deadshot; his charisma elevates the film thanks to his chemistry with every character he interacts with. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Jai Courtney is actually one of the better aspects of the movie: his character is consistent in his absurdity and complete lack of seriousness, you're never to empathise with him and he exists to get a laugh out of the audience. Then there's Davis' Waller; easily the best character in the movie, she is intimidating and cold, with absolutely zero empathy as she looks for every way she can possibly maintain leverage over every other character. The film is elevated by her presence; in every one of her scenes she manages to find a way to shock with her sheer lack of care for anyone else.
The Verdict: Suicide Squad is more of a mess than Harley Quinn's mind. Constant backstory weighs the story down unnecessarily while explaining little, and conflicts with the rest of the film tonally. The Joker's inclusion adds nothing but minutes to the film. The main characters have their moments, but never any real depth; they are so invincible and the villains so ineffective in the final showdown that there are never any real stakes. Ultimately, I believe fans of the comic books or those who don't mind watching what is essentially a 2-hour live-action cartoon will enjoy it, but there are so many issues with the film's pacing and tone that I can't bring myself to call this a good movie, or even a mediocre one.
Rating: 3/10
Published August 5th, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment