A big problem of SUICIDE SQUAD, if the word ‘round the campfire is true, has to do with the failure that is BATMAN V SUPERMAN. I really disliked BVS, as did many other people. With such backlash against it, DC went into panic mode and called for a lot of reworking of SUICIDE SQUAD. Now, studio interference isn’t anything knew. One of the biggest examples of studio interference taking a huge toll on a movie is X-MEN 3. Other examples being HANCOCK (another Will Smith movie), the recent FANTASTIC FOUR, and ALIEN 3. Because studios make such a big investment they feel the need to get involved with the movie, even against the director’s vision, and try to make the movie more appealing to the general audiences. However, this can, and often does, lead to movies feeling messy, incoherent, sloppy, and incomplete. SUICIDE SQUAD definitely feels like a movie that was tampered with from its original vision and suffers heavily from it.
SUICIDE SQUAD feels like two different movies cut together into one with a little side movie thrown in as well. Throughout the movie it can’t decide whether it wants to be serious or not. It has this sense of urgency with everything going on but it also feels like there’s too much forced humor. I’m sure a lot of the jokes were there from the beginning. With characters like Harley Quinn, you’re bound to get some laughs here and there. But many moments in this film feel like there were a part of those re shoots that we heard about.
Speaking of Harley Quinn, Margot Robbie is fantastic. She really nails everything there is about Harley Quinn. Even her voice at times is spot on with the voice I’m so familiar with from the animated series from when I was a kid. It’s definitely her own take on the character, but the inspiration definitely shows. Harley is one of the few really well developed characters. She has a wide range of emotions and even has a decent arc. She definitely would fit as one of the main characters of the bunch with the other one being Deadshot.
I’m not a huge Will Smith fan. Yes, I love him as the Fresh Prince, but beyond his comedic roles, I don’t think he’s a very strong actor. But he’s got this charisma to him that makes you want to like him and it makes up for any shortcomings he may have. It does play great in his role of Deadshot. His motivations are really clear and he has something we can connect with, unlike all of the other (except maybe one other) members.
One of the big problems with ensemble films like this one is getting enough set up with each character for us to care about them. Deadshot gets the most, by far, set up. Harley gets a flashback sequence explaining how she got here as well. But all the other characters are severely underwritten. Diablo does get a nice bit near the end of the film. It is a good one, but it’s a bit too late. I figured it out beforehand, but it doesn’t really plays too much in to his character through most of the movie. Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang get close to no backstory other than maybe 3 sentences each. And Katana just kind of shows up and doesn’t really do much or go away.
While we don’t really get to know these characters too much, they all do have their own very unique personalities. It is kind of fun from time to time seeing these characters be them, but there’s really not a whole lot of time dedicated to the squad. Now that I think of it, there’s really only one scene where all the characters actually feel like they’re really interacting with each other as a whole. And this scene is so late in the movie and too brief to really make enough of an impact for me to really care about them. Which really sucks because there’s supposed to be a great character moment in the following scene which falls flat because I saw it coming a mile away. I would have liked to spend more time with these characters because they all do seem very interesting. This movie just takes way too long to get them all together and let them do anything. Oh, and there’s one other character that’s brought in just to establish some stakes before leaving the film. Also saw that one coming a mile away.
Notice I haven’t said anything about the Joker. Well, I just wish he wasn’t really in this film. I’m not saying Jared Leto is a bad Joker. I’m just saying the scenes with him are all pretty bad. Jared Leto seems like he may be an interesting Joker, but I can’t really say for sure. He does certainly seem very menacing and crazy. But there’s just something off about him in this movie. It’s not the look, the look didn’t bother me. But more his persona. But like I said, none of his scenes were good. They could have all been removed and the movie probably would have benefited from that. It also takes away from Harley’s character as it makes it seem like the entirety of her character is entirely dependent on the Joker.
“But what about the action?” Hold on. I’m getting there. The reason I always hold off on talking about the action is because if I don’t care about the characters then generally I don’t care about the action. You can give me the prettiest action set pieces ever filmed, slap them in a 100-minute movie, and I wouldn’t care if there weren’t characters I cared about in the middle of all of that. Other than Deadshot, I didn’t care about any of the characters. So when the bullets went flying and the fits and bats start hitting, I was yawning. There are some cool visual aspects of the film. The action is set up fairly nicely despite lighting and framing issues.
The coolest part was the destruction. I’m not talking about the explosions, but there’s this weird look to everything that’s destroyed by the main villain’s brother/henchman. I couldn’t tell you his name, so I won’t try. I don’t care to look it up, either. It’s almost as if the metal melted then dried as it was being pulled out of the object. The Enchantress, the main villain who is barely in the film, also has this cool other-worldly look. The style of this world is incredibly and major props go out to the design team on this movie.
One other big problem with this movie is the soundtrack. Oh, god, there were several scenes in this movie that were almost completely ruined by the music choices. Way too many pop songs and music instead of an actual score. There was one scene where 2 songs played back to back with less than one minute between the two. It really took me out of the movie even if I wasn't really into it to begin with.
One other big problem with this movie is the soundtrack. Oh, god, there were several scenes in this movie that were almost completely ruined by the music choices. Way too many pop songs and music instead of an actual score. There was one scene where 2 songs played back to back with less than one minute between the two. It really took me out of the movie even if I wasn't really into it to begin with.
Ultimately, the major flaw of this film is it was boring. It was sure as hell miles beyond BVS in every aspect. But that really isn’t saying much. I can see hardcore DC fans having a lot to like about this film as well as a lot to complain about. The studio meddling is apparent and I kind of wish I could have seen David Ayers original vision for this film. I guess that’ll never happen, though. As is…
HESITANTLY RECOMMENDED for fans NOT RECOMMENDED for everyone else.
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