Review: Suicide Squad

This isn't what I signed up for. 

I'll admit it. I saw Suicide Squad for Harley Quinn. The promotions started to sell me, but I tried to stay focused.  So when all the shitty reviews started rolling in, I told myself I'd be okay, because I was only here for Harley. That worked out in my favor because this film is a damn mess.

Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) wants to put together an elite team of super villains to guard the U.S in wake of Superman's "death." She plants bombs into their necks and demands they do her biding, and she'll reduce their sentences. There's Dead Shot (Will Smith, playing himself) the leader who desperately wants to get out to see his daughter. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) the crazy ex psychiatrist, who I'll talk about a bit later. El Diablo, (Jay Hernandez) a fire starter, and a bunch of other people the film doesn't care to let us get to know. They are all lead by soldier named Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) Their assignment is to stop a witch named Enchantress (Cara Delevinge) who happens to be possessing the body of Flag's girlfriend.

DC's biggest downfall is the fact that they don't take their time. They want to compete with Marvel, but aren't willing to build. Time is a huge problem in Suicide Squad. We get brief glimpses of our villains (they're bad guys, they tell us this often) in a few musical montages, which works in theory, but didn't leave me satisfied at all. Especially when it came to the best part of the movie: Harley Quinn. Harley is an amazing character and it's a joy to see her on the big screen. Margot Robbie is absolute perfection, but her story is so rushed that it doesn't feel anything like the Harley/Joker dynamic we're used to.

The Joker (Jared Leto) basically has a glorified cameo in this film. Fresh out of a vat of Hot Topic, Mister J wants nothing more than to free his precious Harley, which is extremely bizarre considering their relationship has always been pretty one sided on Harley's part. Here, she's the big dog. She's the more intimidating one, and I found it odd that he was going at such great lengths to break her out. Not that it's completely out of character, but like Sati said in her review. It's like WB wanted to turn him into a romantic hero and it just doesn't work.

But back to time, had DC taken it, I feel like these characters would've worked better had we seen them before. Batman should've already had his own movie and taken on Harley and the Joker. Aquaman could've tangled with Killer Croc. The Flash could've thrown Boomerang in jail in his own movie, and maybe one up'd dead shot too. Wonder Woman could've taken on...whatever the fuck Diablo turns into in the 3rd act. It would've made this film so much more meaningful and fleshed out had we see the heroes put these villains away in their own respective movies, only for them to break out with this one.

The biggest let down by far is Enchantress. When Cara was cast, I immediately rolled my eyes, because she isn't a strong actress. But then they showed those TV spots of her showing off her power in a crowded room full of suits, and I was sold. But wow, it was awful. First, if you have an actress that isn't very strong, the last thing you should do is give her this fake, deep evil voice. It made her look cartoony. The sexy dancing didn't help, Marvel's Scarlet Witch has the gold medal in super power dance movies. Enchantress face planted on the uneven bars. In fact, the 3rd act of the film is so messy I can't believe that was the product of reshoots. David Ayer apparently graduated valedictorian at the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Academy for Fight Scenes That are Filmed So Quickly You Can't Tell WTF is Going On™.  The editing is terrible, then it's like they tried to cover that up by having everything take place in this weird fog. It managed to be an even bigger trainwreck then the fact that these characters all somehow ended up BFFs, putting each other before the ones they've been trying to reach.

Let's talk about the acting: Margot Robbie is an absolute A+ I love everything about her Harley and I hope she's given the movie she deserves one day. I can't say the same about Jared Leto. I never liked how the Joker looked, but the film never gave me the opportunity to change my mind. He's barely in it and he always feels like he's acting. He doesn't disappear in this role, he seems to be playing up the camp. Will Smith is a fun guy, so he's always reliable. As is Viola Davis, who's completely fierce.  Jai Courtney, normally the black hole of charisma is actually pretty good here. Kinnaman and Delevinge are flat out terrible, and I cringed every time one of them opened their mouths.

I'm sorry this got so long, but I can't help but be a bit frustrated. Even if I told myself I was going for one thing, the fact is this movie could've been SO much better. It's never boring, it had interesting components, but they failed to put them together coherently. It's hard not to rant about it.

Recommended: No

Grade: C-

Memorable Quote: "...pussy." - Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie)