Of all superhero comic books, my favourites are the ones published by DC Comics. The company has published my favourite comic book story arcs, and is the home of all of my favourite characters, many of whom have been adapted for the big screen over the years. However, what's undeniable is that Marvel are killing DC on the movie scene, and I have enjoyed all of their movies, characters, and storylines since the release of "Iron Man" way back in 2008. DC have been attempting to catch up with Marvel's massive lead on them in creating a superhero cinematic universe for a few years now. However, both of the movies which are part of the DCEU (DC Extended Universe) have had a pretty divisive reception to say the least, especially "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" earlier this year. It was clear that, if Warner Bros were going to make this universe succeed, they would need to change up their strategies and have a big hit on their hands. Hence we now have "Suicide Squad," marketed as DC's answer to "Guardians of the Galaxy," with the trailers including pop music rather than a deep, booming Hans Zimmer score, as well as more humour instead of a gloomy Superman and Batman growling "do you bleed." So, is "Suicide Squad" worthy of being the big hit that the studio sorely need, or should you avoid it and convince the company that they need to scrap this world, and start fresh? Let's take a look.
The story of the movie revolves around U.S. Intelligence Officer Amanda Waller gaining the authority to put together a team of criminals and super-villains which will be controlled and overseen by her to battle any metahuman or otherworldly threat the world might face. The team includes the assassin Deadshot, the madwoman Harley Quinn, the human crocodile Killer Croc and more. The first act (which lasts about 30 minutes) revolves largely around introducing these characters in an interesting and stylistic way. It almost makes the unbelievable amount of exposition across these scenes acceptable, since it is presented in a unique and humorous way. In fact, this is the main difference between "Suicide Squad" and the other DC movies that we've seen before: it is full of funny and amusing moments. Since many of these characters are firmly on the wrong side of the law and don't care much for helping people. The interactions between the characters are all very believable but equally interesting to watch throughout the movie. However, what the movie fails to do is build a realistic team dynamic between them. Fair enough, when they are first brought together, they do split into pairs and start making plans on how to escape. However, the team have never worked together before this mission, and so it is unbelievable that they would suddenly be able to take down the threat they are up against simply because they actually put their minds to it. There is very little, if any, build-up through the movie to these team moments in the finale.
As the trailers have done a good job of showcasing, only one character that we've already met in DC movies returns here, and that is Ben Affleck's Batman for a quick few minutes (don't worry, that's in the trailer too, it's not a spoiler). Thankfully, Affleck is continuing to do a great job and I can't wait to see him more in the role. However, the main focus of the movie is on the members of the Squad themselves, but only a few are appropriately developed. Will Smith's Deadshot is one of these. Deadshot is one of the only characters in the movie that is given any emotional depth and a reason to support him. The character's likability is only helped by Smith's humour throughout the movie. However, the real star of the movie is Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. Appropriately insane and true to her comic counterpart, Robbie steals the show from her co-stars and delivers a killer performance, particularly in the emotional moments. The only other two characters who received any meaningful development were Jay Hernandez's El Diablo (who I can't really go into detail about for the sake of spoilers) and Viola Davis' Amanda Waller, who is far scarier and more intimidating than the Squad. Davis delivers an excellent performance throughout the movie, and she is one of the other characters I can't wait to see more of. The rest of the Squad, on the other hand, is left out to dry. Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag is a dull, generic soldier with no real personality despite the attempt to give him a tie to the villain, Jai Courtney is good as the comic relief Captain Boomerang but is given no real development besides one strange character trait and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is given nothing to do as Killer Croc. However, the worst of the lot is the villain. They haven't really been shown off much in the trailers so I won't spoil it for anyone who doesn't want to know, but they are given absolutely no personality, are not intimidating, and the actor doesn't do a good job at performing this role.
Wait, there's a character I'm missing, you say? Who could that be? Oh right, one of the focuses of the marketing: the Joker, played this time around by Jared Leto. Now, a lot has been made of Leto's actions on set in the build-up to release, with Will Smith going so far as to say he "only met the Joker" on set, while Leto made a show of sending different items to people on set. Additionally, in typical DC fashion at this point, there was plenty of controversy surrounding the character's look, with the Joker now resembling a punk rocker instead of the psychotic anarchist fans have grown used to. However, having now seen the final product, I have got absolutely no problem with Leto's performance in the movie. It's clear that he has totally devoted himself to the role, and he does a good job of making the role his own. He does not match the level of Heath Ledger's legendary portrayal of the character from "The Dark Knight," but he brings together different personality traits of Jack Nicholson, Ledger, and Mark Hamill's different versions of the character. However, what I do have an issue with is how Joker is utilised within the movie itself. The character is completely inconsequential, and the events of the movie would not have turned out any differently if the character had been cut. Also, the trailers have completely misrepresented the movie here. It is not the Joker vs the Suicide Squad. Joker's entire purpose in the movie is to track down Harley and break her out of prison. What is clear here, though, is that Leto and Robbie have fantastic chemistry in these roles, and it makes me very excited to see them together again in another movie, possibly Ben Affleck's Batman movie.
However, while people may argue about the handling of the story and characters in the movie, what nobody can question is that the action sequences here are on point. As the movie constantly goes out of the way to tell the audience, these are the bad guys, the villains, the criminals of this universe. This immediately gives the action in the movie a unique feel to any other superhero or comic book movie we've seen before. With the characters clearly not caring what happens to each other and not being held back by morality (these guys are willing to and kill more than Batman in Dawn of Justice), the filmmakers have much more flexibility is how they deal with the mindless drones being sent the way of our "heroes." Although, despite the 15-rating given to this movie by the BBFC (who are responsible for all UK film certifications), they still find a way of showing that the group are not actually killing humans. The mix of powers and abilities on screen at the same time in the movie is very interesting to watch. Mixed with the great special and visual effects of the movie (a nice blend of practical and CGI), you're guaranteed to have a great time watching the action being showcased throughout the movie. However, while I am praising the special effects for the majority of the movie, particularly on characters such as El Diablo, there is one particular character which is built entirely out of CGI and looks incredibly strange. The character just doesn't feel like he belongs in the same movie from the rest of the characters, and looks incredibly fake.
The make-up of the movie is extremely well done, and may even be Oscar worthy. Seriously, just take a look at Killer Croc and tell me that the work that has been done to transform the actor into a hideous, realistic-lookign crocodile isn't an incredible feat. The same can be said for the villain's henchmen who, although they may be brain dead in combat, at least they're interesting to look at. The same can be said for the set design in the movie, particularly Belle Reve prison, where many of the Squad members are picked up from at the beginning of the movie. It is entirely believable that this would be the prison used to contain the super villains of this universe. I also enjoyed the cinematography of the movie, which is very clear at all times, and surprisingly lacking in excessive shaky cam or slow motion during the action scenes. It's always good when everything that is happening, despite the often insane amount happening on screen at one time due to this being a large-scale team movie. All of the cinematography and presentation of the movie is presented in a very enjoyable way that is unlike any other movie I've seen in a long time.
If I have one other major criticism of the movie, it's the music choices director David Ayer has has implemented throughout the movie. Constantly throughout the movie, different pop songs will start playing, whether it's a recruitment sequence, a backstory flashback for one of the characters, or (somewhat more predictably) during one of the action scenes. However, very few of these songs are good choices and work in the context of the movie. Imagine my shock when a Kanye West song started playing out of nowhere during the scene shown in the trailer where Deadshot is being tested by Waller. An even worse example of this is when the song "Spirit in the Sky" came on early on in the proceedings. Why is this worse? Because it has been straight-up copied from the soundtrack from "Guardians of the Galaxy," which was the clear inspiration for this type of soundtrack. This is one of the many, many examples in this movie of DC finally showing their desire to follow in Marvel's footsteps. Overall, these songs felt more shoehorned into the movie than anything else.
So, is Suicide Squad better than "Dawn of Justice?" It certainly is, largely thanks to director David Ayer's better handling of the many different characters in the movie. Yes, it's true that a few, such as Deadshot and Harley, are given much more development and backstory than others. However, these undeveloped characters are where the movie is at it's worst, with some receiving so little backstory and character development, that it becomes hard to understand why they have been included in the movie in the first place. The villain is hands down the worst example of this, and is terribly executed, both by the writer and the actor. However, that's not to take away from everything else that is good in the movie, such as the much better writing in the movie, which adds more humour to this universe, as well as the action throughout the movie. Overall, Suicide Squad is a step in the right direction for this cinematic universe, but it still has a long way to go until it can compete with Marvel on their level.
Pros
In-depth and emotional backstory for A FEW Squad members
Some excellent performances
The use of humour throughout
Fun action sequences
Make-up and costume design throughout the movie
Cons
Some severely underdeveloped characters
Terrible villain
Bad music choices
Rating: 6/10
Release Date: 5th of August, 2016
Starring Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Karen Fukuhara, Adam Beach, and Ben Affleck
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