DC’s latest instalment of its extended universe repeats all the mistakes of Batman vs Superman, and makes a few new ones.
Suicide Squad had a lot riding on it thanks to the critical mauling of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. What was meant to be a fun movie that showcased DC’s rogue’s gallery, as DC always had the best villains, turned into an attempted course correction for the whole brand. Did it succeed? Could it succeed? No, it’s a disaster.
The story is simple: Terrifying government stooge Amanda Waller, played by the brilliant Viola Davis who is a beacon on unarguable class in amidst this mess, puts together a misfit team of criminals in order to save the world. Leading the charge, and thankfully the movie, is Will Smith’s Deadshot: an expert assassin, and marksman, who was taken down by Batman. Alongside is Margot Robbie’s well-acted disaster of Harley Quinn (the Joker’s girlfriend which is about all she is in this movie), Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Jay Hernandez as the combustible gang-banger with a heart El Diablo, Joel Kinnaman as squad leader, and overall boring good guy, Rick Flagg, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, and Karen Fukuhara as Katana. This rag-tag group of misfits are charged with saving Midway City from Cara Develinge’s anaemic, and uninteresting villain Enchantress.
Directed by David Ayer, although how much control he had over the finish product will be an enduring mystery, Suicide squad is a dud. Full of uninspired action scenes, virulent sexism, and a cookie cutter plot, DC’s anarchic film stinks of playing it safe. What could have been a balls to the wall action movie is let down by its family friendly rating to the point where it’s all bark no bite.
Apart from the excellent Will Smith, and Viola Davis, the characterisation is all over the place. Margot Robbie fights valiantly against characters, and the film that doesn’t respect her. Her looks are all anyone can talk about, which isn’t helped by Ayer’s obsession with her ass. El Diablo is a fog of clichéd, and border-line racist, Latin gang dialogue, never feeling anything more than two dimensional. Jai Courtney finally gets his hands on a character he can do something with yet we barely get any Captain Boomerang, and the less said about Killer Croc’s painful attempt to be the breakout character the better.
Yet Suicide Squad’s main problem is the Joker. Thanks mainly to the huge ad campaign before the film’s release, the buzz around Jared Leto’s Joker was reaching fever pitch, but he’s only in it for about ten minutes. Leto himself has stated that he filmed many scenes that didn’t make it into the movie, scenes that informed his relationship with Harley a little better than the crap we did get. Leto’s Joker doesn’t even make an impression, he isn’t given time to, and the scenes they kept, showed little characterisation other than a few weird growls that brought Jim Carrey in The Mask to mind.
The movie does have some good point, for one thing it has a sense of humour, a flawed one but still better than Batman vs Superman, it doesn’t break the flow to set up future movies, and you can’t really fault the actors too much considering the material they were given. But in 2016 we should be getting a better comic book blockbuster than this steaming pile of technicolour mediocrity.
