To be fair, the first 30 minutes of Suicide Squad are solidly entertaining as it sets up the situation and the main characters. The soundtrack even provides each antihero with his/her own classic rock tune when introduced. There's Deadshot (Smith), a hitman who never misses; Harley Quinn (Robbie), the psychotic girlfriend of The Joker (Jared Leto), the boomerang-wielding thief Digger Harness (Jai Courtney), the pryomaniac El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), the human crocodile Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and the sword master Katana (Karen Fukuhara). When the evil sorceress Enchantress, who has possessed the body of Dr. June Moone (Cara Delevigne), escapes custody and creates an army hellbent on destroying humanity for.... well, reasons I guess.... it's up to the newly crowned "Suicide Squad" to take down that which normal humans cannot. Of course, they're kept under strict watch by government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who won't hesitate to end their lives (via explosive devices implanted in their necks) if they step out of line.
It seems no superhero franchise can exist without a God-like villain, but Enchantress represents by far the weakest one in recent memory. Even the title villain in X-Men: Apocalypse was better motivated than this. Nothing about this character makes any sense whatsoever, from the flimsy rules regarding how she possesses someone, to the way she unearths her equally ridiculous-looking brother Incubus (Robin Atkin Downes), to a climactic stand off that's about as dumb and logic-defying as one can think of. We get plenty of action sequences leading up to this in which our anti-heroes face off against pimply, toad-like soldiers that look like Star Wars Cantina rejects, but these are about as exciting as watching someone else play a Call of Duty video game. You've seen it all done before and done better. It's sad that for all the hype behind Suicide Squad, a plot this basic, derivative, and lacking in urgency was the best they could come up with.
This was by most accounts a troubled production with multiple teams of editors, extensive re-shoots, and a script written in six weeks, and the results bear this out. Awkward, half-baked flashbacks (like El Diablo's tragic past and Harley Quinn's budding romance with the Joker) pop up randomly in the middle of the mission, transitions feel missing, and the movie guns for grand, emotional moments that the characters don't earn. At one point, Harley Quinn disappears for all of about five minutes, only to turn up later and have the other guys tell her how glad they are to have her back. Huh? Even Batman (Ben Affleck) and the Flash (Ezra Miller) show up for cameos shoehorned into the story. For those who thought that maybe, just maybe, the lack of narrative thrust in these movies would be fixed without Zack Snyder on board, sorry. Even with David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury) taking over, it's still a systemic issue.
Winning performances from Will Smith and Margot Robbie (and perhaps Viola Davis, who acquits herself reasonably well as the "Nick Fury" of this story) go a long way toward saving Suicide Squad from being a complete dumpster fire. Many of Deadshot's one-liners are (pardon the pun) on target, especially a few relating to, of all things, legendary basketball coach Phil Jackson. His dramatic backstory involving his 11-year old daughter is intriguing enough to make us want more. Meanwhile, Robbie goes all out with her own brand of zaniness mixed with sex appeal. There were times when I wished the rest of this bland team and the idiotic plot would go away and allow these two to dominate their own two-hour movie. And maybe that movie would've given Jared Leto's Joker a larger role. He shows up in this one for 10 minutes tops and at such random intervals that you wonder why he's here at all. For all the talk about how memorably crazy he was on set, the character's presence in this movie has been butchered beyond belief.
In my review of Batman v Superman, I wrote that Warner Bros, in their zeal to catch up to Disney/Marvel, have rushed their characters onto the screen without proper buildup. Now with Suicide Squad, we see even more what hack jobs these movies are. Say what you will about the "assembly line" quality of Marvel's films; at least they're put together more cohesively than the first-draft-quality script we have here. After a promising first 30 minutes, Suicide Squad progressively loses steam, wit, and any sense of fun through the end, when most "regular" moviegoers (i.e. not comic book die-hards) can manage little more than a shrug. This is a February caliber of action movie which somehow found its way into summer blockbuster season. Credit great marketing and trailers but a poor product. And that's about where the DC Expanded Universe sits right now.
Rating: ** (out of ****)
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