Before I start this review, I just want to take second to note something very important:
As always, this is an opinion, I’m not trying to really sway anyone in my reviews, Its just fun and challenging to me to put my thoughts down in a blog. It also allows me to refer back and see what movies I liked in a given year. I would hope that even if I give a movie a bad review, that you go out and see a film for yourself, You’re always your own critic and of course you’re the judge of what you like and don’t like. Keep in mind however, all film is subjective, so something I may not like, You definitely could. No opinion is ever wrong, so stick to your guns and enjoy films for what they are!
Review:
I’m glad I was able to attend an advanced screening of this film. I saw it Wednesday evening, but got so busy to write a post about it, so it’s today that I got around to post a review. My goal after going to an advanced screening is to have a review posted that evening or in the afternoon the next day.
Suicide Squad is the most recent film, out of the DC Movie Universe. Which isn’t saying much, as I thought that Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice wasn’t a particularly good film. I thought it that was full of plot holes, but saved by Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman. The redeeming factor of BVS:DOJ was that it made me very excited for the solo Batman film that Ben Affleck is writing, directing and of course starring in.
The film is about a group of Super villains being recruited by a secret government agency to be a part of highly sensitive black ops missions, and in return they would be somewhat “rewarded”…but really they had no choice.
Suicide Squad is directed by David Ayer. I quite enjoyed his other films – End of Watch (despite script issues) and Fury which I thought was a really excellent film. So when I heard that he was helming the directors chair, I was already intrigued by where this film would go. I expected a dark tone film, well fitting of the villains that were portrayed in the film (As Ayers films are usually of a particularly darker tone)… what I got was extremely uneven film in terms of tone and I felt like it was two different movies stuck together. There was no real consistency in the film.
A major redeeming factor of the film was that I enjoyed the characters. It was fun to see a group of villains band together under the pressure of the circumstances in order to overcome a threat. Everyone played their part well, but I give high praise to Margot Robbie, who played the infamous Harley Quinn. I thought her portrayal of Harley Quinn was perfect, she had the perfect accent and mannerisms. She was just a lot of fun to watch, and I hope to see much more of her portal of Harley Quinn in future films.
I also hold Will Smith’s portrayal of Deadshot in high regard, and this is coming from a guy who doesn’t particularly like Will Smith, but thats a story for a different day. (As a person, I dislike Will Smith, but he’s a talented actor – if I could just focus on his acting again, It would be a different situation.) My bias unfortunately overshadows my opinion of him. But yes, I will say that he did an excellent job at playing Deadshot, he was witty and he was fun to watch.
**Minor Spoiler**
It isn’t a surprise that these two characters were so good, because they were the focus of the film, it was them really who pushed the film further.
**End of Spoiler**
I was also really interested in checking out Jared Leto’s portrayal of The Joker. In commercials he looked ridiculous, almost hipster-like. The tattoos and the overall look of him was just absurd. But since I’m a big fan of his acting and methods, I was really intrigued where he would take the character or bring to the table. Do you know what? This had to be his weakest film I’ve seen, I didn’t have enough screen time with him unfortunately, I think The Joker had a max of ten minutes of screen time. I think the ads really talked it up, and had him being a big part of the movie, but in reality… He was a supporting role at best… Maybe even a cameo.
Its difficult to really go in, however, without a bias because Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knightwas incredible, and its hard not to compare the two. There is absolutely no question that Health Ledgers joker is the best joker we’ve had. It’ll be really difficult to beat.
The music was great, full of a lot of great tunes. It was a great soundtrack. But that’s also a gripe, I thought that the film tried to take too many strides from Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, whose soundtrack was full of great older music and the film in general was super successful. It just felt all too familiar and didn’t do it as well as Guardians did it.
I think my major downfall with the film however, was that the story was absolutely ridiculous and there were a lot of plot holes in the film. The story didn’t really feel complete, and there were a lot of questions at the credits.
The editing to the film was very schizophrenic, it just didn’t make much sense and it took away from my enjoyment. The editing was all over the place, it felt very amateurish throughout.
Finally, the CGI in the film, particularly with the character Enchantress was BRUTAL. Good CGI to me, is the images that you can’t notice are CGI, but you know are CGI. There was a shot in the movie where without ruining anything, a lot of CGI was used, and it took me completely out of the film, it was so awful. It was literally like a really bad piece of Photoshop, the character looked out of place and just looked bad.
At the end of the day, I think my expectations of the film were a little higher, I came out feeling a little disappointed. Which is my fault, I try to go into most films feeling neutral, and let the film sway me in either direction. I didn’t hate the movie, it wasn’t the worst movie i’ve ever seen, it felt overall like a best of amateur hour. but I definitely didn’t love it. So for that indifference I would give Suicide Squad a rating of 2.5/5. It didn’t sway me in either direction.
Final Score – 2/5
Final Note:
I would be intrigued after hearing rumours on multiple websites to see a Director’s Cut or Ultimate Cut of the film. There were definitely some parts missing that would make it feel more even, I think the tone would be better. I also think plot holes would be filled and the film would be more complete.
It was also stated by Jared Leto, that there were a lot more scenes that were shot, that weren’t used that could be utilized in a different cut.