Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch the latest DC universe film, Suicide Squad, and I wanted to offer a more balanced review than what I saw on the internet prior to its release.
As everyone may know by now, Suicide Squad has received quite a bit of backlash from critics (currently sitting at 27% on Rotten Tomatoes). However, I feel that the critics may be overreacting on the film’s perceived mistakes and shortcomings. This review will spoil the movie so proceed at your own caution.
The movie does not ease anyone into introductions and jumps right into the characters and uses flashbacks to develop the character’s origins. Although I was thrown off guard by the approach initially, I actually liked it and felt it was fitting for the tone of the movie. Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and Amanda Walker (Viola Davis) were by far the most interesting characters in the movie for me. Will brought a cool, hitman energy to the character that I felt was in line with the comic books. He is definitely the star in this movie, but Margot almost stole the show. Her portrayal as Harley Quinn was near perfect, hitting both the Brooklyn accent and fun attitude of the character. Her performance alone should be worth a look by producers as a potential spin-off with real potential. Viola Davis’s performance as Amanda Walker was chilling…and in a good way. Now that I reflect back on it, Viola Davis may have had the best performance of the three.
The Villains in their graphic skull glory....well maybe not glory.
The character that was most hyped coming into this movie was obviously the Joker. The stories of Jared Leto's interactions with cast members and his method performance was what people thought would be a major character in the story. In reality though, his role was really more of a cameo, but an important one to the film. Joker did move the story forward in his quest to retrieve Harley Quinn and it put another unique element to building Harley's backstory. For fans of the comics, they already knew that Joker's participation in the movie would be limited as he is not an official member of the Suicide Squad. So, due to his lack of participation in the movie as a whole, I think it is hard to truly judge Jared Leto's Joker performance to harshly. It was cameo performance and should be treated as such.
Spooky!
The other characters each had varying importance within the movie and having that variation wasn’t bad. The character I feel was actually most important to movie was Col. Rick Flagg. He’s kind of the center piece of this whole movie in a way. His girlfriend, June Moon (A.K.A. Enchantress) is actually the main villain and the one person Col. Rick Flagg doesn’t want to lose. Amanda Walker manipulates this relationship to have Enchantress do her bidding. That is until Enchantress goes off the reservation and escapes the watchful eye Amanda Walker. I could go on and on about the story from here, but I would rather not spoil the whole movie. What I can say is the movie was simple and straightforward, which I found to be somewhat refreshing. The movie did try to over reach and become something it wasn't meant to be. It was not meant to complete against Marvel or do better than Superman Vs. Batman to justify DC movie universe. It told a story about a bunch of villains, when backed into a corner, can come together to defeat a greater evil.
ADDRESSING CRITICISM: FILM STANDPOINT
Here I will be addressing some of the major film criticism that I heard from critics, but I will be talking a bit about the David Ayer's approach to the film. I feel it is important to note before judging a movie too harshly.
Being a fan of both comic books and general cinema helped me appreciate what the director, David Ayer, was trying to do with this movie. Each director has a different style and David’s style is definitely more character focused; something that was mentioned also by Jai Courtney and other cast members. He wants to see strong performances and give the actors that room to deliver the performance. Overall, I feel like his cast did accomplish that goal.
Sipping espresso and reading film criticism....the good life!
David (and the cast) also brought more empathy to their characters. Deadshot's backstory involved his daughter, Harley Quinn's backstory revolved around her complex relationship with Joker, and Diablo (Jay Hernandez) also focused around his family. Other characters in the movie (Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, and Katana) are not as well developed, but it doesn’t make them bad characters by any means.
As many could gleam from the trailer, this movie was going to be an ensemble piece in a similar vein as the Avengers, except it’s in a different universe and the main “Protagonists" are actually villains. Unlike other films similar to Avengers or Captain America Civil War, many of the characters introduced in this movie were first introduced to audiences in this movie. Only fans of the comic books or cartoons would have basic knowledge of what was going to happen. That may be a reason why some critics had a problem with the movie. Marvel has been blessed with the ability to release individual origin stories and then move to the larger ensemble movie. DC simply worked it in reverse.
Other criticism revolved around a thinly written script and poor plot, which I disagree with. To say the plot is poor is hard to justify. I believe the plot was quite simple, but to say it was poor would seem more like a knee-jerk reaction. In terms of writing, especially for film, people need to understand just how hard that is to accomplish. Sometimes writing can be elevated by an amazing performance by an actor or actress. Other times, writing can be element that helped inspire the direction and performance of the actors. Film is a different world in terms of writing since film is a visual medium. Was the writing Oscar worthy? No, but is it really bad? I don't think it is at all! I think the writing was fitting to the story and fit the darker, comic book style that the director initially set out to accomplish.
Overall, what this movie did was give us something different while still fitting within a DC Cinematic Universe. The acting was solid, story was nice and simple, and the action was well done. I can't speak for the critics, but there are no hard and set rules to film criticism. It really boils down to did people like it or not and then justify. From my experience in the theater and among other DC fans, I think people did like it! So, I would recommend checking out this movie if you are a fan of comic books, particularly DC, or wanting to see a different take on the traditional film anti-hero discussion.
These are my thoughts on the movie, but I would like to know what your thoughts are on the movie? Did you like it or did you agree with the critics? Please leave a comment below or share this article with your fellow comic book fans.