Warner Bros hasn’t really been very lucky with their
attempts in establishing a cinematic universe centering around the characters
of DC Comics a la Marvel Studios and their Cinematic Universe, at least in
terms of critical reception. Whereas the Marvel Cinematic Universe films have
consistently done well with critics, the ‘DC Extended Universe’ films haven’t
fared as well. The first installment of the franchise, 2013’s Man of Steel, attracted generally mixed
reviews from both critics and audiences, easily making it the most polarizing
film of that year. And then things got even more complicated with the next
installment, Batman v Superman: Dawn of
Justice. Released this past March, the film was absolutely savaged by
critics. And while it certainly had its fair share of fans, this time around
those who didn’t like it were much more vocal. It certainly didn’t help matters
when, before the film was released, it was made clear that the version shown in
theaters wasn’t director Zack Snyder’s intended cut. Instead, he was forced to
cut more than 30 minutes out of the film, including some very important
plot-points, in order to reach a more manageable run-time. As a result, the
‘director’s cut’ AKA the ‘Ultimate Edition’ debuted with the film’s home media
release and most people agreed that, at the very least, this was the superior
version of the film. Regardless, though, the theatrical release of BvS didn’t turn out as well as the
studio hoped, meaning that more pressure was to be put on DC’s subsequent films
to fare better critically. And out of the current slate of DC films set to
follow in the next few years, arguably the most anticipated of the bunch was
the other big DC film of 2016, Suicide
Squad.
This truly is one of the most unique installments to come
from a film genre that’s unfortunately been getting more and more scrutinized
these past few years. And that is because while most superhero films have
focused on just that, the superheroes, this film handles things differently and
instead focuses on a group of supervillains. Specifically, the film centers on
the villains that make up ‘Task Force X’, a disposable black ops unit
controlled by the government to do their dirty work for them. Under the
direction of David Ayer, writer of Training
Day and director of films like End of
Watch and Fury, and featuring an
all-star cast that included the likes of Will Smith, Jared Leto, and Margot
Robbie, the film was no doubt poised to be a smash hit for Warner Bros. For one
thing, the marketing for the film was one of the most exciting marketing
campaigns in recent memory, implying that the film would be a much different
kind of beast compared to BvS,
especially in terms of its overall look and feel. However, now the film has
come out and, well, unfortunately it ends up sharing one major similarity with BvS and that is that the reviews for it
have been absolutely savage. And yet, also like BvS, this is a case where those reviews are making it out to be
worse than it really is. Because even though Suicide Squad is undeniably flawed in a few ways, it still manages
to stand on its own merits due to its unique style, an equally unique premise
that explores some fascinating aspects of a world filled with superheroes and
supervillains, and an excellent ensemble cast.
The film opens up sometime after the death of Superman as was
witnessed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of
Justice. As the existence of ‘meta-humans’ (AKA the term used to describe
DC’s superhuman characters) is becoming more publicly known, the government
begins to fear the possibility of having to deal with a being like Superman
that ‘isn’t’ on their side. It is during this time that agent Amanda Waller
(Viola Davis) comes up with a bold idea. Having assembled a wide array of
dangerous criminals at the Belle Reve Penitentiary in Louisiana, she proposes
that the criminals be put to work for the government as part of a black ops
unit known as ‘Task Force X’. To make things easier for the government, this
‘suicide squad’ would be easily disposable if they were to fail their mission.
And so the squad is formed under the command of Colonel Rick Flag (Joel
Kinnaman), with some of the other members of the squad including but not
limited to assassin Floyd Lawton (Will Smith) AKA Deadshot and former
psychiatrist turned crazed villainess Dr. Harleen Quinzel AKA ‘Harley Quinn’
(Margot Robbie). Their mission finds themselves heading into Midway City under
the guise of them rescuing a high-profile mark during an alleged terrorist
attack. However, this excursion soon turns into them having to save the world
from the real threat, an ancient evil force known as Enchantress, who has taken
over the body of Flag’s girlfriend, archaeologist June Moone (Cara Delevingne),
and is hell-bent on destroying mankind for ‘imprisoning’ her for so many years.
Then there’s also the uncertainty of the ‘wild card’ that is Harley’s lover,
the ‘Clown Prince of Crime’ himself, the Joker (Jared Leto).
Like the theatrical cut of BvS, this film’s primary issues mainly stem from the writing and
the editing. Now this isn’t exactly like BvS
in which certain scenes were forcibly cut from the theatrical cut to the
point where it effectively shuttered the story. Though with that said, it has
been reported that, once again, there’s been quite a lot left on the cutting
room floor, namely scenes that would’ve given more development to certain
characters. Ultimately though, in this case the biggest problem with the
editing is that it can be a little too erratic at times. By that I mean it
sometimes cuts really fast to the point where there are quite a few ‘blink and
you’ll miss it’ shots. But even with this in mind, the film still manages to be
a really fun comic book flick full of cool visuals and entertaining action
sequences. While Batman v Superman was
criticized for being too ‘dour’, Suicide
Squad is certainly much more light-hearted in tone. Granted that doesn’t
mean that this film has the same kind of tone as, say, something out of the MCU
but at the very least it does make a greater attempt to inject some humor into
its proceedings, which mainly comes in the form of the banter between the
various members of the squad. Pair that with an enjoyably flashy color palette,
the always solid visual effects that you’d expect from a superhero film of this
magnitude, and a really badass soundtrack that’s seriously up there with
‘Awesome Mix Vol. 1’ as one of the best superhero film soundtracks ever and you
just have a fun, albeit maybe a bit simply plotted, supervillain-centered
adventure that has a style unlike any other film in the genre.
In the months leading up to the film’s release, it was made
clear that its ensemble cast had established quite a strong camaraderie during
filming, which is certainly a good thing for a film of this nature. And it
certainly shows as far as the final product is concerned. The cast is excellent
and work off of each other extremely well. And even with some of its
story-based shortcomings in mind, it’s still really fascinating to watch the
film attempt to find the humanity within a bunch of characters who are normally
villainous in nature and for the most part, it actually does manage to succeed
in doing just that. Will Smith is pretty much the film’s biggest ‘headliner’ in
the role of Deadshot and in a film in which it’s shown that not all of these
bad guys are ‘truly bad’, Deadshot is certainly the most ‘layered’ of the bunch
in regards to the film exploring his humanity, primarily shown through his
relationship with his daughter Zoe. The role’s also a pretty darn perfect fit
for Smith as far as him utilizing his ability to make a whole bunch of
wisecrack remarks. Viola Davis also shines in the role of Amanda Waller, the
Squad’s ‘boss’ who, despite being a part of the US government, can be just as
ruthless as those she’s leading. The big scene-stealer, however, is Margot
Robbie as Harley Quinn. Whereas most superhero film castings have been
subjected to some form of pre-release scrutiny from fans, I find that Robbie’s
casting had been well-received by most people when it was first announced. And
although there has been some controversy over how the character is portrayed in
the film, Robbie absolutely kills it in the role, from the mannerisms to the
New York accent to her unabashed love for ‘Puddin’.
Speaking of ‘Puddin’, this film re-introduces the character
of the Joker to the big screen nearly a decade after Heath Ledger’s iconic, and
Oscar-winning, turn in the role in The
Dark Knight. So with that said, how does Jared Leto fare in the role? Well
remember what I said before about there being quite a lot of deleted scenes?
Because according to Leto, many of them involved ‘Mr. J.’ so unfortunately
Joker doesn’t factor that much into this film. However, in the scenes that he
does appear, I will say that Leto certainly proves to be an entertaining Joker.
He certainly gives off the impression of being perhaps the most unhinged out of
all of the on-screen Jokers we’ve seen to date. After all, we are talking about
a character who’s supposed to be a complete psychopath and it’ll be interesting
to see how future DC films will utilize his Joker. As for the rest of the cast,
while the film primarily focuses on characters like Deadshot and Harley Quinn,
there are a few notable standouts amongst the other members of the squad. This
includes Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, a former gang member with the ability to
summon fire but is hesitant to use his powers after they caused him much
personal tragedy and, believe it or not, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, who
gets quite a lot of funny moments primarily based around the fact that the
character is basically a straight-up jackass. Don’t expect much of a villain,
though, because the ones in here are ‘fairly standard’ at best. By that I mean
they’re not absolutely ‘terrible’ but they’re not that ‘great’ either.
As was the case with Batman
v Superman, this film’s poor reviews have resulted in quite a considerable
divide between fans and critics. And sure enough, this has once again led to
the ‘critics are being paid by Marvel’ conspiracy that got tossed around when
the previous film came out. But believe me when I say that this clearly isn’t
true and keep in mind that this is coming from someone who admittedly can be
quite the MCU fanboy most of the time. However, I am starting to sense some
unfair bias when it comes to how the DCEU films have been received by critics.
Because come on critics, this film isn’t THAT bad. Sure, like BvS, it does have some flaws. In the
case of this film, they mainly stem from the occasionally erratic editing and
for some elements of the story being a bit underdeveloped. However, at the end
of the day, this film still manages to stand out amongst its fellow superhero
films on its premise alone. We legitimately have not seen anything like this
before when it comes to live-action superhero films and I think it’s really
cool to have a film like this that dares to try and make characters who in any
other film would be the bad guys the ‘heroes’ of a story. And overall the film
does succeed for the most part in finding the humanity in a bunch of bad guys. So
in short, I’m all for another adventure with the so called ‘worst heroes ever’.
I’d say they earned the chance for a sequel, which hopefully will happen because
given the fact that this is the second straight DCEU to get generally negative
reviews, once again the future of the franchise is uncertain.
Rating: 4/5
