A Deadly Movie

            Suicide Squad, this year’s groundbreaking film by D.C. comics, premiered on August 5^th. Directed by David Ayer, this film is full of action, humor, and even a little bit of less than ordinary romance. With the super hero cinematic universe being mainly dominated by Marvel films, D.C. comics had to come out with something groundbreaking, and fast! Thus, Suicide Squad was born into existence. Grossing 133.6 million dollars of the opening weekend, this film made a powerful box office statement. (Scott, “Review: Suicide Squad”). However, the audience seemed to enjoy the movie much more than the critics did. When you have a great cast, including Ben Affleck, Will Smith, Jared Leto, Morgot Robbie, and many more, the hopes of the movie are held high. Sadly, many believe, as I do, that this film did not deliver.

            The movie takes place in Central City, a very messed up city where meta-humans exist (meta-humans are people with super powers). The suicide squad consists of six ex-convicts: Deadshot, the hitman who never misses; Harley Quinn, a psycho woman who is not scared of anything; El Diablo, a former gangster who can control fire with his hands; Captain Boomerang, a well-known thief who is an expert with boomerangs; Killer Croc, a genetic experiment gone wrong causing crocodile like symptoms and super human strength; and Slipknot, an assassin that can climb anything. They are led by a navy seal who captains the group, Joel Kinnaman. These six characters, along with their captain, make up the squad and have to save the world from an alien threat. Using all six of their abilities, plus the abilities of a few other heroes’ picked up throughout their escapade, they attempt to save the world. The acting was one of the only near perfect traits about this movie. According to Michael Cavna from the Washington Post, “Harley is the new film’s safety net, even if so much else doesn’t land safely.” Cavna also writes, “Thankfully Oscar-nominated such as Viola Davis (as Amanda Waller) and Will Smith (Deadshot) deliver strong performances in oft-workmanlike roles.” (Cavna, “Suicide Squad, saved from becoming a flop”). The acting in the movie was one of few things that saved the move from complete failure.

The movie starts by explaining who these people are, and why they are picked for the squad. They are all incarcerated and convicts. There powers make them ideal candidates to be a part of a team that needs to save the world from an alien threat. The alien threat originated from the most powerful meta human, the witch. The witch turns evil, and wants to destroy the world for not worshipping her. During their journey, they encounter another friendly meta-human who wields a katana. They also encounter another villain, the joker. The joker tries to kill the suicide squad so her can get the love of his life back; Harley Quinn. After stopping these new threats and teaming up with the new meta-human, they go to the witch’s lair and defeat her. The city is saved, but the convicts all must return to prison for their previous crimes. The new bond between the captain of the squad, and the squad itself results in a conflict because he believes they should be free too.

               Ok, let’s rewind the movie a bit. This film is an action-comedy, much like every single other superhero ever created. Is it funny? Of course it is! The movie does not lack any humor, whether it is Harley Quinn taking the role of cute but deadly, or dead shot cracking jokes and being the smartass he is, the movie rarely lacks a dull moment. Is it full of action? Of course it is! Six ex-convicts are put into the line of fire, so naturally they are going to do what they do best; kill. Hundreds of aliens are decimated during the film, so action is met on every level. Is it unique? Of course it is not! Let’s see here, there is a group of “hero’s” assembled to save the world from an alien threat that starts destroying a city, and will eventually destroy the world if not stopped. Sound familiar? D.C. Comics, you are only five years late to the party where Marvels Avengers thought of that idea. This same plot has been ran and re-ran in several different movies previous to this one. However, the twist this movie had was using “bad” guys to save a city and eventually become hero’s. This did not pan out as strongly as D.C. comics was hoping though. Sorry Will Smith, think of the Avengers being the “gold-standard” of the superhero cinematic universe.

 The characters are a dime a dozen in this movie. Besides the members of the squad and the leader, you are introduced to the mastermind of the operation; Amanda Waller. She then has two more characters at her disposal. One of them turns into the villain of the movie, while the other remain good and joins the squad halfway through the movie. The Joker is then introduced out of the blue, who in turn has no significant role in the plot of the movie, but yet takes up a significant amount of on screen time. Batman and Superman appear in the film and leave just as quickly as they showed up. Characters are all over the place in the first 30 minutes of the movie. On top of this, the characters (excluding Deadshot) are very stringy and thin. I mean come on, you have characters that have no background or past story. On top of this, the super powers are few and far between. There’s a guy who can bend fire, and then a guy who can climb anything. Again, as a regular fan of the movie, it is awesome to witness Batman, Superman, and the Joker all on the same screen. However, this proved detrimental to the films’ critic reviews.

The theme of the movie is the other leading positive the film has going for it. The theme is even “bad” people can be hero’s. Six felons that are disposable and unappreciated by society are lead into the heart of disaster. These people risk their lives to save everyone else, even though they have no reason to. This leads self-reflection on questions like, “Can bad people do good?” Then at the end of the movie, after the threat is gone, they are forced to all go back to prison. The newfound hero’s that just saved the world, and had to overcome adversity, evil, and temptation are seen as villains again. They then get thrown back into prison, right where they were at the beginning of the movie.  This adds power to the theme, causing some dispute between human morals and values. In today’s society, the good things rarely get noticed by the public. The things that threaten our country, freedom, and rights always are on the news or in our newspapers. This movie relates to our society by showing that often the good things go unnoticed. The news does not headline a fire fighting saving someone’s life, instead, they headline terrorists attacks and absurd political debates. This is a great theme, especially when the targeted audience of the movie are teenagers and young adults.

The fans loved the movie, but come on, any one will be happy with an attractive female lead, humor, and violence. There are many strengths of the film, but the weaknesses far outweigh them. According to the New York Times, “The language pushes the far boundary of its PG-13 rating. The death toll is high, and the weapons are nasty. In spite of all the mayhem and attitude, the overall mood is cautious. For a film about a gang of outlaw brawlers, “Suicide Squad” is awfully careful to stay inside the lines.” (Scott, “Review: Suicide Squad”). On top of this, the characters are stringy and the plot is basic. The movie introduces too many topics at once, without going in depth on any of them. Overall, the cautious mood the New York Times touches on is well backed up by all of the wrongs in the movie. Everything is not all negative about the film though. Salvaging from the wreck of the movie, the acting and theme hold very solid ground. Will Smith and Margot Robbie play fantastic roles, and the theme they portray is strong. The theme brings up controversial points, and appeals very well to the targeted age group. Lastly, this film had a custom soundtrack made for it. Artists like Twenty-one Pilots, Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, and X-Ambassadors are just a few artists that appear in the soundtrack. This soundtrack topped the charts for bestselling album and best singles. Sadly, the critics notice the negative far more than the positive, and do not equate the ratings of a soundtrack into the rating of the movie too much. All of this constitutes a low rating for such a highly anticipated film.

            Overall, the film was alright. It did not live up to the hype nor reach its potentials by any means. As a super hero enthusiast, I side with the critics on their rating. The lack of uniqueness and detail to pretty much every aspect of the film ruin its chances. With such a competitive market, super hero movies need to deliver better than the last.

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Works Cited

Cavna, Michael. The Washington Post. 9 Aug. 2016. www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs. Web. 24 Sept, 2016.

Scott, A. O. The New York Times. 3 Aug, 2016. www.nytimes.com/2016/08/05/movies/suicide-squad-review-dc-comics. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.