Film Suicide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AwUdTIbA8I

            I always used to read Suicide Squad comics as a kid; I thought it was one of the coolest comics out. When I heard that there was going to be a Suicide Squad movie, I was nothing but ecstatic. August 5^th, the day the movie came out, was an exciting day for everyone, especially me. The movie theater was packed and people were rushing to their seats, everyone had to fight for a spot. The movie started and ended in complete silence. It ended in complete silence, because everyone was amazed at how bad it was, our high expectations left us very disappointed. Suicide Squad was a film that the Detective Comics Extended Universe (DCEU) desperately needed to do well and did not. Followers of the movie have been highly anticipating the release since Warner Brothers announced it was going into production. I am an easy critic to please, especially when it comes to Marvel or DC movies; I love them all—but this movie did not follow through.  Although some of the acting was superb, and the special effects were breathtaking and the soundtrack was perfect, the movie could not compare to other comic book movies due to its editing, pace and script.

            For those who don’t know, Suicide Squad is a team of ruthless villains that are put together to do good by an evil human being named Amanda Waller, which some may say is the villain in the movie. They do jobs that are basically suicidal, and if they die, then in the eyes of the government and the people it isn’t bad because they are terrible people. Members of the squad include: Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Enchantress, Captain Boomerang, El Diablo, Katana, Rick Flag, Killer Croc, and Slipknot. The movie starts with Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) proposing the idea of the Suicide Squad to her colleagues, because who is going to stop the good guys if they get out of control? Superman? No, he died. But thanks to Zach Snyder we know he will be in Justice League. So she suggests the Suicide Squad. Then the movie goes to a small backstory of each character. For example ‘Deadshot’ is a bullseye- never-missing assassin who kills people for money—‘Harley Quinn’ is the psycho girlfriend of the joker, which by itself should tell you enough about her.  After the backstory, one of the members escapes and causes trouble and disaster in the city. Sounds like a cliché that a lot of movies are doing these days. Who’s going to stop the bad guys, you ask? The Suicide Squad, that’s what you came to see right? From there the team deploys and they can’t escape, because devious Amanda Waller has something up her sleeve. The team is supposed to save someone in the city and get out of there—sounds easy, but not when you have a team of twisted, evil, selfish criminals. So they run into a lot of problems such as arguing with each other, debating on how to escape, and much more. Along with all of this you get a few run-ins with Jared Leto’s Joker and Ben Affleck’s Batman.

            So it sounds like a pretty exciting movie, right?  It is pretty exciting and there are a lot of things done well in it, but there are also a lot of things done poorly. For one the movie is very choppy; there are scenes where you can just tell that something was supposed to happen, but it would just cut short. People were anticipating more of Jared Leto’s Joker in the movie, as well, but he was hardly in it. He also did not live up to the hype that the trailer started; I was very disappointed and thought he could have done better. He tried to do too much and tried to be too cool. He method acted the part but I think he tried to imitate Ledger’s Joker too closely and it led to failure. Paul Schrodt of Business Insider states that “While we saw a lot of the Joker in those initial clips, it feels like he’s hardly in the final movie at all.” (“Business Insider” Par.3). This is exactly how it felt, it seemed like he was hardly in the movie. Paul later then says that “Reports have confirmed that the studio ordered major tweaks…And director David Ayer and the cast have said that many, many scenes didn’t make the final cut of Suicide Squad.” (“Business Insider” Par.3). There were so many scenes that were cut, if you watch the movie you would be able to see it for yourself.

            Another problem about this movie was that it was rushed into production, the producers just wanted to get the movie out and be done with it. Kim Masters in her report about Suicide Squad’s secret drama surrounding the rushed production, and high anxiety said that one of ‘Warner Bros.’ executive’s reactions to the excitement was “better late than never.” (The Hollywood Reporter.” Par.1). She later then goes on to say that “‘[Ayer] wrote the script in like, six weeks, and they just went.’” (“The Hollywood Reporter.” Par.4). That is not nearly enough time for any type of movie. That is the purest example on how much this film was rushed. Another problem that a lot of people thought was wrong with this was that it should have been rated R. If the directors didn’t worry about trying to make some of the things in the movie PG-13, I believe that this movie could have done a better job overall. For example, all of the scenes with ‘The Joker,’ Jared Leto could not reach his full potential trying to keep ‘The Joker’ PG-13; it’s not an easy task.

            With all of this talk about how it went so bad, and all of the negative critiques that I am doing on it, there was some good in this movie. For one, Harley Quinn did a fantastic job. She did a tremendous job displaying Harley’s demented and twisted and sometimes funny side. Will Smith as Deadshot did a stellar job as well; he showed poise in the character and made us feel for him, like when at the end he gets to visit his daughter before he goes back to prison. That moment really makes us as the audience Viola Davis as Amanda Waller was perfect; she played the devious, two-faced Waller to a Tee. The last person whose character was played well, and also sets us up for the future in the DC universe, was Jai Courtneys ‘Captain Boomerang’ which is a villain to ‘the Flash’, he portrayed him perfectly and we will most likely be seeing more of him in future DC films. The soundtrack for the film was fantastic. It had various artists such as 21 pilots and Action Bronson. The music had rap, funk, rock, and R&B. Suicide Squad had great songs that really captured some of the moments and made the audience engage or feel like they were a part of the movie. For example when the team was deploying to the city where all of the fighting was happening, Creedence Clearwater Revivals famous song “Fortunate Son” came on and really brought the audience into the movie.

            Suicide Squad is a fantasy/crime film. It’s a comic book super hero movie; it fits perfectly into that genre, obviously, because it is fictional. None of this stuff would ever happen—its fantasy. This movie could also be labeled as a comedy/action film as well, there is a lot of comedy in this and there is a ton of action. It’s not a Michael Bay film but it still has action that is pretty intriguing, and the comedy is to be expected when there are two clowns in the movie. The entire movie is fiction and it isn’t real. We don’t have crazy/sadistic villains that are going to save the world. In some aspects if you look really deeply at this you can get out of it that everybody has a little bit of good in them no matter how bad they truly are. You can also probably connect it to that even if you are bad or have done something bad you can always do something good. This just challenges that everyone has a little good in them. If all of these villains who are “the worst of the worst,” to quote Amanda Waller from the movie, can come together and save the world then maybe this world isn’t so bad after all. The movie at least had something that made us think and connect to the real world, for example, ‘Deadshot’ at the end of the movie.

            Suicide Squad is still mediocre, but I do recommend people to see it just because it is a fun and neat film to see. If you are not a super hero/comic book fan and you only like indie films and “Oscar worthy” films then of course this movie isn’t for you. If you are into this stuff then of course you are going to like this movie regardless of how bad it was. You won’t be amazed by the acting and the score and the editing, but you will have a good time watching some of the scenes and seeing how some of the people work in this. Out of my scale of 0-100 of rating movies I give Suicide Squad a 38.

References

Schrodt, Paul. "A List of Rumored Cut Scenes from 'Suicide Squad' Reveals a Much Darker Original Movie." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 10 Aug. 2016. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.

Masters, Kim. "'Suicide Squad's' Secret Drama: Rushed Production, Competing Cuts, High Anxiety." The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.