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 5th, 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.
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