SUICIDE SQUAD – Review

It’s fun to root for imperfect people that run amok in an imperfect world. Flaws are what makes characters on-screen appear human, and yet, the greater and more abundant the flaws, the more villainous they are usually perceived. You can’t have a strong hero without an equally matched villain. Thankfully, the DC Comics’ universe is populated by the most colorful and deliciously evil around (sorry Marvel).

Amanda Waller is one of those great villains in a film chock full with hitmen, gangsters, and other villains known as “meta-humans.” As a government operative, she wants to protect the public, but does so at a cost. She manipulates evil to defeat even greater threats through a group nicknamed the “Suicide Squad.” She’s the puppet master pulling the strings of these imprisoned villains while offering reduced sentences for their services. It may sound like a sweet deal, but it is very clear that Waller doesn’t care who gets caught in the crossfire to protect the greater good.

On this squad you have Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith), Killer Croc, Boomerang, Enchantress, Diablo, Slipknot, Katana, and their leader Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). There’s no need to fret if some of these names don’t ring a bell. Lengthy intros are presented for most of the Squad, though a few are left on the cutting room floor for some reason, despite Deadshot and Harley both getting intros even before the opening credits… and then given another set of intros from Waller at dinner with her cronies not too long after. The real mission is trying to squeeze everyone in along with a Joker (Jared Leto) as the wild card who occasionally shows up. It becomes evident within the first few scenes that this mission of finding balance is doomed for failure.

SUICIDE SQUAD is as sloppily assembled as any major studio film I’ve seen in a while. The first hour is haphazardly edited together and has no structure or sense of rhythm. It becomes a series of music videos where five minutes can’t go by without a pop song blaring – everything from The Rolling Stones to Eminem to The White Stripes is thrown in. It’s like an ADHD child scanning through the radio dial for almost an hour with no regard that the music is actually overtaking some of the dialogue. After an hour of flashbacks and meetings and skipping around between characters in cells, you are finally given the opportunity to see these loose cannons run wild in this twisted playground. Or so you thought. Try as hard as they may, the talented cast is never really let loose to explore their characters or to bounce off each other. The character moments that made the trailers so darkly whimsical are few and far between. They are a team of misfits, but it never feels like an odd-ball team because of a weak script that doesn’t embrace the quirkiness of each of its members.

The mission has the setup of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, complete with injections into their bodies and a mission to save a secret someone that is trapped in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Sound familiar? Like most of David Ayer’s filmography, the second half becomes a standard issue military film where the mission and macho posturing share center stage. When Rick Flag isn’t barking orders at other military guys who tagged along, he’s at odds with Deadshot while the rest of the squad is relegated to the background. This battle of bravado goes on like a merry-go-round until the next action sequence comes about to show off the fetishized gunplay. In between these darkly lit scenes occupied with (literally) faceless enemy thugs, more humor and character beats could have been injected. All of this eventually builds to a nonsensical final battle where there’s a magical swirling portal that has to be closed. You know the routine: there’s flashing lights, banter from the big baddie, and nothing at stake. At this point, you will be wondering more if there’s a mid-credits stinger than if the gang is going to live to tell the tale.

SUICIDE SQUAD is never as weird as it thinks it is. It should feel exciting or downright a little dangerous to enter into a world where you are forced to root for the bad guys; the type of men and women who would kill or do anything to get ahead in life. Yet, we are given repetitive shoot-outs, a derivative villain, and a lackluster final set-piece that undermines the thrill of seeing these great characters on-screen. In a way, you almost wish that Batman or Superman would show up just to rattle the cage a little (even if I’m still washing out the bad taste from this year’s previous film). It’s important to have two sides to a coin – to pit good vs evil. SUICIDE SQUAD attempts to present a new type of comic book movie: evil vs. more evil. However, this is just a thin facade created by a writer/director who doesn’t truly have a firm grasp of the characters and the property. Whether this is because of producers and studio meddling is yet to be confirmed. Yet, one thing is for certain, this time around, it doesn’t feel good being bad.

Overall rating: 2 out of 5

SUICIDE SQUAD is in theaters everywhere August 5th