DCEU Review Series
Suicide Squad
2016
Director: David Ayer
There’s an extended version of this mess and that’s what we watched. The concept is simple, it’s based off a comic where the government has taken a group of supervillains and puts them to work under duress to do covert assignments. The comic is very popular. The episode which features them in the DC Animated Universe is a perfect piece of television. The film is a storyline disaster. They toss a bunch of pop music in the film with no true correlation to the narrative. They introduce the characters three different times and none of it progresses the plot.
Viola Davis received praise for her performance in the DCEU as Amanda Waller but her character is total crap. Good acting can’t fix terrible writing. Her voiceovers are boring. Her character’s motivations are ridiculous. In the comics Amanda Waller is a personality who’s changed based on the writer’s whim. The film makes her a cold, calculating, powerful woman. None of her personality traits are likeable. Villains don’t have to be likeable or have redeeming qualities, trying to make unlikeable characters likeable can be a writing error. But she’s the “hero” calling the shots in this film and all she does is spout out exposition with an attitude, slows down the plot, puts everyone to sleep. Also, her monotone voice, it seems like she’s trying to get fired but still get her paycheck.
The Batman cameos are pointless to the plot and only exists to tie the film to the bigger DCEU world. The first 25 minutes can be cut and the film would work just fine with no issue. The entire introduction via Amanda Waller exposition is pointless. Each character doesn’t need her description. A film’s plot progression should establish characters. The next 25 minutes could be cut in half and the film would lose nothing.
What’s the point of The Joker via Jared Leto in this film? He runs around being weird and annoying and doesn’t progress the plot. Just about every character and scene doesn’t progress the plot. It’s a film of stagnation with poorly written characters. Joker is the worst. He could be completely cut from the film and it would make no difference to the story. He was also trying very hard to be the anti-Health Ledger. Ledger won an Oscar for his performance and Leto had big shoes to fill. Yes, it’s a different universe but taking over a character associated with the last notable performance of a beloved actor’s career are big shoes to fill. The DCEU and Leto completely dropped the ball.
The good parts of this film are few and far between but we have Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. She shines even without good writing and poor character development. Will Smith as Deadshot is also enjoyable. Smith has a special staff who follows him around and rewrites all his characters to fit his action film persona. So his character and dialogue was likely ghost written to fit the Will Smith archetype.
The basic plot is the Suicide Squad is assembled to rescue Amanda Waller, who kills her entire staff when, the Suicide Squad arrives to rescue her, because she’s a douchebag. Rick Flagg’s girlfriend has bugged out and has brought an entire city to a standstill. Suicide Squad puts all their villainous ways behind them and learn to work together to save the day. This film might have worked if it was deeper into the DCEU run and we met these villains in other films. Instead they were crammed into this disaster, we got an hour of character introduction, and plot 10-year-old children come up with while playing with their action figures.
The film wraps up with Bruce Wayne cutting a deal with Amanda Waller, offering her protection in exchange for information. Batman wouldn’t cut a deal with someone as evil as her. She kills way too many innocent people for him to associate with a person like that. But DC really wanted to copy the ending of The Incredible Hulk where Tony Stark pops in at the end promoting the Avengers movie. That’s the only reason he is there, even though it’s against his character type. But then again, this Batman killed a few people in Batman vs Superman so why does he care if Amanda Waller kills random people as long as it’s allowed by the government.
It’s actually a better film than Batman vs Superman but the bar was set so low it doesn’t mean this follow-up is good. Another piece of crap from the DCEU factory. There are 12 more films after this. It should be considered self-mutilation to keep watching at this point. Please tune in next time as we review Wonder Woman.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com