"We're bad guys, it's what we do."
*Spoilers...do not proceed if you have not seen the movie yet.
I would be lying if I said that I went into the theater to watch Suicide Squad without any preconceived feelings. I already had a horrible taste in my mouth with this new DC universe after watching Batman vs. Superman. Low to no expectations was what I went in with, but I was sincerely hoping that I would be pleasantly surprised. I wanted to walked out after the credits and say, "WOW! That was so much better than I thought it was going to be. They proved me wrong." Instead I walked out saying, "I liked it better than Batman vs. Superman, but it was as bad as I thought it was going to be."
The more that I thought about the movie, the more I realized that my dislike for it really steams from the lack of these DC movies to really tell their characters story in a catching way. There was not enough character development for me to feel invested in these villains and actually care about what happened to them. Their backstories where short cutaways as Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) pitches her idea about this Suicide Squad at a dinner in a restaurant. It was maybe 15 minutes long. This was only enough time for me to feel any sort of real connection with Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie).
Warner Bros. has really dropped the ball with this entire DC universe. They are trying so hard to do Marvel has done with Avengers, but they don't seem to recognize that Marvel started this whole universe development back in 2008. It has been almost 10 years of movies to get to where they are with the Avengers. Warner Bros. throws together Batman vs. Superman and we are all supposed to understand this world and really feel like we are invested in an understand the characters. I have to be honest, when Waller was talking about metahumans, my brain went more toward Marvel first before I remembered that those are not the same characters.
They are accelerating the storylines with "files". So many freaking files. Apparently that is how everyone gets information in the DC world. Batman learns about the further members of the Justice League because of a computer file and then gets more information on them through files bestowed to him by Waller. We also learn about each of the member of the Suicide Squad as the members of the military flip through their files. Files, files, files, files, and more files.
The best way to really do these beloved comic book characters justice would have been to take their time through a few different movies. They could have easily given these high profile villains their own movies. People would have went to see them. An entire movie highlighting Harley Quinn and the Joker would have made a killing at the box office. I would have definitely enjoyed a movie around Deadshot. It was clear that he was a lot deeper of a character than just a man who kills people for money. The way that Marvel developed the Avengers, Warner Bros. could have easily develop the Suicide Squad. That would have been a really refreshing take on the whole super hero world. We always focus in on the heroes, I would have really enjoyed seeing the other side of things.
They also didn't sell me on the fact that we really needed to go to this extreme with the suicide squad yet. There was all this talk about the metahumans, but we only really had 2 movies with Superman. I didn't think that was enough to convince me as a movie goer that we needed to grad for these deplorable villains and throw them back out into society.
There where so many times throughout the movie that I turned to my boyfriend with a questioning look and said to him, "I am a bit confused as to what is going on..." The conflict was just so bizarre. The machine thing that the Enchantress is creating and then these sudden boil faced creature things... I had no idea where they came from. It wasn't even clear to me right away that the Enchantress was attacking the entire army. You don't really GET that. They also defeated the this godlike creature and her magic machine pretty simply...a bomb destroyed it. That is it. Blah. Too easy.
The one positive thing was most of the acting and casting was on point. I thought that Will Smith was a wonderful choice to Deadshot. His relationship with Harley Quinn was heartwarming. It helped to show Deadshot as a strong father figure, and Harley as the broken girl in need of love. Margot Robbie did a good job as Harley Quinn. Her character intrigues me. Viola Davis annoyed me as Amanda Waller. She seemed to be the playing the same type of character that she plays in How to Get Away With Murder. There was only one person that did not sell their character to me. That would be Jared Leto and his Joker.
I am sure that I am going to be attacked for that comment, but he really did not to anything spectacular in this movie or with that character for anyone to convince me he did this character justice. The Joker didn't have much of a place in the story line except for his role in turning Harley into Harley. The marketing team made it seem like he was part of the Squad, but that wasn't the case at all. That let me down a bit. His Joker seemed to try and channel Heath Ledger's Joker at times. It just didn't work. He tried to do a more psychotic Joker. It didn't work at all. A good friend of mine, Steve, (whose opinion and knowledge about comic books and these universes I greatly respect) said that the relationship they portrayed here in the movie between the two is not anything like their actual relationship. He said that the Joker is not anywhere near devoted to Harley as she is to him. The movie made it seem like he cannot live without her. They hinted at the fact that he owns her with her doggie collar with his name on it, but unless people where really thinking about it, they may not pick up on that.
Overall, I would probably wait to see this when it comes out on DVD. David Ayer really dropped the ball on this one. That was a surprise to me considering I loved End of Watch and Harsh Times. He also had in hand in Training Day and Fast and Furious. How he helped to shape those movies, but put this out I still have not been able to wrap my head around. A huge let down and two strikes against DC on my count. Even if they make new "back story" movies with these characters, they did it wrong and it is just a money thing in my eyes. They needed to focus on establishing a long lasting film franchise instead of just throwing things out there to jump on the bandwagon and make the instant money. Comic book fans are always going to be there. There is no reason to rush their stories. Take the time. Get it right, and you will had gold.
