I was genuinely looking forward to Suicide Squad. This was one of the rare films where I knew next to nothing about the plot or characters going in, and this excited me. What kind of ride would this film take me on? Would it be worth the price of admission?
Let's start with the bad: This film is poorly edited, plotted, scripted, and paced. The editing is very choppy at points, at others downright confusing. It's hard to get a sense of when exactly in the timeline this film takes place (Is it before or after Justice League Part One?). The stakes are never properly established, some of the squad have poor characterization, and some of the more brutal moments are blurry or shot in such a way to make them hard to make out. There are also times that characters act in ways that don't make complete sense in order to further the plot or action.
I've got to address the issue of Jared Leto's Joker. He isn't in the film much, and I could never really get a pulse on his character. He doesn't really do a lot in the present day, though I did dig his flashback scenes. We spend so little time with him that he barely gets to make an impression. Apparently most of his scenes were cut, so maybe he'll fare better in the unrated version.
While Suicide Squad is certainly not all that well made of a film, I still found it to be very fun. The film is stylish as hell, and it's soundtrack kicks all kinds of ass. I genuinely liked the squad members and the dynamics amongst them (Though the beef between Deadshot and Rick Flagg started to grate on my nerves after a while). Each member gets their own little backstory and some flashback scenes (which is appreciated, though some characters could have been fleshed out a little more, like Enchantress). I also liked that this is a film where we focus on the bad guys, and are encouraged to root for them.
It was nice to see Jai Courtney not phoning it in for a change. I thought he was actually fun, and I really enjoyed his performance.Will Smith was good as Deadshot, while this isn't one of his best roles I will say he's more enjoyable here than in other recent films. He brings his old charisma and humor back for the character, but they don't completely fit at times. Viola Davis as Amanda Waller was great, she is threatening and morally questionable (A good thing that keeps true to the character we know, though to see my favorite versions of Deadshot and Amanda Waller watch season two of Arrow). I was also pretty impressed by Karen Fukuhara who plays Katana. It's a small role, but Fukuhara manages to make it bad-ass and memorable.
I saw Suicide Squad in 2D, and as far as I could tell the film would likely be a complete mess in 3D. It's a dark film (as in brightness level), and the action scenes are shot in such a way that I could see 3D only making them that much harder to make out. I'd say just stick with 2D and save some cash.
Admittedly, Suicide Squad isn't a huge success. It definitely has its fair share of faults and shortcomings, but I found myself thoroughly enjoying the chaos and mayhem of the film and walked out pretty happy with what I got (I'd say the first half was stronger than the second half). Suicide Squad is a film that is trying to do something different, and while it's not a complete success I would still say it's definitely worth checking out. I know I would gladly welcome a sequel.
3 STARS
