So, Suicide Squad; the premise is fairly simple
Viola Davis plays Amanda Waller, a high-up government agent who decides to assemble a taskforce containing the worst of the worst; rogues, thieves, heartless assassins et al, against their will, in the wake of the events from Batman VS Superman, in case something dangerous and uncontrollable poses a threat to earth
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"]Photo: IMDb[/caption] The worst of the worst in this case include, Deadshot, (Will Smith) a lethal hit man who never misses; Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) the sexy, unhinged and deadly girlfriend of the Joker (Jared Leto); the flame-summoning ex-gang member El Diablo (Jay Hernandez); Australian jewel thief Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and the half-man, half-reptile Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), all of whom are under the command of a Navy SEAL and military man, Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] I don’t think there was any movie this summer that was as widely hyped as Suicide Squad
Photo: IMDb[/caption] Sounds like a fun and entertaining ride, right? Not exactly
See, the thing about Suicide Squad is that the idea behind it is actually way better than the finished product
It seems to me that both the studio and the filmmakers weren’t exactly sure of what they wanted in this movie
Through a number of reshoots, they ended up making an inconsistently toned and incoherent mess of a movie
This is rather disappointing because Suicide Squad starts off quite well
The first act, which introduces us to the characters, in this expositional flash-card sequence stays true to the fun tone this movie is initially trying to go with
But there’s actually an exact moment where you can see this movie starting to go off the rails
And once Suicide Squad goes into its second act, everything pretty much goes south
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"]Photo: IMDb[/caption] I think the movie can, at best, be described as choppy and badly directed
I don’t think the film has any real structure
The editing is so bad that it feels like a random collection of scenes
The scenes themselves have no real flow, feel very out of place and would probably make more sense if they were put on shuffle
Plus, for some reason the movie keeps hitting you with these on-the-nose music cues that serve no purpose other than being painfully annoying
The pacing is utterly egregious and the action sequences are incredibly weightless, boring and incoherent
So much so that even when you’re able to grasp what’s actually going on, you’d much rather take a bathroom break or check your messages
It is that dull
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] The pacing is utterly egregious and the action sequences are incredibly weightless, boring and incoherent
Photo: IMDb[/caption] And even though the movie wants us to believe that these are some genuinely bad and twisted people, it never actually goes ahead in establishing that, because apart from Deadshot and Harley Quinn, most of the characters are just poorly developed
Which is why, eventually when they come together as a team, there is a lack of believability, even though the actors all seem to be trying their best
Amidst the dullness of it all, you think “it can’t possibly get any worse” – and then, it does
In a generic finale featuring two of the worst comic book movie villains in recent memory, that calls back to last year’s Fantastic Four, The Avengers and basically every major superhero movie in recent memory, Suicide Squad sinks even deeper into a weightless, CGI spectacle territory until it’s finally over and you can breathe a sigh of relief
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Suicide Squad sinks even deeper into a weightless, CGI spectacle territory until it’s finally over and you can breathe a sigh of relief
Photo: IMDb[/caption] Now, it’s not all bad; there are a few things about Suicide Squad that do work, most notably, the performances, even though they are not nearly enough to save the movie
The pick of these performances would have to be Will Smith as Deadshot, who’s probably the only character with any real characterisation to him
And Will effectively portrays his character through that charm and charisma that he’s known for in his performances
I think Viola Davis is excellent as the government agent, Amanda Waller, and is actually more of a bada** than any of the other members of the Suicide Squad
Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn is good and she is true to the source material, even if she isn’t quite the show-stealer the trailers and pre-movie hype suggested she would be
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo: Youtube Screenshot[/caption] And then of course there’s Jared Leto as the Joker
I guess now it makes sense why Leto spearheaded so many shenanigans on set
If you had as much downtime as he did not being in this movie, you might have done the same as well
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photo: Pinterest[/caption] Yup, he’s barely in it, and it’s downright embarrassing how this movie embeds him because he doesn’t serve any real purpose to the story
For what little time Leto is in the movie, his portrayal of the Joker struck me as interesting, although not very original
He seems to be channelling a bit of Heath Ledger and a bit of James Franco (as Alien in Spring Breakers)
And though he seems more like a thug than the crown prince of crime, especially with the tattoos, purple Lamborghini’s and ‘grillz’ on his teeth; he has this craziness to him that the character is known for
If only he had some actual screen-time
At the end of the day though, Suicide Squad just feels like a product of bad story-telling, substandard editing and action sequences that carry no real heft
It is yet another unsatisfying entry to the DCEU, which is disappointing because with such a talented cast and a filmmaker of David Ayer’s pedigree who has been behind great films in the past such as Training Day, End of Watch and Fury – this movie should have been far better
| Date: | 16-Aug-2016 | Reference: | View Original Link |
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