Suicide Squad Movie Review - Here we go again....

The worst possible mindset for any studio to have, especially when trying to create a multi-movie continuity, is having a lack of confidence in its material. Even if the marketing becomes poorly received, and even if your movie doesn't become financially successful, your ultimate goal should be to make a movie that works on its own merits. This is what keeps the new viewers of the Marvel franchise who see familiar icons like Thor and Captain America coming back when the studio decides to roll out fresh icons like Ant-Man and Black Panther. I bring this up because the biggest problem with DC's recent line-up is that they're not sure if they're going to get another crack at bringing to life stories like The Dark Knight Returns or Doomsday, so they decide to cram said stories into Batman v Superman when the film would have worked out a lot better if it just focused on... you know, Batman v Superman. When the advertising for Suicide Squad was released, I had high hopes that this would be the opportunity to have a more focused (as well as fun) anti-hero fling that could prove that DC could make good superhero movies without Chris Nolan involved. Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be the case; while I did enjoy it loads better than BvS, Suicide Squad is yet another disappointment in the line-up, holding a lot of the same problems of cramming too much story into one choppy, unfocused mess of uninspired action and unimpressive visuals.

The primary story is straight-forward, as it should be. An ancient witch known as the Enchantress has taken over the body of a woman working for the government, but the government has been able to keep her under reps because they held onto her heart... Until one day when she steals the heart back and decides to set up an apocalyptic takeover.... of some sorts. So, with Superman now dead (I am not at all ashamed that I just spoiled BvS.), an agent named Amanda Waller decides to pull a bunch of supervillains out of their prison cells and send them on a mission to stop this entity. The line-up includes Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Killer Croc, Captain Boomerang, and El Diablo.

So, yeah, the plot is basically The Avengers, but with anti-heroes. Sounds like a lot of fun, right? Just a bunch of bad guys fighting in an epic battle to save the world.... If only it were that simple.

Let me start with the one thing that I liked about the movie: The character portrayals are phenomenal in this. BvS was poisoned by either misfires of portrayals or cardboard cutouts in the place of characters, but in this, the characters all have distinguishing identities that match what we would expect from their characters, and every scene where they're bouncing off of each other is where I felt the film stood strongest. The best scene in the movie involves them sitting at a bar and having drinks together. Can the whole next movie just be them playing poker? Pretty please?

Unfortunately, the movie also has to have a plot, and that's where the movie drags its feet, the exact same way BvS dragged its feet. No, there's no Justice League set-up, but we do get that same issue of too much story being crammed into one movie, primarily backstory. The first 5-10 minutes involve Waller dropping backstories on every one of the characters; Deadshot having a daughter he wants to provide for, Harley Quinn's romance with the Joker, El Diablo's family... In The Avengers, the backstories of all the characters were told briefly through subtleties and didn't distract from the rest of the plot. Here, every couple of minutes, Deadshot has to stop in his tracks to mope around about his daughter, and I'm just here like "COME ON, JUST SHOOT SOMEONE ALREADY!". And, I know what you're thinking; "The Avengers didn't have to do that because their backstory was already told in previous movies!" Well, just ask anyone who skipped the individual Marvel movies and went straight to The Avengers if they were lost anywhere throughout the movie. Plus, did Black Panther or Spider-Man get their own movies before being thrown into Civil War? This movie could have just been a gaggle of bad guys fighting monsters with their characterization coming through their actions and dialogue rather than through backstory, but trying to do a full profile on five bad guys in one movie is like trying to cram an entire season of a show into an hour-and-a-half movie... And look how well THAT turned out!

Aside from all that, the movie is mostly just a bore. The visuals and action are nothing to behold here. You'd think in a premise like this, the action would be wild and extravagant, but it's pretty standard to say the least. People fire guns, El Diablo fires his flames a few times, Harley swings her bat at a few baddies, and then I wake up from my doze-off. Honestly, with a premise such as this, I do think the movie would have benefited better with an R-rating, because honestly, the boredom behind this action is on par with the Mortal Kombat movie. The villain is nothing spectacular or memorable, just a generic goddess figure with no intimidation or clear motives.

On the whole, I did enjoy this movie loads better than BvS; it has easily the best character portrayals we've seen in these movies thus far, and in some moments, we do get shimmers of light coming from the movie we should have seen, but for some reason, didn't. The rest of the movie, though, is bogged down by unnecessary backstory, boring action, and a lame villain. None of this may seem like a big financial risk now, and people are most likely going to see Wonder Woman and the Justice League, but if DC keeps missing the mark with their movies now, chances are no one's going to see their portrayals of lesser known icons like Aquaman or Cyborg. If you intend to give yourself the option now, however, I say skip this one while you still have a chance.

My rating: