Suicide Squad

Dir: David Ayer

2016

**

There is a hell of a lot wrong with Suicide Squad. Frustrated DC fans who were underwhelmed with 2013's Man of Steal and more than a little disappointed with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice had hoped that David Ayer's Suicide Squad would be the alternative addition to the franchise that would make amends for past faults and shake things up a bit, and while there is a lot to enjoy about it, it does loose steam quite quickly when formula kicks in. It starts really well, we get to know a little about the origins of Task Force X, why they exist, who is behind them and the backgrounds of each member. For me, this is the best part of the movie and should have been milked for all it was worth. The action could have waited, the anticipation would have made it all the more enjoyable. The characters deserved far more analysis than they got, Will Smith and Margot Robbie pretty much had all the development to themselves - Will Smith being the big name star and Robbie's Harley Quinn being the character that really sold the idea in the first place. I didn't like Deadshots origin story at all, the character has gone through several incarnations over the years and I believe they settled on the least interesting. Deadshot originally had a death-wish, he was rather outrageous too, wearing a top hat and tails and he even once tried to kill the Pope. Here, he kills for money that he doesn't need and has a daughter. He and Batman are huge enemies, this never seems the case in Suicide Squad. Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is fun, colourful and full of life but not really the same as she is in the comics. I'm a regular at comic conventions and can see this version of her being the next big cosplay costume but I'm not sure the character was ever really there for simple titillation, she was fun but also a bit of mystery and in later comics her story became rather dark and her journey of recovery is one of the greatest things to come out of the comics in years. In Suicide Squad she is tough and intelligent but let's be honest, she is there to gawp at, and I had really hoped for more for the character although I can't fault Robbie's take on her. Many of the characters have been understandably tweaked for the film, El Diablo is far more interesting in this version than he was in the comics, Joel Kinnaman does a great job with Suicide Squad original Rick Flag and Viola Davis is perfect as Amanda Waller. Jai Courtney is good as Digger Harkness (AKA Captain Boomerang) but the character is given very little development which is ridiculous, seeing as he is one of the original members and one of the most popular among fans. Similarly, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's Killer Croc had very little of his background explored, who is he, what has he done and why the hell does he look like a crocodile? I was disappointed that they didn't go with SS regular King Shark but given his size and the fact he has a giant shark head I can understand why they didn't. Katana and Slipknot are both criminally underused and unexplored. The Enchantress is probably the most interesting and well adapted character of the film and was a pleasant surprise given her relative absence from the trailers. Her scenes were largely overlooked by all of Harley Quinn's but in my opinion she is the film's strongest element. Those who aren't as familiar with the origins of Task Force X will know of the Joker, the big villain of Gotham and rather and early appearance in the scheme of things. Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and Mark Hamill have all done the Joker justice over the years, each representation different to the other but all classic. Jared Leto had to deliver and he did sort of. Much has been written of him staying in character throughout filming, staying away from the rest of the cast and going full on method. I'm not sure why he bothered though, as he's in very few scenes and unimpressive in all of them. There is no sense of doom, he doesn't have the madness the humor or the unpredictability. I like the way he was portrayed as a 1930's mobster but this portrayal is very much style over substance. That's where DC are going wrong. It looks good, all of it but there is no heart and there is no brain. Suicide Squad looks great and had a very interesting beginning but it soon descended into a predictable and rather tiresome action film. It should have been the alternative superhero film but it wasn't. It looks as if it was assumed that by Will Smith repeating 'We're the bad guys' over and over throughout the film, the audience would be convinced that they were and that would be enough. I'm not a huge fan of David Ayer and his obsession with Mexican drug gangs once more leaked into the film and it just didn't look right. I don't like the way they have tried to make the fantasy elements of the comics look realistic, they have dampened the magic somewhat. 

I can see why it was decided to unleash the super-villains this early in the franchise, what with Superman's absence from the universe in this current time and all but I can't help but think it would have been fun to have established the characters and then brought them together at a later date. Instead of concentrating on adapting their own universe, DC is desperately trying to compete with Marvel and it just isn't working. The possibilities are endless and yet each film so far has been predictable, formulaic, too damn dark and uninteresting. The casting has also been more than a little questionable. I wanted to like Suicide Squad so much, I really want to give it three stars but I just can't. The crux of the matter is that in the comics the villains have always been more interesting than the heroes. This was something Marvel haven't done, they missed their opportunity when Sinister Six got cancelled. However, Deadpool raised the bar somewhat in early 2016 and showed the world how to make an anti-superhero movie. Suicide Squad should have showed the darker side of DC, instead it gave us unfinished villains full of redemption, regret and little purpose. Maybe it is because of high expectations, maybe it's because I grew up loving these comics but for all the good in the film, and there is a lot of good in this film, there is a lot of bad, lazy and boring. So far the DC films have been full of 'teasers' but very little story. It is hard to get excited about these hints of what is to come when what has been and gone has so far been fairly uninspiring.