I have personally been excited to see ‘Suicide Squad‘ for some time, with my own great interest in all films superhero – or in this case supervillan – I grabbed the first opportunity to see this promising spin on a traditional superhero film.
Generally I found the film rather disappointing after being surrounded by the hype and anticipation of what was expected to be a villainous success. The concept initially sounded pleasing, having the biggest and baddest of the DC villains join forces to create what could be an evil force to be reckoned with, did excite me as a fan of this genre. David Ayer, however, failed to live up to expectations and as I sat in the cinema I couldn’t help but feel unsatisfied. To put it plainly and simply, Suicide Squad was a mess. Which after ‘Batman Vs Superman‘ seems to be a running theme in the recent DC films.
First of all, the plot is unstructured and messy, making it illogical and very hard to follow at some points. The climax itself was rushed, possibly a result of far too much time being wasted watching Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) talk for an unnecessarily long amount of time about the only part of the plot that was actually clear. However, the film itself actually started out well and I did enjoy the rarity of a genuinely humorous moment when it occurred.
The biggest downfall, however, lies with the characters unfortunately. What most excited me about this film was the promising cast – especially regarding Jared Leto playing the Joker and Margot Robbie being casted for Harley Quinn. The actress for Harley, Margot Robbie, definitely delivered and without exaggerating, her performance, along with the appearance of the “new” Joker, may have carried the film alone. As well as undoubtably pulling off Harley’s suggestive and whacky exterior, Margot executed the psychotic and unpredictable personality very well. It was clear she had put a lot of time into her character and it most definitely payed off. Moreover, in the trailer the Joker was implied to be an important character when in fact featured very little in the film and was merely used to add some development to Harley Quinn regarding her back story. But I must say I did thoroughly enjoy the odd appearance of Jared’s Kingpin-like twist on the Joker and wish I’d seen more of him. However, if you remove this character, you have practically the same film, this can be said for a few of the characters such as Boomerang who had very little purpose in the plot and was frankly a waste of time. Another element of the characters that infuriated me was that for a film full of infamous villains, they all seemed rather tame and ultimately did end up as the good guys. I even thought Harley Quinn lacked a little crazy after her initial introduction and whilst Deadshot (Will Smith) had the potential to be a strong character he was the easiest to be swayed from team villain. However, I’ve saved the worst til last. Cara Delevingne. She most certainly should have stuck to her day job in the fashion world because her acting is abysmal. After her shocking performance in ‘Paper Towns‘ I am actually surprised Ayer hired her. She lacked serious passion in her performance and in everything she did she either looked lost or forced. Her character ‘The Enchantress’ was supposed to be the most evil of all the villains in the film but even in a role that only spoke 20% English she completely failed to deliver. I am genuinely gutted that with such a strong villain waiting in the wings (The Joker) we instead had to endure that completely dull alternative.
On a lighter note – the actual soundtrack alone was faultless. I loved the songs chosen and loved the idea of each villain being accompanied by their own theme. Even so, it quickly became apparent that music was over used and seemed to be thrown into any scene whether it be action or dialogue. This maybe to distract the audience from the lack of plot and to be frank I don’t blame them. Nevertheless, the soundtrack itself was definitely a highlight of the film for me.
Overall, the film wasn’t mesmerising and did not live up to expectations but I’d consider going as far to say that Harley Quinn and the Joker alone could be worth the money.
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