For DC, a lot is riding on the success of Suicide Squad. A super villain movie marketed as being on a similar level to Marvel's Avengers Assemble, but with all the fun of Guardians of the Galaxy. And after the colossal disappointment earlier this year with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it seems that they are in dire need of a good film. Whilst "good" is probably not the best adjective to use to describe Suicide Squad, it certainly is fun, enjoyable and different from anything that has been brought to us before. This is DC's way of subverting the superhero genre, much like Marvel did with the extremely popular Deadpool, and at the very least that's something the fans will appreciate.
The villains are brought together by government official Amanda Waller (played ruthlessly by Viola Davis) who uses them to form a covert black ops team. She then sends them to eliminate a powerful threat, aided by Colonel Rick Flag. This villainous dream team includes expert sniper Deadshot (Will Smith), fire-flinging former gangster El Diablo, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang. There are so many cool characters here, and it's really them and the cast performances that make the film. Margot Robbie's Harley is one of the most promising characters, bringing equal amounts of allure and insanity to the mix. And Will Smith is fantastic as Deadshot. He is easily the most relatable character, and therefore he is pivotal to making it feel real. Amongst all of the CGI monsters and a magical antagonist his character and the calm, grounded way he plays him brings a bit of normality.
However the most highly anticipated character, Jared Leto's incarnation of The Joker, falls by the wayside. He receives a surprisingly small amount of screen time and this makes it hard for us to get used to his version of the character. Playing such an iconic villain is difficult anyway, especially when Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger have made their own performances so memorable that comparisons are inevitable. Unlike Ledger's manic and unpredictable Joker, Leto's is more of a glitzy gangster boss. He doesn't do a bad job, it's just not amazingly good either. In one particularly memorable scene he is laying on the floor, surrounded by knives, with "HAHAHA"s painted all over the walls. As though enough Joker-esque iconography could somehow make Leto into the ideal Joker. Which, of course, doesn't work out. Leto has since said that numerous Joker scenes were cut from the film, so perhaps it's not so much that his performance is bad but that we don't see nearly enough of the character and that we can't get a feel for him as a result. The good thing about his inclusion in this film is that for the first time on the big screen we see the Joker and Harley's relationship being explored. Even if it's only through a series of flashbacks. Flashbacks are quite common during the course of the film, mostly to provide backstory for the characters. If there's one thing this film definitely excels in it's character development. Most of the main villains are given context, especially Deadshot and Harley Quinn. The trouble with this though is that the exposition is so uneven that some characters have a lot of development and others get barely a mention. And although a bit of backstory is important, the numerous flashbacks and emphasis on exposition means that the first act of the film feels incredibly long and everything takes a hell of a long time to get going. But despite this it's quite enjoyable once it does. The aesthetic and tone is suitably dark, thanks to director David Ayer (who most recently directed Fury, another film with an ensemble cast). Suicide Squad strikes a balance between fun and villainous badassery, and this works extremely well for the most part, even though some of the jokes don't land and a lot of the funny moments that are in the trailer aren't actually in the finished product. But the action sequences are intense and gripping and the characters are exciting and likeable.
Unfortunately this can't be said of the films villainess. Enchantress, played by model turned actress Cara Delevingne, is visually a fantastic antagonist. An ancient sorceress who floats around like a phantom, she is constantly wreathed in darkness and oozes evil. But she just lacks any substance. What she really boils down to is pointless monologues and a vague 'world domination/destruction' motive that has no apparent reasoning behind it. It's easy to pick out all of the flaws in Suicide Squad, but at the end of the day the point of this film is to entertain, and it certainly does that. Really quite well.
This is a fun, action-packed super villain film. Different from anything else in the comic book movie genre. If the action doesn't have you hooked, the characters will.
