Suicide Squad (2016)

Genre

Action | Comedy | Sci-Fi

Director

David Ayer

Country

USA

Cast

Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Karen Fukuhara, Adam Beach, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, Ben Affleck, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa

Storyline

A secret government agency led by the ruthless Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) recruits some of the most dangerous villains on the planet to execute dangerous black ops missions and save the world.

Opinion

"Suicide Squad" has been the film that every fan of the genre has been waiting for. I was so excited about it, I still can't cope with the idea of a movie on my favourite characters. Yes, villains are my favourite. What intrigued me the most about the film was Jared Leto's Joker and Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, so if you have seen the film, or read other reviews you probably know that I left the cinema half disappointed.

In a few words, "Suicide Squad" is a real mess - just like the most recent entries in the DC Comics cinematic universe. It is fun at times, but for most of its running time - more than 2 hours - it's just a bit tedious and unexciting "superhero" flick.

The plot is kind of a mess and quite illogical at times, and basically nothing is ever explained which is not fine. The most annoying thing though is that, just like the previous films, this one also started quite good, and it was very promising. Sure the plot has never been brilliant, but at least the villains were villains. That's right, after a while they all turn into good guys.

The biggest disappointment though is character related. First of all the character introduction feels misplaced, like they wanted the audience to know the characters but they had no idea how to introduce them, and after a 30-minute long intro you don't even care about the characters. That being said, let's talk about the Joker. He was basically all over the place in the trailer, but in the actual film he is barely in it and he has absolutely no purpose other than being Harley Quinn background story. If you remove him, you have the same film but way less incomes. The Joker isn't the only wasted characer here, the same applies for Katana and Boomerang.

But let's move onto the jokes. Something they are funny - I had a couple good laughs - but most of the time they are not. Often they are misplaced and feel very forced, and most of the time are those kind of jokes you have to explain but still don't find funny.

The soundtrack was great - I loved those songs so much I ended up buying the album -, but there is a terrible overuse of music. I loved the fact that every character has his/her own theme, but the music is all over the place. It is too loud, too distracting, and it accompanies everything. Literally. From action scenes to dialogue. Also most of the time the song choices don't make any sense.

The quite good action scenes are occasionally destroyed by attempts at character development and delivery of unfunny jokes.

And finally the acting. I'm probably the only one, but I didn't like Will Smith's Deadshot. He gives a performance that is something between "The Pursuit of Happyness" and "Men In Black", the first as his Deadshot is basically a good family guy, the second because of the jokes he attempts to deliver through the film. Viola Davis isn't menacing as she should have been since she is playing the ruthless Amanda Waller. But the worst has yet to come. The name is Cara Delevingne. Maybe she should have stayed in the fashion universe, because acting isn't her thing. She looks like a drunk girl at a party which is not how the bad guy - bad girl in this case - should look like. She is (supposed to be) the most villain of them since she plays the Enchantress, but the fact that I'm mentioning her character only now should give you an idea of how much the villain to this film suck.

And now the best part. Seriously, I'm not being sarcastic. Margot Robbie. She is beyond fantastic as Harley Quinn, absolutely mesmerizing, and she is so unpredictable on screen, it's a real delight watching her. And she has clearly done a lot of work with the character, especially on the psychological aspect. Then there is Jared Leto. Even though he is barely in the film, his performance as the Joker is truly mesmerising. He is not Heath Ledger, but he does a good job.

Ultimately the film isn't anything special, but Harley Quinn and that little bit of the Joker are worth the money.