A Welcomed Addition to the DC Universe

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2016)

I managed to find the time to watch "Suicide Squad" last Saturday, and it turns out to be a really good addition to the DC Universe that both DC Comics and Warner Bros. want to show to movie goers.
"Suicide Squad" is actually a sequel to "Man of Steel" and "Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice". With the apparent death of Superman, Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis) plots to make use of the services of Gotham City's worst villains, and random criminals, in captivity, in order to fight off potential threats. It did make some of us wonder how dumb she could be not to talk to Batman, as she did in having Will Smith's character, Deadshot, arrested, but it became clearer when the guys were warned that the bombs embedded in their necks would blow their heads off, i.e. if they try and do anything funny.
That's fine that villains were made to fight villains here, except that a mortal lady, June Moone (played by Cara Delevingne), had a misfortune of coming in contact with an evil spirit in a cave. Thus, like Steven Spielberg's "Freakazoid", saying a phrase causes her to transform into someone else, the "Enchantress"... not to be confused with Marvel's Enchantress. The Enchantress' an ancient witch turned outcast by ex-worshippers of the past. Still bitter at humanity, even centuries later, this two-face ("two-face" because she was originally helping Waller) and her brother, whose spirit possessed another unfortunate soul, secretly plotted till they were able to create an army to decimate Gotham. The brother even disturbed some movie goers by killing off random people, while fusing with a train he destroyed, in order to transform into a demonic overlord. With all that being said, little did Suicide Squad know was that they were assigned to fight "super villains".
At the climax, I liked that the transformed Enchantress gave the members of Suicide Squad visions of those brighter futures that she claimed she could grant, if they help her take over the world, and one of the members, "Diablo", who had a dark past of killing off his wife and kids with arson, dismissed the visions as "aren't real". A bit predictable, but liked how they were used here, the action scenes, or that she tried to stop Deadshot with a vision of his daughter begging him to put his guns away. I recommend you sit through the climax to see how things unfold.
I also like that the film was re-shot to be less moody, and funny, giving it its own flavor. With the "Batman Vs. Superman" backlashes, DC and Warner Bros. thought of taking a break from the dark tone. Even on Facebook, we all were worried that the studio didn't know what sort of DC Universe films they wanted to produce to their fans anymore. At the end, at least with the audience I sat with, we laughed every two to ten minutes in certain parts of the movie.
When there were serious scenes, like Deadshot losing his daughter, or figuring out why Waller was using them, or even Katana... and WarCraft fans can relate to her and her sword, it did leave a lot of us thinking, since we've grown to liking the characters.
Of course, the movie isn't too perfect. The worst part of it has to be Jared Leto's Joker. He's a side character that goes around... with men in costumes... shooting people, hangs around with Harley Quinn, disappears (or apparently dies), then shows up tens of minutes later to repeat the process. This happened two to three times, and he barely stayed long when compared to the movie's length. Thus, while the movie concentrates on the actual members of Suicide Squad, and the villains, it seems that DC Comics and Warner Bros. were warming up the Joker for a future movie, since this movie ended with him breaking Harley out of prison. Overall, it made the flashbacks of the Joker and Harley needless in "Suicide Squad"... well maybe except in explaining Harley's origin.
Overall, after months of wondering what sort of movie we'd be getting in August, "Suicide Squad" is a welcomed addition to the DC Universe. After giving credits to the main actors, and actresses, the movie shows an extra scene of Waller talking to Bruce Wayne, apparently knowing that he and Batman are the same person. They were apparently talking about the Joker's prison break, with Wayne advising her to shut down the Suicide Squad, while he prepares his own team to fight crimes. It was the assurance of a Justice League movie we were glad to sit through before the credits rolled, ending the movie perfectly. This is the other DC Universe movie of 2016 I actually recommend watching.