Some excellent performances mired in a meaningless story

Rating: 6/10 (10 August 2016)

Suicide Squad Movie Review
A 'movie' can mean many things to many people. Some people see a 'film', consisting of characters engaged in stories that describe a plot. Some people see a massive spectacle of shiny things and loud sounds. Some people just want to smile a little for two hours.
No one is 'right' or 'wrong'. You pay your money, and either you get something you enjoy, or you don't.
If you're looking for a 'film', this is not it. There is no plot. The stories are flimsy at best, and non existent for long stretches. Some characters appear to have some depth once in a while, but not much, and not for long. Plenty of others are even shallower.
If you're looking for a spectacle of shiny things and loud sounds, there's plenty of those, but Suicide isn't chocked full of them. There are bigger spectacles if that's what you want.
If you just want to smile for a couple hours, then you may well be in luck. Will Smith (as Deadshot) is a Movie Star (capital M, capital S). He oozes charm. He gives his full effort and can pull off gravitas when needed, and timing for when comic relief is needed. Margot Robbie (as Harly Quinn) is his on screen equal, providing a demented gravitas and delivering her lines and actions with perfection. Between the two of them, they form an unlikely couple that at no point ever feels likely, yet doesn't feel forced. The movie rests on their shoulders entirely, but they are up to the task. While Smith and Robbie form the twin pillars supporting this movie, Viola Davis (as Amanda Waller) and Jared Leto (as The Joker) both put in fantastic performances.
Davis plays the stock government agent who isn't afraid to bend the rules to get things done. It is an effortless performance, if anyone could run a shadow world government, it's Davis. The problem is the character simply has an arc that implodes. Davis's character feels worse than wasted, but rather deliberately turned into something useless.
Similarly Leto's Joker is amazing and entirely pointless. My own 'idea' of the Joker is the Mark Hamill version from the Batman cartoons of the 90s. He's psychotic, but ultimately a crime lord. He wants to be rich. Jack Nicholson's Joker touched on this, but didn't really capture it. Heath Ledger's Joker is, a master performance, but still diminishes the character itself. Leto has captured the same energy that Ledger has tapped into, while grounding the Joker into the world as the psychotic crime lord. The thing is, there is no room in the plot of Suicide Squad for a psychotic crime lord, so Leto makes the most of his screen time, but, the time is not time well spent.
There are other characters and actors in the movie. I don't remember who they are or what they do. Something about killing innocent people. The 'good' guys have a much higher body count than the 'bad' guys, although I'm starting to think that might be the go to move for DC comics movies.
There are a LOT of bad things that I can say about this movie, but honestly, I liked it. Smith, Robbie, Leto and Davis bring it, and their performances deserve to be appreciated. If everyone else was cut out, and we focused on just these four, we might have something truly special.
Instead, we just get something pretty good.
I'm willing to spend 2 hours watching something pretty good.