Review for Suicide Squad

Rating: 4/10 (16 November 2016)

Supervillains? The characters in the movie Suicide Squad don't really feel like true villains but rather plain criminals. That could be due to the plot of the movie that uses these villains to save the day like heroes. As a consequence they can't be too villainy otherwise the audience would not relate to them. In the movie, they just refer to themselves as "the bad guys" so I guess even they don't really see themselves as villains. The actual villain of the story is disappointing and weak.
Before the movie was released there was a lot of hype about the characters Harley Quinn and the Joker. For the most part Harley was oversexualized, but she did have some great moments, especially Will Smith's, Deadshot. The Joker and Harley I really didn't care about. Apparently, there were a lot of cut scenes of the Joker. Jared Leto gave us a different version of the Joker, which could be cool, but he was basically only used as Harley's boyfriend in this movie. Harley herself walks the line between really crazy and really caring.
No member of the Suicide Squad received as much attention and insight as Harley did, but Deadshot and Diablo have a good amount that shows the audience a different side to these "bad guys". Will Smith does a really good job playing Deadshot. He has good character motivation, as well as some good comedic moments. Which are there to lighten up a pretty depressing movie otherwise. The reveal of Diablo's true power at the end of the movie was very impressive and he turns out to be a more complicated character than I thought.
The rest of the Suicide Squad are not properly developed. Crazy Captain Boomerang, is nothing more than a petty thief with a boomerang and some knives as his weapons. Katana has an awesome sword, and we're told second hand about what her sword is and the death of her husband, but that is all we get. The character Slipknot is only brought into the gang to demonstrate that the kill-switch devices in everyone's neck will indeed kill them. That's it! Killer Croc looks really cool, but also doesn't really do anything and we get zero back story on him. The lack of character development is a problem when dealing with an ensemble cast.
The worst part of the movie is the villain who is *spoilers* Enchantress. At first, the spooky, girl for the Ring looking, version of Enchantress was really cool. Once she regains her heart and becomes this Mayan goddess version, the character becomes less creepy and intimidating. For some reason, Enchantress is constantly wiggling around as she is talking. It looks really silly and there is no reason for her to be dancing around as she talks. She needs to stand still and have a better-executed plan. Wanting to destroy the world to create a new one just because you can, is not a good enough reason for being the movie's antagonist.
Overall there were a lot of very cool moments in the movie. For instance, the Batman and Flash cameos. And even Viola Davis did a great job in the movie. The problem is that the movie is a series of scenes with no real build up and little character development. It could be in part because of the large cast but the villain is still a problem. There is some fun to be had, but ultimately it failed in being a cohesive story.