Suicide Squad Delivers Interesting Characters and Great Performances, it Could Have Been Great but Ends up Being Just Pretty Good

Rating: 8/10 (5 August 2016)

I was beyond excited for this movie. From David Ayer directing (I loved End of Watch and Fury) to the cast (Margot Robbie, Will Smith and Jared Leto) and then those trailers were just fantastic. Everything I saw ahead of time said that this movie was going to be awesome and it would be the one to put the DC universe on track (I thought Batman V Superman was okay). Then the bad reviews came out and my hopes and expectations were completely dashed. So I went in with low expectations, ready to be ridiculed for having so much faith in the Skwad but I left the theatre happy. This is a flawed movie to be sure but there's some great stuff in it, I admit it's not the home-run that DC and WB needed though.
One of the bigger things that critics have complained about is how simple and scattershot the plot is. Honestly, they're not wrong. There isn't a whole lot to this story as a whole, it's more about characters (not an excuse but the characters are more than good enough to carry it). The arc of the plot didn't bother me, a good portion of the movie is setting up the squad so it's not like defeating the villain was the sole goal of Suicide Squad. The editing can be pretty messy, the beginning of the movie has some of the best stuff but it doesn't flow well. I don't want to go into the behind the scenes news but it makes sense considering the news behind the editing process. I actually thought the movie moved at a good pace and it wasn't as jarring as the critics have said.
When it comes to the characters, there's so many in this movie. The upside is that a lot of them are interesting but the downside is that there isn't enough screen time for everyone. The 2 main characters are Harley and Deadshot and I was impressed how the movie developed them. You get behind Harley's difficulties being controlled by the Joker, she kills people and does his bidding but she's been completely broken because of her psychological issues. Deadshot's weakness for his daughter would be corny in any other movie but the movie sells you on the fact that although he's a hit-man, he just wants an amount of normalcy with his daughter and he loves her. Another character who gets some good moments is Diablo, his story is pretty tragic and his story towards redemption throughout the movie was almost touching. To address the elephant in the room, I think the Joker was necessary because you couldn't have done Harley's origin without him (which was very well done) but he has little impact on the actual plot. I understand why they brought him in longer. How do you have one of the biggest comic villains ever in just a cameo? It wouldn't do justice to the character so I get the reasoning behind it.
The biggest reason to go see this movie is that for a comic book movie there really are some awesome performances. Will Smith completely returned to form as Deadshot. Deadshot's persona wasn't too far from some other Will Smith roles but Smith looked like he was having a great time and he nailed a complex character. Will benefited from not being the moral centre of the movie and I think that playing a more morally gray character was a good thing to do and he was great. Margot Robbie was awesome as Harley Quinn. I was so impressed that she was willing to get down into the dirtier aspects of her character, she throws a lot of physicality into it even. She completely owns her scenes and if anything I'll be disappointed if this movie isn't a success because it should be her ticket to bigger things. I expected Deadshot and Harley to be good, the biggest surprise might have been Jay Hernandez as Diablo. There was a lot of angst to his performance and he stood out in a crowded group.
Some of the other actors were great but I wanted to see even more of them. This is easily the best job I've seen from Jai Courtney, he hit it out of the park but he's mainly a background character. Viola Davis was also solid as Amanda Waller. Joel Kinnaman was fine as Rick Flagg. Cara Delevingne has taken a lot of crap for her dual portrayal of June Moon/Enchantress. She's not bad, she's not the strongest villain but she did a serviceable job. Last but certainly not least is Jared Leto as the Joker. I didn't have a problem with them doing a new version of the Joker but I didn't like Leto as much as I thought I would. He's creepy and unsettling but I didn't find him as threatening or scary as other versions. I understand a lot of his scenes were cut out though so maybe we just didn't get to see that side of his character.
Every time I was just about to fall in love with this movie, something would snap me out of it. There would be an awkward cut, a bad piece of dialogue or the CGI wouldn't be as believable as it should (to be fair the action and the CGI are both pretty good throughout). I wanted this movie to be that game changer for DC but it fell short of that. It's not nearly as bad as critics are saying, it's a mixed bag but there are really good portrayals, good action and while it's not completely different, there's enough new stuff here to make it standout from the comic book crowd. I would be closer to a 7.5/10 but to counter the widespread hate around Suicide Squad I'll round up and give it an 8/10.