Perfect Characters In A Untidy Plot

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2016)

It's been a while since I have written a review, and with the split between fans and critics for this recently released film, I feel I should throw my two cents in. My experience with Suicide Squad comes from the animated film 'Assault on Arkham' and reading the first few volumes of the New 52 series. When this film was first announced, I was of course excited to see this movie.
Unlike a few people I had few problems with the casting choices. Viola Davis I trusted would play a good Amanda Waller as I had previously seen her in the series 'How To Get Away With Murder' and she is effectively playing a character similar to Waller in that show. Margot Robbie's scene in 'Wolf Of Wall Street' where she teases Leo DiCaprio instantly sold me on the idea of her playing Harley Quinn and Jay Hernandez for me was ideal for Diablo having seen him performing as this unlike-able character that you grow to rout for when he's against worse people. This film ironically so was Hostel. My favourite character from the comic books is El Diablo, so I was determined to see his character done justice the most. My only gripe with casting was Will Smith as Deadshot. I knew from 'Pursuit of Happiness' he could do a good relationship with children, but Deadshot in the comics is, to put it nicely, a bit of a douche bag. I felt that Will Smith would make the character way to likable, and lack the ability to play this smooth, yet terrible person. Spoilers for a new 52 comic story Deadshot straight up kills another member of the squad for expressing their desire to kill Waller, because he wanted to be the one that kills her.
But enough about my original views on cast and my connection to the franchise. Its time to talk about what I thought of the film. To put it honestly, as a fan of the comics, I enjoyed it. However, as a film, this one in particular left a lot to be desired.
Getting my positives out the way first, the cast absolutely nailed their characters, and those that were barely in it, were interesting enough to want more of. Diablo,Waller, Quinn, and even Captain Boomerang were played fantastically, with each actor matching the personality's of their comic counterpart. Even Will Smith proved me wrong as Deadshot. Yes, there is a fair amount of Will Smith playing Will Smith, but he got Deadshot's bluntness, and passive aggressive nature down to a T. Some scenes in the trailers seemed to be Will Smith doing classic Will Smith lines, but in the context of these scenes these moments fit Deadshot's mannerisms perfectly. Kitana and Killer Croc were both side characters who were interesting enough, that I want to see more off them. That aside, the rest of the performances were everything from bland to shockingly bad. Cara Delevingne and Joel Kinnaman were absurdly bad in this, and alongside Smith, Robbie's and Davis performances, they stood out as the worst.
The soundtrack, was fantastic. However, it didn't always work. I would buy the soundtrack in a heartbeat, but the opening changes songs repeatedly with no real sound transitions in between, and it just feels like they are trying to capitalise on the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. The following will be my only comparison to the Marvel Universe. There is a difference between a good soundtrack, and one that works with the film. Guardians soundtrack worked, because each song had a vital part to play for the tone when it was used. I will never forget how they opened that film with a depressing death seen and then follows with a moody dramatic scene of Star Lord landing on this planet, with dramatic, serious music, and for a second you think this will just be a generic marvel movie. Then Star Lord presses play and 'Come and Get Your Love' starts. Instantly the tone shifts and you know this will not be just another generic movie. With Suicide Squad, they just seem to throw these big songs in there for the sake of it. Sometimes the music choices work, but with the others it just feels like they are throwing as many widely known songs as possible.
It doesn't help that the soundtrack is also marred with very choppy editing, clear scenes thrown in from re shoots to brighten the atmosphere, a plot that goes all over the place, and some jumps in character development that come out of nowhere. I could talk about the bland villain, who I will not be spoiling in this review, but its not like that other big universe has the best villains, so I give the bland villain story a pass.
Also, I haven't talked about Jared Leto's performance as the Joker. All in all, I was pleased with what I saw. This isn't Ledger's Joker or Nicholson's; this Joker is more of a crime boss/wild card. He's not in this much, and while lot's of reviews complain about that, I never expected to see him much. You needed him to help introduce Harley Quinn and while the film could have done more to embrace their seriously messed up relationship, I enjoyed their dynamic together, and Leto even gave me a stand out thing to remember which I will not spoil, but it involve's a flashback. Oh yeah, there are a LOT of flashbacks! and the opening while doing well to introduce the characters, may as well have been a ring announcer for MMA or Boxing, coming out and introducing each member, as that's what the start felt like for me.
The reason it gets such a OK score from me is despite its problems, this is a fun summer movie, that comic fans will enjoy, flaws and all. 3 1/2 stars