It seems the world’s favorite drink is a cup of good old fashioned controversy. Everywhere we look we see it blossom and spread: from the U.S. Presidential Elections, to the Olympics, to the United Kingdom. So why should Hollywood be any different?
August 5th marked the release of the highly anticipated (and heavily marketed) Suicide Squad. The third movie in Warner Brothers’ answer to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe brought with it a lot of promise: An all-star cast of Oscar winning and Oscar nominated Actors (Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Viola Davis, etc.).
So did it live up to the hype? In a word, no.
Now let’s get one thing straight: Almost nothing ever lives up to the hype. Some movies can be very good but still be flawed, not living up to the fans’ expectations. However, Suicide Squad is quite tricky to rate.
As far as the fun times go, David Ayer’s film gets two thumbs up. Captain Boomerang (played by Jai Courtney) is hilarious as is the rest of the cast. Acting-wise they nail it too. Taking into account the look and feel of most of the characters, as well as the aforementioned qualities of the movie, "Suicide Squad" is nearly flawless.
But the reality is that those three things aren’t what matters most: A solid, interesting story. "Suicide Squad" aside- that has been the main problem for the DC Expanded Universe.
This was most evident in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice;" where the looks and scenes dazzled the audience, but the story fell flat. At times, when watching the released cinematic cut of the film, moviegoers were left confused. This resulted in low ratings and a split fan-base, thus, controversy.
"Suicide Squad’s" plot is significantly less complex, in fact, it’s stupidly simple. First, the squad is formed and they’re briefed on the situation, then they proceed to a checkpoint before a final boss battle. Very video game like in fact.
The villain of the film isn’t fleshed out much either, their motivations left relatively unknown. We don’t get the why, and perhaps that’s due to the short runtime of the film: 1 hour and 40 minutes.
When making these big blockbuster films, two hours is an average time that provides the audience with the backstory and character development necessary to bring out a well-done film with a juicy, intriguing plot.
In "Suicide Squad," the character backstories are there, but the plot falls flat. Not to say that it could do much with an additional 20 minutes, considering as barebones story as it possesses, but with at least a two hour runtime, it opens up the possibilities for much more than what we got.
Talking now about the Joker, we didn’t see much from him, as was expected. This is a "Suicide Squad" movie, not a "Joker" film. Where there is Harley there is Joker, so personally, this was expected from the start.
Jared Leto’s Joker again was very controversial. From the get-go, his look was brought under heavy criticism from the fan-base. The tattoos in particular drove the conversation. But it was Ayer’s vision for the clown prince of crime that was most disappointing.
In brief, this Joker wasn’t a prankster like what we got in the sixties, or an agent of chaos like Heath Ledger’s was. This was street thug meets the Godfather. Hanging out in strip clubs and having people kiss his ring, Leto’s Joker isn’t much more than that. It’s a take on the character unlike anything we’ve seen before, and frankly, I never want to see it again.
It’s a shame really, I was pulling for Leto and I still think he can come good and bring through an amazing Joker. It just needs to be the Joker, not a themed street thug.
Overall, the film didn’t tank with the plot, and disappointed with the most beloved villain of them all. It's constant reminder that the cast were “bad guys” was unnecessary, and would be better served with showing us a story where specifically bad guys were needed. Because with this plot, we could’ve sent in the Avengers and have gotten the same result.
If you want a fun movie to simply pass time, go see it. Just don’t expect anything more than that.
4.5/10
