If you've been anywhere near a news source in the last few days you might have noticed the continual slamming of the new DC movie "Suicide Squad." Depending on the source you might have been told that characters in the movie were unrealistic or the plot was awful. But I'm here to tell you why that's wrong and hopefully encourage you to see this film.
The movie revolves around a squad of psychotic villains forced to assist the government fight against other meta-humans. Throughout the first half of the movie we get to see the badass Viola Davis show the men in the CIA what true fearlessness means. We are also introduced to our members of the squad and we get to learn the history of a few of our characters.
Many of the criticisms have been around this due to the fact that not everyone gets 20 minutes in the spotlight. But really stop and think logically about this. You can either give everyone equal opportunity to show off or you can focus on a few individuals that have interesting lives in order to make your audience form an emotional connection to the character. In the movie biz, this latter choice is something that will either help swim or sink and if you don't pull it out, it might mean failure for your movie. As much as I would have loved to see 20 minutes of Slipknot history, I also realize that this wouldn't be practical in the long run. In the equation of movies, plot should always pull ahead in the grand scheme of things.
Yet plot has been another huge bashing of this movie. I have heard two very strong arguments against the plot at the cutoff of the bar scene. On each side of the argument you have people saying they either hated the first half and then loved the second or vice versa. The plot of this movie is one that has happened in every superhero movie ever. I agree. But what did you expect? This group of ragtag wannabe heroes won't be something extraordinarily different from every other movie you've seen because this movie is the first time they get to be on screen.
But as first timers you also have people saying character portrayals were off. Or more specifically just one. The Joker. Let me make this perfectly clear before we go anywhere else. Heath Ledger is gone and is never coming back. By saying any Joker isn't him is cheating yourself of the pleasure of enjoying any Joker movie ever again. If anyone ever emulated his Joker too much he'd be a cheap knock off. This Joker was probably one of my favorites I've seen as he encompassed dark humor as in Ledger's performance but also had that goofy spark that Nicholson had back in the 1989 movie. The rugged aspect of the Joker really shows just how off kilter he is and Leto's timing was everything the joker is and should ever be. He's not going to be everyone's favorite, but he isn't as bad as every news outlet has portrayed him as.
Before you make a decision on this incredible movie, go see it for yourself. After my opinion (nor any other opinion on the block) can determine what you think of it. But if you've already set your heart on hating the film, just know you'll probably still feel that later on as well.
