This past summer, Suicide Squad hit theaters and generated a lot of buzz. I personally don’t read comics and didn’t really have any idea of what it was about. After seeing the trailers I thought, okay this looks kind of ridiculous but I’m going to see it anyway.
I ended up going with my family and there were several problems that I found with the film. I’m not writing this article to offend anyone and if you enjoyed the movie I respect your opinion, but don’t read this if you’re going to feel offended.
Firstly, let’s start with character development. Basically, there is none. Besides with Harley Quinn and Deadshot and maybe Diablo. All of the other characters in the film just don’t get any backstory. We know nothing about them or their lives. For instance, Killer Croc does nothing the entire film. He’s supposed to be this cool alligator man but he doesn’t do anything worth while. My brother brought up the point that even when he has in the moment in the water he doesn’t dive in like a badass. He crawls in. What the hell is up with that? Also, who even is Boomerang? We don’t get any backstory on him. He also decides to leave the suicide squad like five times but then shows up in the next scene like he never left. Also, the Joker gets barely any screen time. He supposed to be an exciting element to the story in terms of his relationship with Harley Quinn but he just comes and goes within flashbacks.
The next big issue I have to talk about with this film is plot. Where is it? Basically it’s a bunch of characters thrown together with the inkling of backstory I talked about going out and walking around/shooting people. That’s all there is to it. There’s no real point for these characters to be doing what they’re doing. Also, how do they become so chummy? This might go back under character development but there’s not really any build up to how they become friendly with one another, which happens in the film. There should be a progression somewhere in there but there isn’t. All of the sudden, they’re just kind of chill and in understanding with each other.
The third point I want to talk about is editing. This is the one thing the movie could have easily done right but once again failed miserably. The editors should have used continuity editing but instead it was quite disjunctive. What’s bad about this is that I don’t think it was supposed to be this way. I don’t think that was the goal for the film and the visual they were aiming for. The cuts are in weird places and generally make no sense at all. They confuse me as an audience member about where I’m supposed to be in space and time, which is not good.
The next point I’ll discuss is the villain. My god, the witch is one of the most ridiculous villians I’ve seen in any movie. Not only is Cara Delevigne a bad actress, but her character is also very static. She barely does anything, besides possessing a doctor or whatever. The witch spends the entire film building the same stupid laser that blasts into the sky as every other movie villain. I don’t even know what the purpose of it was. I honestly don’t remember and wouldn’t be able to tell you. Also, the CGI is just abysmal for her character and this grand scheme she has of destroying the world or something.
The last thing I have to say, which is something my friend and I have made fun of quite a lot, is Will Smith’s line “What’re we, some kind of suicide squad?” Honestly, the title drop was the icing on top of the cake, thank you so much David Ayer. That doesn’t make me want to rip my hair out at all.
If you liked Suicide Squad then I don’t judge you. We all have our opinions, especially when it comes to movies. Personally though, I would never see it again. The best part for me actually was when it was over and I got hear the song Heathens by Twenty One Pilots. So there's one good aspect?
