I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more disappointing film than “Suicide Squad.”
The trailer advertised a fake plotline for the film, and maybe that’s because they honestly understood the movie had no real story to show whatsoever. There was no point to this film. There were no goals for the enslaved villain group to accomplish, and the film was completely broken due to how rushed the production became because of constant reshoots. The acting was sub-par, and the poor editing was distracting enough to take me out of multiple scenes.
I sort of expected this film to be a rushed pile of garbage, but I didn’t want it to be so. Recent DC Comics’ movies have been rushed projects, where the producers, writers, and directors try and cram as much information into one film as possible. I believe they’re trying to catch up to Marvel’s foothold on the superhero movie market, but it’s obviously not working due to their sloppy craftsmanship.
In “Batman vs Superman,” DC’s last movie, they tried to add so much confusing and convoluted nonsense to try introducing the Justice League as fast as they could. Instead of it being a movie about Batman beating the snot out of Superman, they decided to introduce four unimportant characters who are obviously going to have their own separate movies over the next couple of years.
“Suicide Squad” introduced five characters, who have interesting backstories in the comics, in a way that disenfranchises each of their comic book roots. They only introduced two characters, Deadshot and Harley Quinn, in a sub-par fashion, while the other three were just shoved under the rug and had no depth to their personalities.
Will Smith was cast as Deadshot, which was a bad idea in general. He, like Ben Affleck, can only act as one person, who is in essence the person Smith wishes he could be in real life. In movies where he tries to skew away from that, such as “After Earth,” his acting is an abomination. It comes off as fake. They could have probably found a better actor for the same salary.
Harley Quinn would have been okay, if it wasn’t for the obnoxious and soul-sucking one liners she had at the end of every scene. She was hot, but her scripting felt like it was for the movie that was supposed to be in theaters originally, not the reshoots. Her flashbacks with the Joker throughout the film couldn’t feel more out of place, and should have been thrown out with the previous version of this movie.
The Joker was only on screen for 12 minutes, and that’s probably because Jared Leto had a hysterically awful performance of Joker’s character. Leto was eager to show us how clueless he was to how the Joker should act. He thought that laughing hysterically at completely random times throughout the film was acceptable, and honestly it’s as if he decided to take a dump on Heath Ledgers grave. Disgusting performance.
The film completely left out backstory to some of the most interesting and deep characters that DC has to offer. Diablo, a former gangbanger who has the power to shoot fire out of his body, was down casted completely. He killed his wife and two kids in a fit of rage, and was going through bouts of sorrow, angst, and utter remorse while in prison. Instead of allowing him to grow on us like they tried to do with Quinn and Deadshot, they decided he would only be needed for a two-minute sequence in the final battle, and then kill him off for no reason whatsoever. He shows his true power, and if it was done right by the director, it could have been terrifyingly beautiful. It’s embarrassing how bad they underutilized Diablo.
They made Killer Croc a stereotypical black guy in the final 10 minutes of the film, which left a bad taste in my mouth. Boomerang had quirks that were never explained, such as his pink unicorn stuffed animal he carried around with him everywhere. Katana, who was there to protect the military from the Suicide Squad in case of an uprising, could have been good if they gave her more screen time to develop her love for her husband, who died before the film, and has his soul trapped in her sword. I bet YouTubers could have made a better Suicide Squad with the money Warner Bros shilled out to this production.
DC completely messed up this film, and this isn’t going to be the last time they rush a production. They’re currently making movies for Wonder Woman, the Flash and the biggest potential flop of a superhero movie ever, Aquaman. They will not stop making these films; each one will be worse than the previous, and they will waste millions of dollars making more trash. DC’s art is dead.
