The highly anticipated summer blockbuster, "Suicide Squad" is projected to reach or even exceed $100 million during its opening weekend. But these projections don't seem to be an indicator of the movie's success. David Ayer's film about a misfit team of super villains undergoing a top secret government operation has been faced with harsh reviews by numerous critics, and a rating of 26% on Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic, Michael Phillips referred to the movie as "garish, overstaffed, and overstuffed" in the Chicago Tribune and Rolling Stone's David Fear claimed it was "soul-killing". Not exactly the response DC comics was looking for, especially following the shortcomings of their recent superhero film, "Batman vs Superman".
It wasn't the response fans were expecting either, in fact, Rotten Tomatoes noticeably low rating of the film has generated controversy among die-hard DC fans and has resulted in a petition to shut the site down. The petition has since been taken down by its creator Abdullah Coldwater who realized it was causing more harm than good amongst fellow movie-goers.
Actress and model, Cara Delevingne who played Enchantress/June Moone in the action flick has expressed her disbelief over the reviews as well. "The critics have been absolutely horrific...at the end of the day it's the fans we made the movie for." Many critiques of the film came out prior to the premiere, meaning audiences hadn't had a chance to form their opinions yet. And it's the fans that carry a movie to success, and many were hoping to prove their devotion, myself included. Hyped among the crowd and having waited over a year for my favorite villains to grace the screen, I put critics comments aside, determined to enjoy the movie. And unfortunately left unsatisfied, confused, and disappointed.
As a number of critics had pointed out, the movie's plot line was jumbled and didn't feel like a cohesive piece of work but more of an unfinished project. The introduction of characters is unimaginative as Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) provides a basic description of the villains she intends to use as easily disposable super soldiers.
With such a small amount of backstory and little to no character development, the usually complex characters appear two dimensional. And the actors aren't to blame. Margot Robbie's portrayal of the infamous, psychiatrist gone psychotic was the high point of the film. But the movie tried to stifle her shine through misogynistic undertones.
In fact, there seems to be a great deal of mistreatment towards women within the film. One character punching a woman in the face because she had "a mouth on her", Deadshot (Will Smith) telling Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) to give the Enchantress a "smack on the ass" as she's attempting to take over the world, the guards in the prison who are clearly turned on by Quinn's antics but toy with and abuse her, to name a few.
Even Batman is shown punching Harley in the face underwater, stuffing her in a car and administrating mouth to mouth to her in a weirdly sexual way. It's not necessarily the violence that rubbed me the wrong way, but the fact that the violence administered toward women in the movie was intended for cheap laughs.
Despite the film's shortcomings, I am still looking forward to further installments and spin-offs in the hopes that they will hear their fan's and critic's comments and provide them with more clarity of plot and inventiveness of dialogue and character development.
