I have been eagerly awaiting this movie for what feels like years; the infamous gang of villains forced together to fight one big bad for the greater good. The following review will have one or two spoilers from the movie so be forewarned if you choose to read ahead.
Anticipating the movie to be very popular, my father and I purchased the tickets the day before. We opted for the slightly more expensive RPX (Regal Premium Experience) because it adds an overall better experience for the movie. The day of, we arrived at the theater about an hour early expecting there to be a very long line of people just as excited to see this movie as I was. However, there were only about 20 people. I figured it was because people didn’t want to spend that much on movie tickets which was understandable. But even as the time grew closer to the start of the movie, the theater wasn’t even half full.
My feelings going into the movie consisted of a lot of excitement but also fear. I was excited because of the new characters that were being introduced into the DC cinematic universe and because of the great potential this movie could have. However, I heard that the movie was not getting good reviews on famous websites such as Rotten Tomatoes so I was afraid that it would be like any other DC movie where there would be a lot of hype but falls short of fan expectations. I also anticipated the movie having a very dark tone to it after hearing all of the preparations that the actors and actresses did during the making of this movie.
My overall feelings after seeing the movie were that it was a good movie but it fell short in many ways. The beginning of Suicide Squad was very choppy, odd, and messy. The first two characters that were introduced were Deadshot and Harley Quinn. It spent about 15 minutes each introducing these two characters but it only spent about 5 or 10 minutes explaining the backstory of the other characters in this movie. It also focused a lot on the relationship between Harley Quinn and the Joker which is all well and good. However, it made it seem that they were trying to fit a Harley Quinn centered movie as well as an overall Squad movie into one. The sequence explained that Harley Quinn was the person who the Joker wanted to hurt “real real bad” as told in one of the first trailers that was released. It also showcased Harley’s decent into madness which had little to do with the actual plot.
Now onto the positive points of this film. The representations of all of the other characters were portrayed very well. The actors and actresses embodied their roles fully and what the squad stood for both on and off set. The characters in of themselves are fantastic but the actors and actresses truly were able to bring these comic book characters alive in the big screen in a great way. The fight scenes were very action-packed which was paired perfectly with the seamless CGI special effects. The cameos of Batman and the Flash gave a nice touch to the film because it emphasized how the characters are integrated into the overall DC cinematic universe. Suicide Squad also did a great job representing the female characters. It was obvious that they were to be taken seriously and not just as a piece of eye candy for the male audience.
The film also gave great character development to some characters during the film such as Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and El Diablo. For example, at the beginning of the movie, El Diablo was a closed off meta-human who wanted nothing to do with Project X. That changed during the film where we could see a change to the point where he literally sacrificed himself for the greater good. Just as it gave great development to these characters, it gave poor development to the other characters in this film. Killer Croc only had a few lines and a few scenes where it purely just showcased him. The character of Katana also felt as if she was just an afterthought and that Captain Boomerang was there for the comedy relief.
Overall, I give this movie a 7 out of 10 rating. Given that the script for the movie was only written in 6 weeks as well as the issues they were having during editing, it still yielded a great product in retrospect.
