Starring: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney
Distributor: Roadshow Films
Runtime: 123 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2016
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>When reviewing films, it’s preferable to enter the cinema with no knowledge of how a particular movie has already been judged by your peers. Otherwise, it’s possible (if not likely) that you can begin to preconceive your own response, drawing upon the recycled opinions of others. With ‘Suicide Squad’ however, this was impossible – anyone tapped into social media would be able to testify to the attention that the film garnered before its release with a cavalcade of brilliant trailers, as well as the fan backlash that has been kicked up by the fairly stinging reviews which greeted its eventual release.
After the recent DC Comics film ‘Batman v Superman’ was also lambasted by critics (and given a frosty albeit more generous reception from audiences), ‘Suicide Squad’ was hailed as a saviour of sorts, the inevitable triumph to put the wobbly DC train back on the rails and in pursuit of a runaway Marvel juggernaut. Sadly, it’s not quite the home run that its advertisements suggests, but it’s also not as bad as word of mouth may have you believe.
Faced with the threat of more ‘meta-humans’ appearing in Superman’s wake, federal agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has a plan to protect the human race: enlist the bad guys that Batman has captured and are now wallowing in a Belle Reeve maximum security prison, and use the threat of death to have them fight against new enemies. If you ever find that you struggle to understand new characters introduced in movies, then writer-director David Ayer has you covered with a parade of flashbacks and rap sheets blown up with dazzling graphics, paired with a jukebox of classic but distracting tunes. Most of these moments are cool, a couple are useful, but none are really necessary. Given the rushed action to come, their inclusion (and running time) seem indulgent on reflection.
Deadshot (Will Smith) is the world’s surest shot with any firearm, an assassin with one weakness – his daughter. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) was a former psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum, until a tryst with the Joker left her certifiably insane. Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is part man, part reptile, all beast. Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) is an Aussie criminal with a penchant for canned beer and razor-edged boomerangs. El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) is a former gang member who can conjure up flamethrower-like pyrotechnics. Also in the mix is their handler and military man Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), plus Japanese swordswoman Katana (Karen Fukuhara). It’s a big group, but Ayer manages to keep a grip on them all throughout the film, though some get more attention than others (apparently proportional to the actor’s star power).
When an ancient entity known as The Enchantress takes over the body of Flag’s girlfriend, Dr June Moon (Cara Delevingne), and terrorises Midway City with an army of monsters, Waller gets to mobilise her taskforce. With explosive charges inserted into their necks, they are sent in to extract a VIP from the chaos. But when the Joker (Jared Leto) gets a whiff of his beloved Harley in the open air, he makes plans to spring her and elope once more. Needless to say, Flag’s plans don’t exactly stick the landing, and the squad have to fight their way out of the battlefield. The mayhem gets quite visceral, and despite his struggles to establish a memorable antagonist (there are two or three half-baked attempts running around in the film), Ayer knows how to stage an action scene, borrowing a number of beats from his 2014 WWII epic ‘Fury’. Although the trailers would suggest that these intense interludes would be balanced by an acid-witted tone and trippy visuals, the atmosphere and palette are nearly identical to those which stymied ‘Batman v Superman’ – dark on both counts.
On the flip side, for the most part the cast cannot be faulted. Viola Davis is brilliant as Waller, her ruthless bureaucrat colder than the villains she manipulates. Will Smith delivers his best blockbuster performance in over a decade, able to imbue every line with humour and charisma and shoot off every round with believable menace, yet still able to develop a very human presence worth empathising with. Despite her accent skipping between ‘Noo Yoik’ and Down Under, ex-pat Margot Robbie makes for a fun Harley, and fellow Australian Jai Courtney is at last given a role which lets him flex his comedic chops alongside his muscles. However Leto’s much discussed portrayal of the Joker rings a little false, despite his terrifically unique laugh. Comparisons to Heath Ledger’s iconic rendition of the role are also damaging. The character of the Joker in ‘Suicide Squad’ is written as a mobster first, psychopath second, but this doesn’t square with his deranged costume and makeup, nor with Leto’s demented ticks and seductive growl.
The greatest sin committed by ‘Suicide Squad’ is that, after it blows past the jarring tonal shifts and the team’s objective finally settles on saving the world (where you inevitably know it will – a process that rather frustratingly takes two whole acts), it becomes another generic movie. A team of misfits must band together to save the day. The villains lose their edge and choose to become good guys. Perhaps this was inevitable, but the elements of their mission carried out under the threat of death were far more engaging and interesting. The promise of its original premise is wasted, hamstrung by this ultimately dull character development and its relatively staid M rating (these characters and even a filmmaker like Ayer would have been better served by the freedom of an MA15+).
As with any film which has staunch supporters and detractors, it’s best if an audience make up their own mind after seeing the film. This reviewer is on the fence somewhat; it’s a step in the right direction for DC Comics films, but if ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Justice League’ ( both arriving in 2017) can’t manage to take a huge leap along the same path, then the franchise’s future will be in dire straits indeed.
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