Review – Suicide Squad
“Worst. Heroes. Ever.”
That’s the tag line for Suicide Squad. And while they may not be the absolute worst, they’re pretty bad.
“Worst. Movie. Ever.”
That’s the thought that ran through my mind a couple times while sitting through the neon-colored vomit that is Suicide Squad. It may not be the absolute worst, but it’s pretty bad.
Suicide Squad is a complete and utter disaster. A film so thin in story and so bloated with characters that it never has a single clue what it is doing. The D.C. Cinematic Universe has once again shit the bed.
Suicide Squad follows a group of criminals, Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and Slipknot (Adam Beach), who are led by super solider Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) to take down an evil terror that is threatening Midway City.
The plot of the movie is basically a shoehorned device just to put these characters on screen. It was like the worst kind of video game, as the squad just moves from level to level in Midway City defeating a bunch of random alien things until they reach the big, bad villain.
There is also a subplot with The Joker (Jared Leto) as he tries to free Harley Quinn so that he can be with the love of his life. This was pointless, poorly executed, and just made the movie worse.
Speaking of poor execution, let’s talk about the characters. The film does a pretty good job of establishing Deadshot and Harley Quinn, but couldn’t give two shits about any of the other characters. We get snippets of the other character’s lives, but those snippets last about three to five minutes and that’s all we get for that character. There is literally a character, not going to say who, that dies within maybe two minutes of them being on screen. It’s ridiculous.
Even The Joker, arguably the greatest comic book villain of all-time, was awful. For being such an insane, maniacal genius, his story was similar to that of a Nicholas Sparks book. All he wants to do is be with his love, that’s it. He had the same motivations at Ryan Gosling’s Noah in The Notebook (2004). He did the minimalist amount of crime, hardly murdered anyone, and was far away from The Joker we know and love. I’m not saying every Joker has to be Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight (2008), but can we at least get a Caesar Romero from Adam West’s Batman (1966)?
The same goes for Leto’s performance as Mr. J. If you want to see the definition of trying to hard, take a good look here. Leto is cringe worthy. It’s rumored he went all method for the performance, but it clearly didn’t work. He talks like Ledger’s Joker at the dentist with a saliva tube in his mouth. His laugh was good, that’s the one positive I can say about him.
The two saving graces that stopped me from walking out of this movie were the performances by Will Smith and Margot Robbie. Smith is in full action movie mode, a la Independence Day (1996) and Men in Black (1997). He brings his charm, swagger, quick one-liners, and excellent physicality to Deadshot. I actually almost cared about his character. Almost. Robbie owns it as Harley Quinn. She’s super funny, super weird, oddly sexy, and shows off her action chops for the first time and rocks it. I absolutely loved watching her on screen, even in the scenes with the awful Leto. The rest of the acting, much like the characters, is bland and doesn’t matter.
Suicide Squad has more issues than the characters themselves. This is an incredibly disappointing, un-fun, annoying movie that has no story, far too many characters to handle, and a forced, pop-heavy soundtrack that makes you wish you were watching Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). After Batman v. Superman, I didn’t think the D.C. Cinematic Universe could be in a bigger hole. I was wrong. Suicide Squad digs them deeper into a hole that, as of this review, I don’t think they will ever climb out of.
MY RATING – 1/4
Did you see Suicide Squad? What did you think? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix. And make sure to LIKE Kevflix on Facebook!