In association with The Grosvenor
There’s no doubt that the overwhelmingly negative reaction to Batman v Superman has shaken things up at DC and many fans have hoped that Suicide Squad will incite a desperately needed resurgence. In a way it both has and hasn’t. Suicide Squad is by far the best DC Extended Universe movie but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
Unlike Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, which were bleak and depressing, Suicide Squad does have an air of fun to it. It has a unique setup and some solid performances. Will Smith is as charismatic as ever and his character has a surprising amount of humanity, conveyed in a phenomenal scene near the beginning. Viola Davis is a brilliant character with cunning brutality and a complete lack of guilt. She would be a great adversary to the Justice League in later movies and Margot Robbie nailed Harley Quinn flawlessly.
As great as some of the leading characters are, others are either unneeded or straight up terrible. Jai Courtney was surprisingly good for once but he’s not given a whole lot to do. Killer Croc and Katana don’t do anything at all and Jared Leto gives one of the weakest ever interpretations of The Joker. Not only does he look ludicrous but he doesn’t bring anything fresh to this amazing character. He never came off as menacing or fun – just annoying. And the main antagonist may not be as embarrassingly awful as Jesse Eisenburg’s Lex Luthor, but they’re very generic.
Sadly Suicide Squad is severely let down by its writing and its editing. The characters portrayed, especially Deadshot and Harley Quinn, are the most grounded of the entire DC universe so far but the film doesn’t have many great character moments. The dialogue can be flimsy and scenes of potential team dynamic or character development are either cut out or simplified to a ridiculous degree in favour of choppy action scenes and plot threads. There isn’t as big a sense of synergy as there should be.
Things like this make Suicide Squad a somewhat frustrating experience. It’s nowhere near as bad as some people have made it out to be, but the end result from all these accumulating factors make the film merely okay as opposed to the big break DC needed. Fortunately that Wonder Woman trailer was pretty awesome so here’s hoping they nail it next time.
[Calum Cooper]
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