Stephanie Kato
Self-publishing Assistance
Suicide Squad Review
​Hello again. 2016 is proving to be a great year for action movies and it's my pleasure to review another comic book film. Suicide Squad is a very different type of superhero movie and it's not going to be easy for me to critique. I feel a bit conflicted about this film. As usual, this movie has a variety of strengths and weaknesses that I will gladly explain.
​I like to start with the good news. Truthfully, I really enjoyed Suicide Squad. It's creative, fun, snarky, and packed with action. Yes, that's a good thing when it comes to action movies. I can't stand it when critics say an action film has too many action scenes. If you don't see anything blow up, it was a terrible action film. Anyway, the characters and excitement are Suicide Squad's biggest strengths. In a world with little hope, the American government takes the nation's most dangerous villains and turns them into a makeshift special forces group. They have to defeat a horrific supernatural entity or the entire world is doomed. Our fate is in the hands of criminals and psychopaths. Isn't that awesome? I thought it was a unique take on the superhero genre. Even though the main characters are villains, the film makes them seem perfectly human and relatable. They have many inner demons and personal struggles, which might feel familiar to many viewers. Most of these characters have someone to fight for, so maybe supervillains can have a heart after all. Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn were particularly strong. I thought Margot Robbie really captured Harley Quinn's psychotic and humorous nature. Will Smith is a great actor and he almost seemed like an antagonistic knight in shining armor with a lot of character flaws. The Suicide Squad team has great chemistry and they genuinely seem to build a strong friendship throughout the film. This movie also has plenty of humor. It's a dark comedy with a lot of sarcasm and sass. This might sound lame, but witches are the main antagonists of this film. Give them a chance though because it was very entertaining. I thought the movie had an interesting blend of humans and supernatural entities. Yes, Suicide Squad is violent and rightfully so. Every character has their own specialty. For example, Deadshot is an expert marksman while Harley Quinn prefers to smash everyone with a baseball bat. A viewer can't become bored with a medley of military style combat, psychotic melee attacks, and frightening witchcraft. It's a very entertaining form of action. One of the interesting things was the romance between The Joker and Harley Quinn. I'm sure many of you remember The Joker from the Batman franchise. It's a twisted yet sincere romance that underlies throughout the movie. I thought it was oddly cute and genuine. The film version of Suicide Squad is quite different than the comics. Once again, I'm going to say that's a good thing. I doubt a faithful rendition of the Suicide Squad comics would have been effective in theaters.
​Despite all of my positive comments, I can't necessarily say it's a great film. DC simply lacks the quality of Marvel for some reason. In fact, the DC movies need to improve a lot if they want to keep a significant following. Certain characters were underdeveloped. I loved Captain Boomerang who was played by Jai Courtney, but his character was pretty much limited to minor action scenes and some comic relief. The Joker who was played by Jared Leto was probably one of the weakest main characters. Suicide Squad portrays him as a hip and weird gangster with too much bling. Leto and the overall screen writing just didn't bring out The Joker's crazy brilliance. Does Leto nail The Joker's signature laugh? Not even close. Another thing that bothered me was El Diablo's underrepresentation. He's a former gangster who's possessed by a fire demon. El Diablo is one of the most powerful supernatural characters in the film, but he doesn't want to fight anymore. I didn't see any action from him until very late in the film. Why was he even in the movie at all? The plot is simple to a fault. Basically, sibling witches were once worshipped as deities by the human race. Now they have been forgotten and the witches are retaliating to destroy mankind for their disobedience. That's all! I can't say the special effects are great either. Most of the visual effects look like underdeveloped CGI. Also, Suicide Squad needed to be rated R. The pg-13 rating seriously hindered the action, humor, and overall content. It's not a comic book movie for kids and the film studio needed to think about that part.
​You'll see the good, bad, and ugly in this film. It's not perfect, but Suicide Squad is worth seeing. This movie is genuinely unique with a great cast of characters, humor, and lots of action scenes. Who can complain about that? Believe it or not, this movie has a lot of hopeful elements. In fact, it's probably the least depressing film in the new DC franchise. Just give it a chance because I think you'll be delightfully surprised. Leave a comment if you have anything to say about the Suicide Squad. They're a group worthy of interesting discussions. Have a safe week and enjoy your night at the movies!
C William Perkins link
Nice review! I actually liked the Joker in a weird way. I thought he was twisted and bizarre and his relationship with Harley Quinn was sick yet compelling. My theory is that underneath this movie somewhere (or in an earlier draft) the movie is about embracing the dark side of yourself and Joker is the king of this. I wrote a whole character break-down on my blog (cwilliamperkins.weebly.com) but sadly the final cut of the film did not commit to this theme.. But it was still a fun action film, like you said!