In my DC Comics loving heart, I loved the characters in the film. They were ripped nearly directly from the comic book themselves, particularly the origins for all the main characters form the Suicide Squad. There are certain awesome fan service elements for people like myself and for those who know a lot more than me about the source material. The Squad itself I would daresay is great, there interaction with one another and the way they work with one another very much carries the film. Also the film is very fun and entertaining in Summer Blockbuster popcorn sense. There is very few truly deeply meaningful character development moments, but when the film does decide to briefly touch on those character building moments it works very well. These moments are particularly concentrated on the characters of Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and El Diablo. Overall the film lacks true depth, but in these character the film tries to provide some, but unfortunately does not spend enough time fulling exploring it.
The main highlight for me is seeing these characters be brought to life on the big screen and I felt that was done rather successfully through some really good acting performances. Will Smith is very good, bordering on great, in this film. This is the best performance Will Smith has given in a very long time. This is the charismatic, charming, humorous, heartfelt, and badass Will Smith that people originally fell in love with in the 90s. It was great to see him embody a character like that again. Margot Robbie is fantastic as Harley Quinn, she embodies the psychotic, sexually vibrant, unpredictable character that has been such a big part of comic book pop culture over the last 20 years or so. Her relationship with the Joker is touched on in the film and for the first time in live action form we see their sickly obsessive love for one another. Jared Leto's Joker is one of the most visually frightening versions we've seen of the Joker on the big screen. The best way I can describe him is if Tony Montana from Scarface became The Joker. His relationship with Harley is one of such psychotic psychological dependency. Unfortunately he does not get the amount of screen time that many think he would have. From what I hear a lot of his scenes were cut out of the film, which probably had to do with forming the film into a much more PG-13 friendly cut because Leto’s Joker is very dark. Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller is an icy cold, no nonsense, badass, who creates this team out of a reaction to the events in Batman v Superman. Of all the members of the Suicide Squad she is the one that I feel is truly evil.
Then there are some surprises that you didn't expect. Jay Hernandez as El Diablo has one of the most emotional and heartbreaking backstories of all the characters. Jai Courtney is good as Captain Boomerang, providing some comic relief and eccentricity to a character with a kind of ridiculous name. Joel Kinneman is good as the team leader Rick Flagg who seemingly has the most emotional investment in the mission they are on. His back and forth with Smith’s Deadshot leads to some good comedic banter as well as some confrontational moments. Personally I feel Kinneman is an underrated actor who has not found the breakout role yet in Hollywood cinema. Unfortunately Karen Fukuhara as Katana and Adewale Akinnoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc are rather underdeveloped and underutilized for there than their action scene prowess. I will say the Killer Croc makeup looks excellent.
Here we come to negative portion of my thoughts. The plot/narrative structure is a mess. The screenplay definitely needed more than six weeks to be developed and written, because everything about the film feels insanely rushed and unpolished from a story standpoint. The plot pacing is incredible fast for a two hour film, it has very little time to breathe as a film. The film’s pace starts off fast right from the beginning and just really never lets up. As a viewer you have to strap in and hold on tight because you are in for a wild ride. The editing of the film is wildly schizophrenic at times, nearly on an Oliver Stone type level of wild. While it does create a unique stylized feeling to the film, it hampers it when it comes to cohesive storytelling. The film has a problem with balancing tones. Genre melding is a common practice in films, but the key is to know how to cohesively put those tones together and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t in this film, a lot of that is editing issues. Unfortunately the villain is one of the weakest aspects of the film, which also contribute to a weak climactic third act. Its just a very cliched, standard, and plot device type of villain. The film also relies very heavily on utilizing popular songs as music for certain scenes and while initially I didn't mind it at first because its a way for the film to actively engage the audience, there were certain points when it was unnecessary and felt excessive. That is not to say the music they use is bad, I am sure many are going to go out and buy the soundtrack.
My final thoughts on the film are I really liked these characters a lot and rather enjoyed watching the film they were in. The problem is the film they are in has a lot of glaring flaws. Flaws that I feel are there for a couple of reasons, Warner Bros. reaction to the negativity of the seriousness of Batman v Superman and somewhat meddling with David Ayer’s original idea of what he believed the film to be. Ultimately he and Warner Bros. created a film that is lighter and more entertaining than the previous films in the DCEU, but at the cost of depth of story and character. Thats not to say the film is devoid of any merit, but their is indeed some lost potential with such a richness of characters. The cast and the director keep saying they made the film for the fans and indeed it is very much a film for fans of the characters and I have to applaud them for that. I have to reiterate that even with my criticisms, I liked the film. 3.25/5 Stars
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