I just got around to watching the entirety of Suicide Squad.

Probably old news for most of you, but now that I've seen it, I just thought I would give my brief thoughts.

- Bad film. This movie seemed to have a blatant misunderstanding of the Suicide Squad - this isn't Guardians of the Galaxy Lite. They aren't a bunch of rag-tag anti-heroes. These are supposed to be straight up villains, and aside from Harley stealing a purse and the characters generally making empty threats, they were not villains. The movie is in conflict here. We're supposed to believe that most of them are murderous outlaws who would just as soon rip your eyes out, but the movie simultaneously paints them as heroes in their actual actions. Flagg growing attached to the group and the group becoming attached to him was a big conflict of themes, and I thought generally it was handled poorly. We needed to see villains saving the world, not some rag-tag anti-villains saving the world.

- The most entertaining character of the film - and I'm not joking - was Boomerang. He was the only one that seemed like a genuine bad guy that looked out for number 1.

- I thought Harley was garbage. Robbie had brief moments where she seemed legitimate, but for the most part, cringey writing and poor consistency of her performance held her back.

- Will Smith playing Will Smith. Wasn't Deadshot, that's for sure.

- Enchantress was neither threatening nor unique. Voice didn't match up with lines at moments, which was highly distracting.

- Liked Diablo. Of course he's dead.

- Slipknot had the most range of emotion in his performance.

- Leto as Joker was entire crap. And no, this isn't one of those scenarios where "I need to see more footage" - he was BAD. He clearly doesn't understand the mannerisms or personality of the Joker. Part of it is the writing - there should never be a true romance between Joker and Harley (at least not from Joker's direction). He gave a very bad performance that, honestly, seemed like a bad spoof of Ledger's Joker. I don't even mind his design. He was just poor.

- Batman cameos were cringe-worthy and obviously shoe-horned in.

- The title card sequence at the beginning didn't fit the film entirely, and I felt as though they tried to write around its "feel" and theme. Although it obviously didn't work.

An unquestionably bad film. 5/10. If anybody compares this schlock to BvS or MoS, they are brain dead. THIS was the true wart on the DCEU.

@slayz: thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with almost all of your arguments.

One thing I'd like to add which is a bit off topic from your review is that I disagree with the sentiment that "the film started good and went downhill." This is one of the few instances where I knew a film would be bad from the title card.

Leto as Joker was entire crap. And no, this isn't one of those scenarios where "I need to see more footage" - he was BAD.

I agree. It's not like we saw 5 seconds of Leto - we saw 5 minutes of him at the very least - you either hate him or you like him. His performance won't become miraculously better by adding a few additional scenes, especially since all we needed was one line of dialogue from Ledger to see he would nail the role.

@slayz: Batman straight up murdered more innocent people with his car in BvS than the whole Suicide Squad combined in their whole god damn movie, and they're supposed to be the bad ass Villains..... They spent like forty minutes shooting the "Mindless Ones", who are already f-ing dead!!!

I think this movie was aimed at a very young demographic - more in line with Marvel movies. I guess if you were a 13 year old boy you would probably think it was a masterpiece. Personally I found it rather silly and daft.

@slayz: Didn't you already make a thread about this? Or was that Spideyjackson?

Slayz didn't already make a thread about this.

You sure you aren't talking about Petey_Is_Spidey?

@theamazingspidey: That's probably it. I think he has he exact same title too.

Just got around to watching Suicide Squad...

BvS destroyed my soul, I'd rather watch Suicide Squad for a day than watch BvS once.

lol Marvel films aren't panned RAZZIE winners tho. SS was just a total fvck up.

I watched the movie at age 15 and was in awe at how bad it was.

Yeah, that film was all around trash. Nothing good about it at all.

What innocent people did Batman kill in his Batmobile?

Suicide Squad was not even supposed to be created so early, it would be awesome to have villains from previous movies being forced to be "heroes" this time while still being clearly evil.

I've trashed this movie enough times, so I'll refrain from giving my whole opinion. Though I will say that I've always forgotten to mention a couple things you mentioned. Like Boomerang being the only one who looked after himself and acting like a bad guy. But he does rejoin them in the final battle, so that kinda doesn't matter much anymore. And you're totally right about the Batman scenes being cringeworthy and shoe-horned in. I couldn't believe they handled Batman like that. Even the Bruce Wayne and Waller credits scene was cringe.

He landed on some dudes on the edge of the Truck. And I believe he cut a car in half that was rolling towards him.

I keep meaning to write a Reboot about this movie, but I got so much shit going on. I have like 3 things in the workds

-Westworld Review (Might scrap this)

-Top 10 underated movies list

-Wonder Woman fan fic (I really gotta get on this one)

-SS Reboot

For the SS reboot, most of my changes would revolved around having their first mission not be a world saving mission, but dealing with an Ajax type villain. Maybe some arms dealer who stole Lex Corp weapons or is selling Kryptonian Weapons (a cool plot from the web comics that we never to see). All this is building up to the end where the JOker only shows up at the end to free Harley, then it becomes SS vs Harley/JOker. Joker sees that the SS made her happy, so in an act of jealousy he forced Harley to join him to go kill them. Joker hires tons of crooks and even breaks some out of Arkham. It all builds up to this moment where Harley must choose (to which we all know she'll choose the SS and "kill" the JOker). Bada Bing! Two movies in one Reboot

On the plus side, I'll say that I thought Suicide Squad was the better than either of the Superman movies. But Waller was more of a villain than these guys.

Weren't those all criminals/mercs tho?

Will Smith is the best thing to ever happen to Deadshot. :D

Not a bad synopsis here, sainty. I definitely think it was a miscue having a supernatural world ending villain (is this the right term for the bizarre out-of-nowhere witch?), and that they should have had a more earthly mission. I don't understand why comics based movies (and comics themselves I guess) feel mandated to provide an alien/supernatural attack in nearly every instant. There are plenty of evil humans that could be dealt with in an entertaining and thrilling way.

The whole idea of the Suicide Squad movie was going to be tough though. I haven't seen that many awkward character introductions since my eighth grade school dance. Cinemasins and Honest Trailers say it best, as usual, but the characters were just too rushed and worthless. Characters like Captain Boomerang were real wastes of space.

And the villains were just completely disconnected randoms with no great emotional or thematic connection to anything. It was like a script writing machine came up with them. I can't even remember what the hell they were doing in that warehouse or wherever they were. They just had some kind of ray or portal or something, right? Terrible...

As for BvS, I hated that movie as much as the next dude the first time I saw the theatrical release which was a blizzard of nonsense, but I have to say, a second and third viewing of the Ultimate Edition really made me love it and now I 'get it'. I have a lot of respect for that movie now and I think it's great.

@rainshadow777:

I haven't seen that many awkward character introductions since my eighth grade school dance

I almost spilt my drink because the character introductions in Suicide Squad is one of my least favourite things in a movie (perhaps I shouldn't drink while using the computer).

Several stiff drinks were needed if any enjoyment was to be derived from SS, put it that way.

Enjoyment can also be derived from watching Suicide Squad as a train wreck.

CW Deadshot was better.

Suicide Squad was the greatest film off all time because...

This is Katana. She had Flag's back. I would advise not getting killed by her. Her sword traps the souls of its victims.

You spelled worst wrong.

- The most entertaining character of the film - and I'm not joking - was Boomerang. He was the only one that seemed like a genuine bad guy that looked out for number 1.

Agreed. He was actually great as Boomerang.

Everyone else was pretty damn bad.

I'll get around to responding to everyone soon, but one thing -

Why the hell didn't Deadshot just brain that guard right then and there? It's not like Deadshot would have been killed, since Waller still needed him. This would have made Deadshot seem like an actual villain.

I marathoned the trailer last year.

BB

How was Boomerang any good? He barely did anything - and what was his great power, throwing boomerang weapons? Why enlist him to fight world-ending threats? It really makes no sense. He has no powers and he used no powers. Roll credits.

I agree with whoever said that they don't really seem like villains. Harley stealing that handbag, my god, how villainous! Hide your kids, hide your wife. As for Deadshot, he's such a nice guy that he helpfully assassinates villains already in custody and is practically father of the year. Oh yeah, and his super power to combat world-ending threats? He shoots guns accurately. Wow. Because I'm sure there are no non-criminals in the US military who are also good with guns.

I actually didn't mind Jared Leto as the Joker, but I'm glad he didn't have more time in the film as he was fine in the background.

Also Katana. Lol. That awkward scene on the helicopter when Flagg explains her presence and the soul capturing sword. What-was-the-point??

And last and least, those faceless 'evil' soldier-bots. I don't know about you but I'm tired of these non-villains that are only there to allow the heroes to kill a heap of people without the audience worrying about the morality of it. It's like a video game, just mowing them down. Yawn.

It's my favorite DCEU film so far precisely because it was dumb fun and not trying to be anything more than it set out to be. Plus Amanda Waller was pretty amazing.

Because Deadshot can't be too bad. The audience won't be able to sympathise with him that way :P

The movie is a mess. An entertaining one, but a mess none the less

@farkam said:

I think he's an alright take on the character but, I don't know, really I could take him or leave him I guess.

People around the globe now think Deadshot is awesome instead of having never heard of him. Big Willy delivered. :D