Suicide Squad – We’ve all heard about it, and I’m sure many of us, such as myself, have anticipated it for well over six months. Personally, I’m not a fan of DC; in fact, I haven’t particularly liked any movie or TV show that they’ve put out for a long time, but this….this I was excited for. The one thing that I’ve always loved about the DC Universe is, hands down, their super villains, and to discover we’d be getting an entire movie dedicated to them was phenomenal! I mean, think about it: a new, captivating Joker (Jared Leto), a beautifully eccentric Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), the always fantastic Will Smith as Deadshot, and a bunch of other people no one really cares about. Unfortunately, upon its release, most critics seemed to loath the movie, giving it a staggering 27% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing. But I, for one, was not going to let the critics stop me from watching this movie to see for myself whether or not it truly was bad, and let me tell you, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone says it is, but this review wouldn’t be nearly as fun if I didn’t rant about all of plot holes in the first twenty minutes of the movie. Hello, fellow geeks, I’m DecreeB, and today I’m telling you what I thought about the new Suicide Squad movie.
It all starts with a simple question: “What would we do if another alien like Superman came to Earth, but it was evil?” As if this wasn’t already asked in their last movie, Batman v. Superman, and answered with “Batman can kick Superman’s butt any day of the week, so don’t worry about it.” Why, exactly, does this still seem to be an issue in this universe? Why would anyone think that a super-secret group of super villains would be a better idea then, I don’t know, a group of highly skilled superheroes who already care about humanity and whom you don’t have to threaten or control in any way, shape, or form?! This plot hole is nearly as bad as the mythical “Rosebud” scene from Citizen Kane. No matter, I suppose, they are, after all, just a back-up plan that’s not really intended on being used. Surely the rest of the movie will make up for it by giving a good reason for them to be used, right? Right?
After posing this question, and introducing the six main villains for the movie as the answer, most of which have no good reason for being included anyway (I’m looking at you Harley and Boomerang), Amanda Walker (Viola Davis) convinces government officials that “Task Force X” is a good idea by showing off their “most valuable asset”, a scary witch named “The Enchantress” (Cara Delevingne) that is absurdly powerful, and who Walker claims to have “complete control” over. I mean, who wouldn’t want a huge super-powered warrior like The Enchantress working for them? Then again, why not use JUST the Enchantress, the only one proven to be controllable, and definitely the most powerful of all the others? Why do they need the all-around useless “Captain Boomerang” (Jai Courtney), and the way-too-unpredictable Harley Quinn? (*cough* sex sells? *cough*) Captain Boomerang did literally nothing important throughout the entire movie. Yes, he’s been in every iteration of the Suicide Squad, but they could have at least given him a good reason to be there in the movie.
Immediately after the man in charge, whoever he is, agrees to let these dangerous convicts be a last resort against an unstoppable opponent, something goes terribly wrong! The government officials, who have just been informed something terrible is happening, have to decide what to do. But I mean, what can they do? Dispatch their soldiers to see if they can tame the situation before jumping to conclusions? Ignite the Bat-Signal for some much needed assistance? Or assemble the criminally insane and highly dangerous task force that they barely agreed was an okay idea for a backup plan in case of extreme emergence where they have absolutely no options left?
You guessed it, they opted to send the untrained, deadly, and unpredictable inmates of Belle Reve Penitentiary to the scene without calling Batman, or literally anybody they could trust. Nope, let’s just send these people we believe are completely uncontrollable, whom we just barely accepted as a potential possibility to save the Earth but only as a last resort because we doubt it’ll go well. Genius.
Alright, alright, we all knew there wasn’t going to be any good reason to send out the Suicide Squad, or at least any valid one, but I would’ve thought they’d at least try to convince us this was their only option by showing Batman being defeated, or reminding us that Superman is dead, or something. You know, make it seem like you actually tried to take care of the problem first; you know, pretend you care about the story a little bit. But I’m rambling now.
Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and the convicts all fly out to a desert compound, where they are briefed on their mission and his ability to push a button and kill them instantly. Then Suicide Squad is thrown boxes of a wide array of costumes and weapons. Yes folks, COSTUMES AND WEAPONS! You just barely let these guys free of their shackles, told them “listen to me or die”, and now you’re throwing the criminally insane and infinitely evil convicts all the weapons they could ever want! Not to mention you’re letting them play dress-up! This isn’t Halloween, people, the world could blow up at any minute and you’re letting them pick out cute little outfits? Just give them a standard military uniform and some armor, don’t waste your own time making them feel “pretty”!
I’m going to stop soon to avoid spoilers. The massive plot holes continue for a bit into the story before most of the sloppy storytelling ends and the movie starts to get pretty good. Characters are introduced only to be killed off, protagonists shoot what unnamed grunts can’t, etc. But after that, there’s action, funny comebacks and jokes courtesy of the only two well-written characters, Harley and Deadshot, and it starts to build some pretty decent character development for some of their villains. I just wish they had shown more El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), though, because I felt he could’ve been a strong character if he was on screen for more than 10 minutes.
While the movie started with its worst foot forward, it got much better as it progressed, although it did suffer for the same reason Batman v Superman did: it tried to do way too much in too short a time. Nevertheless, it did do it much more gracefully than the Batman movie did. The story was nothing special, all of the plot-twists were very predictable, but it was an interesting watch for the rest of the movie. Suicide Squad wasn’t particularly great or original in any way, but it wasn’t even remotely a bad movie. It’s nothing special, but it is worth a watch. Honestly, I believe this movie was only rated at 27% because people got their hopes up too high, and this movie wasn’t exactly what they expected. It wasn’t bad, it was just different from what they wanted, so they decided to bash a perfectly decent movie for it. If it were me, I’d give the Suicide Squad a 60-70% rating, and I’d definitely recommend it to everyone who’s even slightly interested in the movie. As long as you don’t get your hopes up too high, you’ll definitely enjoy yourself!
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Maddi • Dec 5, 2017 at 8:31 pm
I think the reason for including boomerang was to add a funny aspect to the movie. I think Harley Quinn was added because having a powerful female lead always adds to a movie. The villains were controlled by something implanted in their head that would explode if they left by the way. I enjoyed reading your point of view.