Maya Angelou coined the phrase, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,” yet people are still watching DC Comics films. I almost saw Suicide Squad in the theaters because of the cast until I found out that our current Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin produced it and realized that Suicide Squad did not need my money. Mom loves Will Smith and has watched most, but not all of his films. She could not be tempted into even a home viewing.
Suicide Squad (2016) is technically a sequel, the third film in the DC Extended Universe following Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), about a group of bad guys brought together by Amanda Waller, played by Viola Davis, to protect Earth. What could go wrong? Suicide Squad is an adequate, fairly cohesive movie with a talented cast and a great soundtrack, but it was not amazing and should have been better so I made the right call to not see it in theaters. If you are a fan of the cast, give it a chance at home, but definitely don’t buy it or rent it. If you must, go to the library. Please note that I am only into the DC Comics adaptations on TV so if you are into the comic books, you will have to go somewhere else for that perspective.
What does Suicide Squad get right? Will Smith was correct to choose Suicide Squad over Independence Day: Resurgence, and it was nice to see him displaying his Ali skills. Margot Robbie was Harley Quinn, but she gets side eye for two reasons: her accent kept showing, and she said that she wanted to play Amanda Waller. There are plenty of roles for people like you. Don’t get greedy. Viola Davis always works with what she is given. I actually liked The Enchantress even if I was not crazy about her actual plan. I have no idea who Cara Delevingne is, but she was giving me Summer Glau’s weirdness so I appreciated it and wanted more. I am unfamiliar with El Diablo, but I liked his character and thought that Jay Hernandez did a perfect job. I really liked that we got the bad guys’ view of the good guys and an unexpected, uncredited cameo that teases future films.
What does Suicide Squad get wrong? Apparently the editing leaves a lot of the cast’s work on the cutting floor so while the story was cohesive, Suicide Squad possibly could have done better with respect to character development. For instance, if Harley Quinn has no fear, then why would she be afraid of drowning? She sounded pretty scared to me. Jared Leto’s interpretation of the Joker was to make him seem like a meth or bath salts addict. I’m sick of female badass comic character dreaming of motherhood. Rick Flag was such a forgettable trope that it was an actual plot point that the other characters had to remind themselves to care about his fate. Even though Jai Courtney did his most distinctive work in Suicide Squad, I feel so cheated that I did not get Tom Hardy instead: store brand vs. name brand (side note: I think that Tom Hardy should have chosen Suicide Squad over The Revenant). Also I feel like there was a big set up that Waller was looking for metahumans, but the majority of the Suicide Squad were just highly skilled cons so that was a disappointing script characterization. Why did the twenty-minute intro not include Slipknot or Katana? Are you telling me that you are not trolling black people by making Killer Croc a cannibal who believes that he is beautiful? Also way to tip your hand that Slipknot was not an essential character. Suicide Squad completely wasted Adam Beach. The apocalyptic storyline fell flat for me when they did not convert the most famous captive.
Maybe everyone has already noticed the following point, and I am just late to the party, but do DC Comics characters seem like ripoffs of Marvel characters? For example, El Diablo reminds me of Ghost Rider. Captain Boomerang reminded me of Deadpool.
Suicide Squad is just one brick in Warner Brothers’ efforts to build the DC Extended Universe with three mediocre to dreadful films and compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which spans multiple films (fourteen from 2008 to 2016) and TV shows (five up from 2013 to 2016)—most of these movies and TV shows are critically acclaimed or at least well liked. The DC Extended Universe cannot catch up in such a short amount of time. It is impossible. Instead of taking its time to develop a franchise that will outlast and pick up MCU audiences after the Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline begins to wrap up, the DC Extended Universe is rushing and creating sand castles with bulldozers. Suicide Squad is entertaining, but empty and should have done better considering the resources and talent available to the production.