Suicide Squad

DC and Warner Bros. find themselves in a mad scramble to catch up with the Marvel juggernaut, and I for one thought that “Suicide Squad” would help them in their efforts. It didn’t. In fact, this can only set them back farther after the disappointing “Batman vs Superman” in the spring. We have to hold out for next year’s “Wonder Woman” for any hope of superhero salvation, and by that time, the pressure will be very high.

For those who haven’t heard, “Suicide Squad” is a team of little known bad guys who are pulled out of prison and forced to work together under the most dangerous of circumstances. Presumably these are missions that the US military can’t handle, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is the brainchild of this proposal, and no sooner than she pitches the idea does it become almost critical that they assemble.

Writer/Director David Ayer (“Fury”, “Sabotage”, “End of Watch”, “Training Day”) was given the keys to his daddy’s Porsche in this $175 million film that doesn’t even have a mainstream character, and he wrecked it going 20 miles per hour. Shame. Batman makes a brief appearance in a couple of inconsequential scenes, including the mid-credits interlude that is becoming all the rage in superhero flicks, but the highlight of “Batman vs Superman” couldn’t even save this film. Ayer even let Jared Leto forge a new Joker, but the iconic performance by Heath Ledger sadly haunts any effort on Leto’s part. It was doomed from the start. Besides over-acting, and being more thuggish than insane, the Joker’s role in this film is far too peripheral anyway. It’s gimmicky, but he isn’t given enough screen time to be effective.

This assortment of villains has a range of abilities, or non-abilities, which made the movie pointless right off the bat. Captain Boomerang, Slipknot, Killer Croc, and Harley Quinn bring absolutely no value to a fight against anyone or anything that is armed. Rick Flagg and Katana are the minders of the squad, and even they aren’t impressive, even when the bullets start to fly. I guess I was expecting more interesting characters from a character-driven vehicle.

Will Smith highjacks the film as Deadshot even though there are more interesting characters lurking in the shadows behind him. He is given almost as much screen time as Margot Robbie’s backside in tight shorts, which are the true star of the bunch, but Smith just doesn’t play well with others, so I assume he needed to be playing the anti-hero.

The real problem is the identity crisis that the film has. Billed as a group of bad guys, they kept having to remind us who was good and who was bad because they just became too nice and likable over time. They even started working as a team, and growing consciences. It is a team flick, but it wasn’t supposed to have a happy vibe. The second problem I had with the film is the story. It is terrible. Like really, really bad. Let’s just march these characters down a street and let them fight whatever comes up. Baseball bats, boomerangs, crocodile hands. Don’t worry that the US military could just send in a Seal team and handle this, let’s take a big risk on this group of bad guys with no experience and really bad attitudes. And just to remind you, they are really bad. The plot saddened the superhero movie fan in me even more than Brandon Routh’s “Superman Returns” back in 2006.

What I would have done differently for starters is to make this an R-rated film. Marvel’s “Deadpool” broke the mold in the spring with the not-so-family-friendly film, and it worked out great for them; critically and at the box office. Suicide Squad was supposed to be DC’s answer to a more violent superhero movie, which would be great given the natural tone of DC comic films anyhow. Give it a try, the target audience doesn’t shift much when you go from PG-13 to R, and there would be much more leeway for David Ayer to create the film he probably wanted. Violence, nudity, language. It would have fit in this case. If it made hundreds of millions (which it would have and will anyway), try it again, something different. My inkling is that Will Smith, DC, and Warner Bros. had a bit more skin in the game than Ayer did, and so they won in the end. It’s a shame. Ayer is a talented writer, but I’m not sure his directing is on par with his contemporaries.

In the end, there was too much nonsense going on to warrant enjoyment. The film started too fast, progressed too slowly, and ended painfully. Will Smith had to drop his Will Smith one liners. Jared Leto is no Heath Ledger, and let’s just say Batman, Superman, Aquaman, The Flash, Cyborg, and Wonder Woman (no Green Lantern?) don’t have to worry about these clowns causing too much havoc. 3/10.