Suicide Squad

This review may contain spoilers!

I didn't think DC could put out anything worse than Batman V Superman but boy was I wrong. I would give Suicide Squad a 3/10.

The story of this film is loaded with problems but one thing that is a strength of the film is Deadshot's arc throughout the film; I liked seeing this human quality of Deadshot acting the way he does for his daughter, more than that I appreciated seeing him grow and develop from a mercenary character to a heroic figure. The cinematography of the film is really sharp, if nothing else the director of the film really captures a pretty high quality look for the film.

Ike Barinholtz, who played Griggs, is surprisingly one of the stand out performances for the film; Barinholtz humour and banter with Smith and Robbie made him one of the most unique characters of the film. Jai Courtney, who played Boomerang, was a really funny member of the team; Courtney looks like he's having the time of his life and delivers some of the best lines of the film. Ezra Miller, who played The Flash, has a really entertaining cameo in this film; Miller's solid quip and appearance has finally got me excited for this character in future films. Ben Affleck, who played Batman, really established himself well as Batman in Batman V Superman but in this film he solidifies himself as a crucial element in the greater DC cinematic universe; I'm a huge fan of Affleck's steely world-weary Batman and I can't wait to see what he'll do next.

However the best performance came from Will Smith, who played Deadshot. You have to hand it to Smith, not only does he steal the show but he practically carries this trainwreck of a film throughout the whole thing. Smith brings out a mercenary who does feel exceptionally dangerous but also keeps him gentle; the relationship between Deadshot and his daughter is one of the honest relationships between characters in this film. Ultimately it's Smith's capacity to deliver fast, snappy banter all while remaining incredibly charismatic that sets him apart from the rest of the cast.

Where do I even begin? Well to start Suicide Squad doesn't like dealing with it's characters in any great detail, most of the characters in this film are never really given any great amount of backstory beyond a quick exposition dump by Waller at the start of the film. This film feels like it's been released too soon, we've barely been introduced to Batman and Wonder Woman let alone a whole cast of other superheroes and supervillains. Then just to cram far too much into the film suddenly magic is introduced and we're given a villain that hasn't felt so weak since Doctor Doom last year. The pacing is all over the show, the plot is dragged out with the main characters remaining on the one street for most of the second act and then the plot will throw in some very jarring scenes that don't really fit into the film such as the Joker/Harley flashback scenes or the moment when all action is suspended and the characters go get a drink in a bar. The infamous soundtrack for this film could have been the best part but as it was the film became overloaded with too many songs, every second scene had a song play within it and not every scene really needed a song to accompany it; the film could have benefitted with greater attention paid to the use of score. The editing of the film was strange, the colour palette kept changing between black and grey to a strange flood of colours when titles were displayed or flashback scenes were engaged. The special effects looked dreadful, the big world ending machine and Enchantress' brother being prime examples of these weak CGI moments.

Margot Robbie, who played Harley Quinn, is worlds away from an accurate Quinn portrayal just for the fact that her accent was constantly slipping alone; Robbie presents a character who is overly sexualised and goes through no character development throughout this film a reminder of why Hollywood still needs to be working hard to do it's female leads justice. Viola Davis, who played Amanda Waller, is an exceptionally dry performer; her stiff wooden character left little to no impression. Ted Whittall and David Harbour, who played Admiral Olsen and Dexter Tolliver respectively, were little more than faces for Davis to bounce her lines off of; Whittall and Harbour were boring characters only present to provide weighty exposition. Shailyn Pierre-Dixon, who played Zoe, wasn't a very good child performer; her line delivery wasn't great and it was down to Smith to make the scenes with her enjoyable. Jared Leto, who played The Joker, gives the worst Joker performance I've ever seen or heard; Leto can't portray the most vital quality of Joker's character: his insanity. Jay Hernandez, who played Diablo, played a very inactive character until his backstory was hastily cobbled together at the end of the film; everything about Hernandez's role was a cliche and when he called the Squad his family at the end of the film my eyes rolled to the back of my head. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who played Killer Croc, delivered his lines terribly; it was so hard to hear what he was saying and there was no depth to his character. Cara Delevingne, who played Enchantress, really embodies the saying "a film is only as good as it's villain"; and Enchantress is nothing more than a two-dimensional wants-to-destroy-humanity baddie. Joel Kinnaman, who played Rick Flag, was such a tiring performance to watch; his character being fuelled by his love for Delevingne just wasn't believable because the pair shared no chemistry whatsoever. Alain Chanoine, who played Incubus, shows us that every weak major villain needs a weak major henchman; Chanoine really only adds to the cheesy and over the top quality of the antagonists' motivations. Adam Beach, who played Slipknot, was such a forgettable character; I'm annoyed this character wasn't even given a minor backstory considering his only purpose seemed to be getting killed off. Karen Fukuhara, who played Katana, was a role that just didn't need to be included in this script; Katana's backstory felt like a foreign object wedged into the story in an extremely jarring way.