Three Strikes And You're Out

Suicide Squad Spoiler Review

I've written before (in length) about the punt that Marvel took in 2008 when they released Iron Man which none of us could envisage at the time as the start of something huge and in the eyes of geeks the world over something beautiful. I am of course referring to the global phenomenon that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe which continues to lord it over the box office with each passing year.

Six years after that humble beginning Marvel felt emboldened by their continued success and once again took a chance by bringing the little known Guardians of the Galaxy to the big screen. Now of course it panned out that they knew what they were doing as the movie was yet another smash hit despite the Guardians being an obscure comic book property before their move to the world of film, even I as a comic book fan had no real knowledge of the group before I watched the film.

This of course is old ground and so I imagine you're wondering why I am bothering to go over it once again, especially when the primary purpose of this post is to review the brand new DC film Suicide Squad. Well to be honest you can't really discuss the new DCEU without comparing it to the MCU because obviously they are in competition with each other. Now of course DC are well behind the eight ball and are playing catch up as Suicide Squad is only their third outing whereas the upcoming Marvel film Dr Strange will be their 14th in just 8 years which some consider to be oversaturation of the genre but thats another story for another post on another day.

Suicide Squad follows hot on the heels of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice which was the spiritual successor to 2013's Man of Steel. Now whilst there have been MCU releases that have been less than stellar and entries that even the most ardent of fanboys have trouble defending the studio has always bounced back and smashed it out of the park with their next effort. DC on the other hand were 0 for 2 leading into the release of Suicide Squad as both MOS and DOJ were fairly panned by critics (55% and 27% on Rotten Tomatoes respectively compared to 67% for Marvels Incredible Hulk and 79% for Iron Man 3 which are two of the weaker entries in the MCU) so Warner Brothers have a lot riding on Suicide Squad being a success.

This is especially true when you consider how they are going about things. Marvel went the slow burn route, introducing a range of solo characters in their own films and expanding the universe around those individuals and hinting at the bigger picture before bringing them all together in 2012's Avengers (Assemble). DC ain't got time for that however and have rushed headlong into their own universe by giving the other members of the Justice League (DC's version of the Avengers) the briefest of mentions within the confines of DOJ before introducing them all in the Justice League movie next year. In fact the only other member of the team who gets their own outing before JL is Wonder Woman leaving the stories of Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman to play out in the aforementioned JL which whilst OK in principle may confuse some casual fans who are not familiar with the characters.

It could be argued that DC didn't need to go the introductory route for the likes of Superman and Batman as they stand head and shoulders above all other comic book properties from either company and are certainly more widely known than anyone on the Marvel side of things (before 2008 how many casual cinema goers would have known of the likes of Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Co over the Man of Steel and Dark Knight, not many I bet), but the same cannot be said of say Cyborg and Aquaman (Flash has the advantage of having his own TV show regardless of whether it is truely canon or not).

So JL is a gamble but in that regard nowhere near as big a risk as Suicide Squad which I will confidently state were not in the public consciousness before the movies announcement. It became an even bigger deal when earlier this year DOJ was dragged over the coals by critics and fans (myself included) for being a pretty awful film that left us all deflated after expectations had been high. I wont go into DOJ as I have covered that extensively in my review which you can read on the World of Stu website (silentmovieman.wix.com/worldofstu), it is dated March 29th and is titled Return of the Zack, but I only mention it as Suicide Squad was always going to have to escape its shadow whether DOJ had been good or bad.

Early signs were good as the first trailer had everyone buzzing about how good SS was going to be, word was that Warner Brothers had learnt their lesson after DOJ and had made SS more fun and lighthearted rather than dour and grim in the way DOJ had been. However in the days leading upto the SS general release critics reviews began to creep online and the word on the street was not good, in fact at the time of writing this review it currently has a Rotten Tomato score of 26% which whilst not Fantastic Four levels of bad (9%) is certainly not what Warner Brothers or DC would have been hoping for. That said however I would take these numbers with a pinch of salt as that same site has Paul Feigs Ghostbusters currently on 73% which makes it almost 3 times better than SS which is complete nonsense as Ghostbusters is not only the worst film of 2016 but is also one of the worst atrocities to be committed to film in movie history (again my review can be found on the website).

Following this I will admit to going into the film with a sense of trepidation that had not been there a week ago which brings us (finally) to my SS review.

The movie opens by giving us a brief introduction to some of the characters who we will be spending time with over the course of the next two hours, in particular Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, both of whom are in Belle Reve maximum security prison where we see that they are regularly abused and mistreated by the guards, in particular the head guard (Griggs?) who takes delight in letting them know who is boss. We are also quickly introduced to Viola Davies as Amanda Waller who wants to create a splinter group of Argus (who fans of the Arrow TV show will know plenty about) to oversee Task Force X which she proposes will be a team made up the worst criminals she can think of (and control which I guess rules out the Joker) in order to send them in to dangerous situations where they will be expendable should the worst happen, this of course will be her Suicide Squad. This movie takes place in the world after DOJ which means Superman is still 'dead' despite his apparent resurrection at the end of that film and Waller wants a team of powerful individuals to fight threats that mankind would have no chance of defeating which is ironic when the threat they are preparing to face is kind of her own making, but more on that when we get to it.

She brings in Rick Flag who is the most savvy man in the world of the military (or something like that) now whether this is Rick Flag, or his son, or even his grandson isn't clear and I guess doesn't matter for the purposes of this film but the comic book lover in me would like some clarification if only for my own peace of mind. He is to lead the team which is set to comprise of Deadshot and Harley, Killer Croc, Captain Boomerang, Enchantress, Diablo, Kitana and Slipknot. Now I will put my hands up and admit that I know very little about some of these characters but a quick use of my googlefu shows that the portrayal of Diablo is pretty accurate (though they ramp up the inner turmoil by making his victims his own family rather than that of a rival gang boss), Enchantress is a fairly obscure character who doesn't have a very interesting history and Slipknot who is the most random member of the team but don't worry about that as you won't have time to really get to know him.

Before the team is brought together we get the obligatory flashbacks to give us a bit more info on who they are and its here that we first meet Jared Leto as the latest incarnation of the Joker though instantly you may wish that they hadn't bothered, I know I certainly did. We also get a cameo of the Flash as he captures Captain Boomerang and Batman as he brings in Deadshot and Harley who it is established has an unhealthy obsession with the clown prince of crime. The Deadshot backstory in particular attempts to humanise the character as we see him with his daughter who he clearly holds as the centre of his universe, this leads to a standard Will Smith performance but when you're the calibre of actor that he can be then you know you're in safe hands and he certainly gives one of his better performances here.

Back to Enchantress who has been roaming the Earth for over 6000 years, she is a witch of the highest magical order who is released from her tomb by a meddling June Moone who is then possessed by the magic one which works out pretty well for everyone as Enchantress only comes out to play when June utters her name and even then she has to do what shes told because Amanda Waller has her heart in a box and threatens to destroy it if she doesn't play ball. The transformation of Moone into Enchantress is one of the best effects of the whole movie in my opinion, it's just a shame that they only really show it once It is also important to note that Rick Flag is in a relationship with June which obviously brings its issues what with the whole possession thing and all that.

Over at Belle Reve Deadshot and friends are injected with a tiny explosive which will kill them if Flag or Waller decide they aren't playing balland choose to push the detonate button. Enchantress meanwhile finds herself a patsy and brings forth her brother Incubus who goes on a killing rampage with his super magic powers of destruction. Before long Enchantress joins him and begins building a machine that she will use to destroy all mankind (not unlike in the Ghostbusters reboot) though I'm not clear on why she needs the machine as the pair of them clearly have the ability to wipe us out anyway, maybe the machine is just the lazy way of doing things so she doesn't have to go on a world tour. The Squad are tasked with entering the city that is ground zero for the magical siblings grand plan in order to extract somebody who is apparently important enough to risk their lives to protect.

At this point the team is Deadshot, Harley, Croc, Boomerang and Diablo, Kitana is brought in to help Flag keep the villians in line and then Slipknot is introduced without any fanfare or backstory which seems odd until you realise that he is going to die in a few minutes time thus making his entire appearance almost pointless as his sole purpose is to attempt an escape in order for Flag to explode his head to prove that the tiny bombs are real. Now he only attempts his escape after being goaded into it by Boomerang which is a throwback to a similar occurrence that took place in the world of the comic book which is obviously why its in there but it just seems thoroughly unnecessary and a waste of a character who probably shouldn't have been included in the first place.

Anyway the Squad get into one scrape after another fighting off the hoardes of soldiers created by Enchantress whilst Joker has managed to get a mobile phone to Harley in order to communicate to her his plan to rescue her from her current predicament. The Squad get to the building and discover that the person they have been sent to rescue is none other than Amanda Waller who clearly values her own wellbeing above that of the millions of civilians who are either dead or dying at the hands of the evil magic of the twisted brother and sister. Before they can escape however Joker shows up and deactivates Harleys bomb and she does a runner with him, until that is their helicopter is shot down leaving Harley to believe that her puddin has been killed which leads her to rejoin the Squad since she has nothing better to do.

Amanda Waller tries to leave town but is captured by Enchantress which means the Squad now have to rescue her if they so choose which at first they opt to not do, especially after they discover the truth about Flags relationship with the potential destroyer of worlds but lo and behold they eventually decide to do the right thing and save the planet. This leads us to the final battle which sees the death of another Squad member in Diablo as well as the demise of Enchantress as the Squad successfully take her down though conveniently June survives to be reunited with Rick, isn't that nice!!

The film ends with the Squad back in prison though now with more creature comforts as per their requests until that is Joker shows up once more to break Harley out. Roll the credits and of course the now standard post credit (or in this case mid credit) scene which sees Bruce Wayne meeting with Amanda Waller and promising to help her cover up the events of the movie providing she gives him files on the metahumans he wants to recruit for the JL (Aquaman and co). As he leaves he tells her to shut down Task Force X and she hints that she knows he is Batman, in closing Bruce threatens to have the JL shut down Wallers operation should the situation arise.

And that was Suicide Squad, a movie that seemed to show much promise before its release but has ultimately proven to be yet another big letdown from Warner Brothers, a fact that pains me to admit due to my undying loyalty to the DC brand (at least as far as comic books go). In parts this film is really good, the opening portion of the film in particular rates very highly for me but when it falls apart it does so in such a manner that all the good will that it had earnt before is undone.

Enchantress as a villain doesn't really work and once she goes full heel (its a wrestling term for you uninitiated) she just becomes a cgi mess, twitching her way through every scene that she appears in and waving her arms around like shes having some sort of fit. Incubus is also a cgi blur who seems to have been created with the last dregs of the budget and the way the two of them destroy things with ease you're left wondering how the hell the unpowered Squad members have any chance of winning which I guess is part of the beauty of the threat they face. Speaking of bad cgi I also have to mention Diablos final form which not unlike Enchantress and Incubus is also just not very good.

As I have already mentioned Slipknot was pointless and I didn't like the version of Killer Croc that we were given here as it was too reminiscent of the Thing that we got in the two Jessica Alba Fantastic Four films, both are OK but not really what I would like to see from those too characters. Both of these pale in comparison to Letos Joker however as everytime he appeared on screen I hated him more. I will admit that I was not the biggest fan of Heath Ledger as the Joker, my personal favourite is Mark Hamill but if pressed to pick a live action version it is Jack Nicholson all the way, but after seeing Leto destroy the character with his hamfisted portrayal I will go on the record as saying that I would watch Ledger on a 24 hour loop over watching anymore Leto as Mr J.

There are also massively jarring moments in the film that either go unexplained or are left hanging for no apparent reason until much later in the film and at times the tone seems to jump around as well which can make what should be a pleasurable experience much less so. Word has it that two different cuts of the film were made following the disastrous response to DOJ and the company behind the first trailer were brought in to put together a much lighter film as the original cut was more similar to DOJ in tone and this was obviously not what fans wanted. The two versions of the film were shown to different audiences and the best parts of both were thrown together to make something of a supercut which has unfortunately fallen flat.

I can say however that Will Smith and Margot Robbie are perfect in their roles and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang is surprisingly entertaining which I am very happy to say as I have never really been a fan of his. Viola Davies and Joel Kinnaman are also great here and in the case of Kinnaman he earns enough goodwill to make us forget his role in the rubbish Robocop reboot.

It's not all bad news for those behind the film however as SS has broken the record for opening weekend takings in August by almost $40 million though many feel that will take a DOJ sized dropoff between its first and second weekend takings which would not make those in Warner Brothers towers very happy. There is also talk that they are already trying to minimise their losses, talking about the figures that are required to break even rather than those that looking at how much profit they can hope to make.

Is this film a disaster? The simple answer is no, it is certainly not as bad as DOJ and is worlds better than the travesty that was the Ghostbusters reboot but even so it is a continuation of the awful summer of film that we seem to be suffering with one terrible movie after another.

In closing I can say that I did enjoy Suicide Squad but not as much as I had hoped I would and for that reason I cannot give it anymore than a distinctly average 5 out of 10.