The DC extended universe (DCEU) is struggling. The lukewarm reception of Man of Steel has since been overshadowed by the critically despised Batman v Superman. Much criticism has been directed towards DC’s grim, humourless worldbuilding – can Suicide Squad be the fun, action packed riot the fans are looking for?

Suicide Squad follows a group of incarcerated supervillains. Among them are sharpshooting hitman Deadshot (Will Smith) and psychiatrist-driven-mad Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). Government official Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) puts a team together made of these criminals in order to combat threats of superhuman nature.

Smith and Robbie carry this film. With his legendary charisma, Smith falls into the role of the gunman who never misses while remaining likeable. And Robbie perfectly portrays this crazy, tormented woman who’s both badass and sympathetic. I also enjoyed Amanda Waller – she’s ruthless in her control of these criminals and I only wish she had a larger role as the story developed.

Obviously it’s mandatory that I talk about Jared Leto. I’ve been excited to see his Joker ever since the cast was announced. I thought he was the perfect choice. Though I really enjoyed his take on the character, don’t expect to see much of him. I feel as though a lot of his scenes were left on the cutting room floor and it’s sad that his involvement doesn’t meet the hype.

So let’s get to the action, the comedy, the carnage we were all hoping for… Well, this is the first reason Suicide Squad fails. The action sequences are very choppy and actually very poorly written. They generate no tension (something we’ve become accustomed to in superhero films anyway) and fail to give a playground for our heroes.

What I mean by that is, in The Avengers you’ve got Thor shooting lightning into the portal, Captain America kicking ass on the ground, Iron Man taking down the giant flying snakes, and Hulk bounding around buildings tearing everything apart. Suicide Squad pits our deadly killers against – you guessed it – mindless hordes of CGI monsters.

It all makes for frankly boring scenes because Deadshot mops up while the others dodge around a bit and occasionally take out one or two enemies. It’s terrible – why not make some of the enemies wear bulletproof masks? Why not set the battles by a river so Killer Croc has something to do? In the climax, two heroes face the villain while the others literally stand and watch.

This brings me to the biggest problem with Suicide Squad. The previous films and some cameos firmly establish that Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash are an active presence in the DCEU and that Waller knows about them. When shit goes down in the city and there’s a beam of light shooting to the sky threatening to destroy the world, why is she relying on our useless heroes when there are much better ones out there?

Let’s be honest here. Harley Quinn might be an interesting character but she’s still just a pistol and baseball bat wielding lunatic. Captain Boomerang is an atrocious excuse for a hero! The film never addresses the question: Why these heroes? And because we have to have that huge skybeam finale, it doesn’t make any sense. I’d have preferred a much more contained film where these characters have some opportunity to shine.

The way it ended up, we come away not caring about and barely knowing any of these characters. A decent attempt is made to humanise Deadshot and I’m happy to say it worked. But I cannot tell you the first thing about Boomerang or Killer Croc, or the lame, typical, lacking-in-motivation villain.

Our heroes aren’t even in the same room until after the lazy montage that introduces them. Anyone familiar with my blog will know that I hate being told about characters. We should always be shown. Instead, the exposition takes the form of Waller narrating a few flashbacks, and it gets tedious.

My final disappointment is that this film is rated 15 and fails to make the most of it. These characters are supposed to be supervillains but Suicide Squad was surprisingly tame, with only one scene I can think of that pushed the rating up from a 12A/PG-13.

The tone isn’t even that dark. I’m one of the few that doesn’t mind the moodiness of the DC films, but for a film about a bunch of supervillains I was hoping for more evil. Because they’re just wiping out waves of faceless monsters, you don’t get the sense that they’re in any way villainous.

This might not bother some, but I’m a huge fan of violence and when I think about Deadpool or the films of Matthew Vaughn I get frustrated at how much fun this film could have been. As a personal exercise, I’m planning an article about what I would have written for the story of Suicide Squad. It’s easy to say what could have been until you try to come up with something yourself. Stay tuned for that one!

I believe most people will be able to sit through Suicide Squad and find something to enjoy. There are good moments and some excellent performances, but all in all it fails to be the riot of fun and action it promised to be.

3-3

(GRADES: Both are from 0 to 10. The left is an objective score based on artistic merit, the right is my personal enjoyment.)

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