Right off the bat, this movie is far from the masterpeice I wanted and the DCEU needed. But is it "26% on Rotten Tomatoes" bad? Heck no. So what worked and what didn't? Well, I've got it all nicely organized in the following humble review:
The Cast
Let's start with the highlight of the film. The Squad and their supporting characters have been impeccably cast, with no one feeling out of place in their role.
Jai Courtney has finally found a role people won't hate him in, perfectly flowing into the utter scumbag that is Digger Harkness. His Boomerang is perfect, and needs to be signed up for the Flash solo ASAP. He was tragically underutilized, but still fares better than
Karen Fukuhara who has virtually nothing to do, but does well with the extremely limited material she does get.
Scott Eastwood's character has a purpose and he fills it well, but they stupidly set fans up for disappointment by being secretive with his role.
Ike Barinholtz fares better with his own non-major part, recieving some of the biggest laughs in the film.
AAA as Killer Croc and
Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg were key additions, but had a lot of important details left on the cutting room floor that would have granted their characters much more depth.
Jay Hernandez surprised a lot of people with his role as El Diablo, portraying excellantly perhaps the most complex member of the squad.
Cara Delevingne is the villain, which I called from very early on in production. Her scheme is horribly generic (More on that later) but I felt she delivered a suitably creepy preformance.
Then comes the "main" four parts.
Margot Robbie is pitch perfect as Harley Quinn while
Jared Leto offers up a fresh take on The Joker. However, Harley is most memorable apart from The Joker, in large part because the relationship doesn't flow well, and has been neutered from what we see in the comics. I'll go into more detail in the Story segment, but changing their relationship damages both characters, and holds them back despite two stellar preformances.
Viola Davis is amazing as Amanda Waller, a character who has had numerous live action interpretations. But this is the only one that counts. Hopefully Snyder was smart enough to find her a cameo at least in Justice League. And then there's
Will Smith. These days the guy seems to get a lot of hate, which I really can't understand, other than the crime of bringing his obnoxious son into the world. But he commands every second he's on screen. Going in, he was the movie's biggest star, and coming back out he remains on top. This movie NEEDS a sequel, if only to see more of Smith in this part.
The Plot
This is where things get a lot less positive. The plot is there, and it's cohesive, but it's far from the greatest. The main problem is the villains plot is incredibly generic, both on paper and visually. The vagueness of Enchantress' scheme borders on satirical levels. But the overarcing plotline isn't awful. A lot of people have pointed out how horribly outginned the Squad is in this situation. This is a Justice League level threat. But when you think about it, there is no Justice League yet. The Squad is all they've got. So in-universe, this story makes sense, but I can't help but wish we'd have gotten a more traditional, covert ops Squad mission.
Then there's the subplots. Harley and Joker work well together, but Leto is ticked off with the studio for a reason. Not only did the cut scenes severly diminish his role after he was marketed as a lead (He should have been the main villain of the film, in my opinion) but they completely changed his relationship with Harley, and robbed her of any meaningful arc. The Flagg/Moon subplot also suffered from the editing room, with a lot of footage that would have helped us care about them as a couple being cut. I also feel like it was a mistake to bring Moon back at the end. It lessened the poignancy of Flagg's sacrifice and complicates his status for a sequel. Without June, the squad would be all Flagg had left. Now, Waller loses her leverage over him, and his continued presence if this becomes a franchise will need explaining. Lastly, there's Diablo. His subplot was the most well-handled, though his early casual power displays slightly detracted from it. But the excellant character work was nearly ruined in what should have been his most poignant scene, his sacrifice. Having Diablo randomly turn into a CGI fire demon with no explanation or previous buildup kills the power of his sacrifice, which could have been perfect had he stayed in human form.
Technical Stuff
Here's where things get rough. I know Ayer claims that this is his version of the movie, but I don't believe that for an instant. It's clear that this movie came out of the editing room very different from when it went in, and looking at what was cut and what stayed, it's very clear to me who was making the calls. And it sure wasn't Ayer. Now that the elephant in the room is out of the way, the way this movie is put together is just plain sloppy. The awkwardly laid out, exposition dunmping character intros were the worst offense for me, and the music, whil fine choices, was also the victim of poor editing, with songs sometimes going back to back and just becoming a bit of a mess. At least 21 Pilots excellent "Heathens" jived perfectly with the credits. They may manage to grab one Oscar nod for that.
In Conclusion
It really pains me to see this movie turn out the way it did. It has the perfect recipe for success: Amazing cast in the right roles, Visionary directer, and New & Unique source material. And you can tell that there is a truely great movie in there somewhere. But whether it was a knee-jerk reaction to BvS or whatever, this film became another victim of the Warner Brothers editing room. And the tragedy is worse than that of BvS, because this had more quality to begin with and will likely never get a Director's Cut. In conclusion, Suicide Squad is far from great, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's BAD. It's a ton of fun, the cast is perfect, and there are a lot of truly great moments. One can only hope that the stars align for a sequel, and that Leto can be coaxed back in to truly realize his potential in future DCEU films.
FINAL SCORE: 5.5/10