David Ayer's Suicide Squad was my most anticipated movie of the summer and 2nd most anticipated CBM of the year next to Batman V Superman for mainly two reasons:
1. The idea is awesome
2. The marketing was incredible
This has possibly the coolest premise for a movie of the year, assembling the most villainous scum in the world to pull off black ops missions? That sounds [frick]ing awesome! And let's not forget how great the marketing for this movie was. The Blitz and Bohamian Raphosody trailers were some of the best trailers in the past five years! Even the colourful crazy filled posters were great! No wonder this the definitive most anticipated movie of the summer for just about anyone.
Unfortunately, even with my lowered expectations after the harsh reviews came out, the movie turned out to be disappointing for me.
Suicide Squad isn't bad, but it's not great either. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give a 6/10, which is basically a 'good' rating. Although the movie is fun and entertaining filled with tons of great characters, too many problems like music and story structure, rushed character development, a terrible villain and bad action made the experience watching Suicide Squad rather disapointing.
Above is my short little review of the film, however I wanted to do something different. Two years ago DC released another of their animated movies, but this time focused on the Suicide Squad called Batman: Assault on Arkham. Assault on Arkham is highly praised within the comic book fans circle, being gold within a flood of medicore DC animated movies. So what I'm going to do is compare the two Suicide Squad movies to see which is better and does the brand justice.
CHARACTERS
Both Assualt on Arkham and Suicide Squad do a good job of getting you to know each character and their individual personalities.
Assault On Arkham gets an advantage in terms of characters that are not Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Boomerang, Joker or Amanda Waller. Characters in Assault on Arkham like King Shark, Killer Frost and Black Spider are way superior to other Squad members in Suicide Squad like Killer Croc, Rick Flagg and Katana.
King Shark, Killer Frost and Black Spider all get their own little times to shine and Assault on Arkham gives us more time to care for these characters due to more of the running time spent on the Squad's interactions. Even with Suicide Squad's having an extra hour of runtime, Assault on Arkham gives the lesser members of the Suicide Squad more time to develop. Killer Croc, Flagg and especially Katana are just there and have no particular memorable scenes. Croc and Katana barely even interact with the Squad, Croc and Katana COMBINED have a total amount of like six lines of dialogue. However El Diablo completely trumps Shark, Frost and Spider in terms of character due to his excellently crafted back story and character arc. He's the emotional core of the story, which Assault on Arkham lacked.
Who did Deadshot better?
Even with some may complain that Will Smith's interpretation of Deadshot is too 'Will Smith', I still believe Will Smith nailed it in the role. It's the first movie in a long time where it looks like Smith is actually enjoying himself. Deadshot is given more time to shine in Suicide Squad than in Assault on Arkham like the scene where he showing Flagg and Waller his shooting skills or the 'I missed' scene. Will Smith's Deadshot is vastly superior in my opinion.
Who did Harley Quinn better?
Even with questionable decisions in Suicide Squad to the Harley Quinn character like making her a stripper at Joker's club, Margot Robbie gives possibly her best performance of her career as Harley Quinn. She's pulls of the crazy, loving and sometimes hilarious parts of the character perfectly. Both Harley in Suicide Squad and Assault on Arkham are given the best scenes and best lines of dialogue, but Margot's interpretation was definitely better and more memorable. I can't believe how much I enjoyed her performance. Even her little character moments with the Joker were fantastic!
And who doesn't love her ass? The camera sure did!
Who did Captain Boomerang better?
Jai Courtney is a terrible actor, but in this he's pretty freaking good. He's definitely the funny guy of the team and his lines had me chuckling many times. The running gag of Boomerang's pink unicorn was hilarious! Assault on Arkham's Boomerang is also pretty good, but compared to Jai's performance he doesn't come close.
Who did Amanda Waller better?
In my opinion, Viola Davis was the scariest part of the movie. She's even more ruthless and sadistic than the actual bad guys. Davis was born to play Waller. She's even more threatening than the actual villain of the piece, Enchantress. She's gives possibly the best performance of the movie next to Margot and Hernandez. Assault on Arkham's Waller just sits in a room for the whole run-time so isn't given enough space to improve her character. Although Suicide Squad's Waller also sits in a room, she does end up getting into the action and showing of why she is so cold blooded and ruthless.
With more memorable and entertaining performances, Ayer's Suicide Squad gets the point for characters.
SUICIDE SQUAD – 1
ASSAULT ON ARKHAM – 0
TEAM DYNAMIC
The best part of Ayer's Suicide Squad was, for me, the characters. The highlights of the movie are the scenes where the Squad are actully interacting with eachover like the great bar scene. However the movie unfortunately and weirdly doesn't have enough of that. Most of their interactions last about a couple of seconds due to it only being one liners.
Assault on Arkham, with a shorter runtime, does a better job of showing the Squad as a team and how they interact. There are several scenes in AOA of the Squad interacting. Even in the 'big heist' of breaking into Arkham, they still have time to have memorable conversations between the members. One of the highlights is the scene between Deadshot and Boomerang where they are playing darts. It showcases each of their characters and presents a stronger bond between the two Squad members which Ayer only showed with a one liner.
Each of the Squad members in Assault on Arkham bring their own persona to the team and the film showcases it better. King Shark has way better scenes with the Squad than Killer Croc. I even liked his little spat with Killer Frost. Unlike Ayer's movie, the movie actually shows conflict between the team. There a ton of scenes where the Squad disagree with eachover and those scenes show a better sense of a team.
Due to having more scenes that showcase the team much more and the conflict and relationships inside them, Assault on Arkham does a better job of the team dynamic so it gets the point.
SUICIDE SQUAD - 1
ASSAULT ON ARKHAM - 1
THE VILLAIN
Suicide Squad's villain the Enchantress was god awful and one of the worst villains in comic book movie history. Her plan was stupid and made no sense. Her original look was pretty cool but that changes when she costume is changed to barely any clothing with some headpiece that looks stupid. Not to mention, Cara Delevingne is horrible in this role. She doesn't bring an intense and threatening presence a villain should have.
Assualt On Arkham doesn't have a villain until the end of Act 2. However even then their villain is better. The villain is the Joker who, after breaking out thanks to Harley, decides to attack the Squad, specifically Dead shot. Joker brang an interesting presence to the story and was entertaining and wasn't stupid like Echantress.
But the real villain of both films is Amanda Waller. Waller in Assault on Arkham barely features and doesn't bring the intimidating and hardcore badass presence that Viola Davis.
I'm going to points to both Assault on Arkham and Suicide Squad due to SS having the better Waller, but AOA having the better 'other' villain.
SUICIDE SQUAD – 2
ASSAULT ON ARKHAM – 2
THE ACTION
The way Ayer filmed the action in Fury was fantastic. What the hell happened here?
In every action scene, the moody dark lighting and constant shacking camera make it impossible to see what the hell is going on. No where is this more apparent than the final fight between the Squad and Enchantress. The one before with Diablo and Echantress' brother was pretty cool even with the horrible CGI, but the one after is horrible. Even with the blue light shining in the room, the room is dark as hell and added with the rain pouring down make the scene and action, even without the shaking camera, barely visible. Even the chase with Joker, Harley and Batman was disapointing.
Although Assault on Arkham is an animated film, the action is vastly superior. The lighting of the room and camera angles actually allow you to see what's going on and the hand-to-hand combat scenes where the Squad is fighting Batman or Deadshot fighting Joker are actually well made action scenes. Assault on Arkham takes the point.
SUICIDE SQUAD – 2
ASSAULT ON ARKHAM - 3
THE STORY
The story IDEA in Suicide Squad is very basic and straightforward: assemble bad guys and send them into the city to save some people. However the way the movie is horrible structured in terms of scenes turns this upside down. The best example of this is the flashback halfway through the movie of Harley and Joker in Ace Chemicals. The way it transitions into the scene and where the flashback takes place is horrible in terms of editing. This mainly has to do with the re shoots and deleted scenes, which made the story structure so clumsy.
Assault on Arkham is perfect in terms of story structure. It's a very simple story idea which doesn't get screwed up in scene structure. Every scene has a purpose and doesn't feel out of place. I also preferred the story idea in AOA; sneak into Arkham Asylum to steal something which quickly goes crazy. It's more of an espionage heist like Oceons Eleven and made for an interesting tale. Plus the various amounts of twists and turns of the plot also make the story more interesting and engaging.
Suicide Squad could have come up on top, but blame it on the editors and scene strucutre. AOA gets the point.
SUICIDE SQUAD – 2
ASSAULT ON ARKHAM - 4
THE JOKER
Both movies feature the Joker whose main point is to be there because of Harley Quinn.
Assault on Arkham's Joker features more heavily and actually takes part in more action scenes. He also actually makes an impact on the plot unlike Jared Leto's Joker. Assault on Arkham's Joker, however, isn't that impressive in terms of performance. It is more of the same of Mark Hamill's Joker and I understand this makes sense due to it taking place in the Batman Arkham Universe.
Although people had problems with it, I LOVED Jared Leto's take on the Joker. He's in the movie for like ten minutes, but he left a great impression on me. I loved the more creepy, sensual, personal and physiological side of the Joker that featured in Ayers movie. The scene with Ike Barinholtz' character and Harley and him at Ace Chemicals showcase this new Joker the most.
Even with memorable lines from Assault On Arkham's Joker like 'Denzel, what have they done to you?' and 'I'm here, bitches!', I still prefer Jared Leto's Joker.
SUICIDE SQUAD - 3
ASSAULT ON ARKHAM - 4
CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS
Suicide Squad and Assault on Arkham are very similar in how they introduce the characters of the Squad. They both show each of the characters doing crimes and eventually being caught. Assault on Akrham's takes about two minutes of the runtime, whereas Suicide Squad's one takes around ten or fifteen minutes of the runtime.
Although Suicide Squad's character introduction showcases the worst of the movies' scene and music structure, I really enjoyed this part. Deadshot on a regular job and spending his time with his daughter was very cool and made me engage more with his character. Boomerang's was also cool but the best one was no doubt Harley Quinn. Seeing short moments of her time at Arkham Asylum with Joker before she becomes Harley Quinn was awesome and both that scene and the club scene gives us a great introduction to not only Harley Quinn, but also the Joker.
SUICIDE SQUAD - 4
ASSAULT ON ARKHAM – 4
CONCLUSION
I actually prefer Assault on Arkham as a Suicide Squad movie, but based on these points, I guess they are equal. That kinda makes this whole thing kinda useles....huh. This ended how just about every superhero fight ends - a tie.
The movie does have good parts to it and is an entertaining movie, but the flaws of it outway the positives for me which is why I give it a 6/10, which is STILL A GOOD SCORE.
Wow, this was my longest article yet. Most probably just looked at the conclusion anyway.