With an ensemble cast of anti-heroes and villains cracking jokes and fighting their way through Midway City against their will, sluggish pacing and lack of character development hold “Suicide Squad” back from being as impressive as promised.
Set in the DC Comics cinematic universe post-Batman v. Superman, the world is reeling over the aftermath of the previous film and looking for a way to fight terror in the modern world. Intelligence operator Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) decides to assemble Task Force X, a team of the dangerous criminals Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and Slipknot (Adam Beach), headed by military tactician Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman).
As a concept for a movie, “Suicide Squad” should have been a fantastic film. It has an ensemble cast of anti-heroes, violence and dark comedy, something missing from most other superhero movies full of do-gooders and boy scouts like Captain America. But, the struggle to find a plot worth caring about and effort to do too much in a couple hours make “Suicide Squad” suffer despite the great ideas present in the finished product.
It’s very hard to care about most of the members of Task Force X. Davis, Robbie and Smith are clearly the stars of the show, given either more screen time than the other characters or more well-developed backstories, albeit not that fleshed-out. These actors shine in their roles although they aren’t given too much to work with. Other characters, like Captain Boomerang and Slipknot, are really used for punchlines and minor dialogue, and fall to the wayside once the movie gets rolling and the team is fighting through Midway City.
Jared Leto’s Joker was present for very little of the movie, despite being hyped by his method acting antics (sending his costars used condoms and dead pigs, alienating himself from the rest of the cast, etc.). Leto’s performance was a bit of a letdown, personally. His character design, resembling a gaudy Hot Topic reject, clouded his already underwhelming performance that seemed a bit forced at times. The scenes depicting his abusive relationship with Robbie’s character were well done, although a bit more explanation could have been nice for viewers who aren’t familiar with their backstory.
The plot doesn’t really show up until around 30 minutes into the movie after most of the characters have been introduced. Once the villain and motivation is present, another useless character, Katana (Karen Fukuhara), arrives and does very little at all to advance the plot. Also, El Diablo was underused for most of the film and was subject to few worthwhile moments. The run-of-the-mill fight scenes coupled with odd breaks in the action for flashbacks and needless dialogue make the movie feel slow at times.
“Suicide Squad” isn’t a bad movie. It has some great ideas and adapts certain parts of the source material very well. But the execution wasn’t very impressive, with loose ends and a lot of characters, plot and settings that could have been fleshed out much more. While “Suicide Squad” is nothing to write home about, it’s a step up from “Batman V. Superman.” Here’s to hoping that the movies following “Suicide Squad” in the DC cinematic universe continue that trend.