Suicide Squad! The movie that I fervently hoped would inject
some much needed life, humour and a whole lotta bad bad into the DC cinematic
universe. As is my usual
practice I had avoided all trailers, and anything else to do with the movie.
Going in, I didn’t know the premise, and I barely knew anything about the
casting other than the unavoidable few.
It starts with some promise – I liked the opening credits. Sadly, this was when the movie peaked.
I initially meant to write a proper recap. But I didn’t take
notes the first time and I just can’t bring myself to watch it again. So instead,
here’s a brief list of observation.
- Viola Davis reprises her role from How to Get Away With Murder as woman with less and less fucks to give each day who gathers together a bunch of unruly kids to help her solve her problems.
- The first twenty minutes of the movie is spent on exposition as we are introduced to each of the villains she plans to recruit.
- As any sane person would expect, the whole ‘death squad of super villains to combat threats from super villains’ plan goes awry even before it gets off the ground when one of its members goes rogue and starts being the threat.
- After being bombarded for what feels like forever with
teasers of Jared’s Leto’s Joker, we find that
a) he has very little screen time
b) we wish he had even less - Viola Davis as Amanda Waller wouldn’t have been my first choice. But then, they never get Waller right in the live action shows. TVs Arrow gave us an absurdly hot version and here, we have a way too serious version. You know who would have made a good Waller? The lady who plays Ethal Peobody in Gotham.
- What the hell was going on with the soundtrack? Was the director so lazy that he tried to let the music do half the work for him? If that was the case, he failed spectacularly. The soundrack is a bigger mess than Killer Croc's genetic composition. Eminem’s Without Me? Really? That song is just about Eminem! It can’t possibly be used by or for anyone else!
- The done to death trope of getting the main villain (who has the power to destroy cities - or in this case a satellite in space- from a distance) to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the main band of opposers, thus allowing themselves to be defeated? Sheesh.
I wanted so much to like this movie. So many amazing
characters, so many awesome stories to tap, and this is what they decided to go
with? What a waste.
