Suicide Squad
by David Ayer
DC Entertainment
Welp, that was whelming.
Suicide Squad is the third movie in the DC Extended Movie Cinematic Anything Marvel Can Do We Can Also Do Universe, about Amanda Waller, a US intelligence operative, and her handpicked team of really really bad guys who she wants to use to fight Superman. See, since Superman exists, and there are the DC version of mutants evolving (they’re called metahumans here), we need something to fight the Supermen of the universe and that would be Will Smith and Margot Robbie and some other people. Something goes horribly wrong, and they destroy another city.
There are a number of problems, and I shall attack them in a random order.
First: the plot is a mess and doesn’t make a lot of sense. One of the members of Waller’s suicide squad is an archeologist who is possessed by a 6000 year old witch from a culture that was in a unspecified jungle. The Enchantress is controlled by Waller because she keeps the Enchantress’s heart in a box (really) and somehow she still breaks away and decides to end the world because she’s mad about the whole heart in a box thing. So the squad is called to stop her, or something? Lots of things blow up. Lots of people die, so DC is tripling down on the nameless collateral damage of their movies.
Second: I’m deliberating burying The Problem of Jared Leto in the middle. He’s made a bunch of hay out of how ~method~ he went playing the Joker, like sending dead animals and bullets and sex toys to his castmates and being like “Well, it’s METHOD” and asshole, that’s shit you get away with because you’re a white dude, and if any woman tried that, or any person of color, or god forbid, a woman of color, they would be immediately eviscerated in the press and be labeled as difficult to work with. You’re not method, you’re just an asshole. Also you weren’t that good. For fuck’s sake.
Third: there’s some troubling implications with race. Yes, Will Smith pointed out that there were a lot of people of color in the cast, and that’s awesome. BUT the one Latino dude was an LA gang member. The one Asian woman is a martial arts expert who only has a handful of lines where she either talks about killing or crying over her dead husband. There’s a Native dude in this movie! You haven’t seen him in any of the ads! There’s a reason for that (don’t get attached)!
So there’s that.
Fourth: The Problem of Harley Quinn. There’s two problems with Harley Quinn- the first is that she (along with every other woman in the Squad) is super sexualized. Like, Harley has issues (we’ll get to that), but I feel like she would ACTUALLY wear ACTUAL pants for this kind of thing, not sequined hot pants (and sure, the character “chose” the pants, but the male writer and director made her do that). And also spike heeled sneakers are not that practical either. Plus, her backstory is a version in which the Joker tortures her into falling in love with him, and then pushes her into a vat of toxic something to…make her more unstable? I’m not sure what the point was, except to make her hair multicolored.
Look, Margot Robbie KILLS it: “I am known to be quite vexing!” (I like her more and more and more each time I see her), and there are a lot of layers to what she pulls off, but I swear, I saw more of her butt in this movie than I did in The Wolf of Wall Street. And she was SUPER naked in Wolf of Wall Street. Harley herself is one of the most beloved characters DC has, and she deserves to be treated with more respect than she was here.
Also, I don’t really feel like I’m qualified to talk too much about the nature of her instability, but there’s mention of voices talking to her, and just generally being “off,” and while this is “comic book mental illness” being portrayed here, the portrayal itself was distasteful to me in a way I can’t quite articulate. Is it good? Harmful? I don’t know, and I don’t know how to approach it except to say it was A Thing That is In the Film, and I Disliked It.
Other problems also include:
- cutting too fast so you can’t read all the text on the screen
- too many people being introduced with too little substance
- lots and lots and lots of destruction porn
- and women getting punched in the face for being mouthy
Yay.
The cast all was great (save Method Bro), especially Will Smith, who is a professional, and Viola Davis, who elevates everything she is in and we don’t deserve her.
Basically, this is a mess, and it’ll still make a buttload of money, just probably not a fuckton. My advice: if you want to see it, it’s not worth spending money on. Wait until you can see it without having to lose a few dollars.
Suicide Squad is in theaters now and you can find tickets (US) at Fandango and Moviefone.
Wow, we have a real difference of opinion on the movie. I LOVED it. I thought it really captured the feel of the old DC comics (not the popular ones, the “weird” ones). It was gritty, but it really made an statement about corruption of the state and what makes someone good or bad. All the plot holes people are talking about are in every comic book movie…it’s kind of part of the genre. The major one you are talking about here reflects a hubris of power and almost falls into Greek Tragedy (the powerful think they can control “the thing/person” and then their actions based on fear cause whatever they are the most scared of to happen). While the POC are stereotyped, these characters are from the comics, so the movie couldn’t really do anything about their portrayal. At least this story made many of them real people that could be empathized with. While the introductions dragged a little, I thought they added to the story more than they distracted.
I liked it alot too @jwocky. I had some issues with Harley Quinn’s portral too, but they ripped that right out of the New 52 (I prefer her characterization from the animated personally), right down to the shorty shorts and high heeled sneakers. It’s Suicide Squad though, so I want expecting to get my preferred version of her. As for her movie origin, she’s twisted, but at least she made the conscious step in the movie, which I found an improvement over the comic version.
Re Slipknot dying – this is straight from the comics. Boomerang is a dirtbag who convinces him to try to escape knowing what will happen. Most things you’ve listed here as a problem are direct from the comics so your problem is the source material. This is well known so knowing all that why go see it? I’ve noticed a trend here and I’m coming to the point where I won’t be reading anymore reviews here because I know how they will read.
Viola Davis was fantastic here. Yes the movie was overstuffed. There were too many characters for such a small period of time – beyong Harley and Deadshot no one really got a lot of time (even Rick Flagg was pushed aside which to me undercut one of the emotional payoffs in the movie). My bet is that Boomerang will be in the Flash movie, and that we will see Katana pop up in a larger role in the future.
Visually this movie was phenomenal. I just wish they’d put slightly less in to give more time to the people that were there.
I liked this movie a little less than Redheadedgirl did (full review at http://thearmchaircritic.blogspot.com/2016/08/suicide-squad.html ; short review: D-). The visuals and plot were almost relentlessly grim, the characters were more abilities/powers than personalities, and the attempt to make these anti-heroes (who were often homicidal and sometimes sociopaths) friends and likable fell very flat. Between this and the nearly-as-bad BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, I wonder how much erasing and apologizing DC will be doing as they try to build their own cinematic universe.
I’m normally a Marvel girl but the dh and I love Arrow on Netflix and in taht variation of the ‘verse, I am continually impressed by the diversity and the inclusion of complex arcs for not only females and persons of color but also the older generation of actors in supporting roles as well. I’m pretty damn fond of it and I’ll give SS a wide berth as a result. I also dig how a lot of Arrow is aware of the female gaze.
SPOILERS ALL THE SPOILERS I WARN YOU.
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I’ve just come from watching the movie. Did you guys clock the molly o’keefe novel? Just watched it in the UK. And Harley’s fantasy, what did you make of that? I mean overall I found it pretty enjoyable, and the narrative superior to batman v superman in terms of making sense. It also allowed more poking fun. I’ll acknowledge it is problematic in some ways. Potentially it could have been a film that blew it out of the water in terms of representing alternative narratives eg black, ethnic minority, female gaze, having a mental illness… and I think it tried but didn’t make it. (They were trying to portray Harley as owning her sexuality in some empowered way I think) Still, it was better than watching two white males dicking it out from that perspective. Soundtrack was fun!
MARTHA.
@B, re: Harley’s fantasy. From what I remember of the comics, she got into psychiatry because she wanted to understand why her family was so dysfunctional. So she has a deep seated longing for a traditional and functional family home life. It’s not like she doesn’t know she’s messed up, she knows. I wouldn’t say it’s Harley owning her sexuality in an empowered way, that’s really not how I’ve ever read her, but that she uses it a manipulation and sociopathic way. She owns it, but it isn’t empowering IYSWIM.
Please DC. Don’t fuck up Wonder Woman.
@Bronte My problem is with the way Ayers chose to adapt the source material. He is not tied into the comics with no variation possible. He has the ability to go “You know what? Having the only person on the team (save the variable numbers of Flagg Boys who never get named anyway) die being a Native dude is a PROBLEM and part of a larger issue within Hollywood of consistently killing off people of color to give other characters, often white, motivation in their own story, especially given the absolute lack of roles of Native actors, ESPECIALLY especially in major, big budget movies, so maybe I’ll come up with a better, less issue-laden way to tackle that plot point.”
And yes, I do expect a plot that actually makes sense in comic book movies. Not bothering to break the story and just throwing bits at the wall and shrugging and going “no one will care” is lazy filmmaking.
@Marci — Amen. I really hope that Wonder Woman is a fun, uplifting movie and not more of the same dark and dreary from the DCEU.
WW was definitely the best part of Batman v. Superman for me. She was the only character that seemed to have any sense of humor or lightness about her.
Can’t imagine wanting to see this. Can’t imagine why Will Smith agreed to do it (why not Hancock II? I would watch the hell out of that). Can’t imagine ever wanting to see Jared Leto in anything ever. Ugh.
“While the POC are stereotyped, these characters are from the comics, so the movie couldn’t really do anything about their portrayal.”
I disagree with you and others on this, jwocky. A movie is always an adaptation of the source material, and it can devalue it or it can be faithful to it, or it can elevate it. In cases where the source material is…problematic, let’s say…a creative and clever adapter (and/or director) can find a way around the problems without violating the core of the themes, characters, or narrative.
It’s sort of a version of Death of the Author. Basically, reality (in this case, the source material) is no excuse for fiction (in this case, the screenplay).
I agree this was a pretty mediocre movie. I had several issues with it including…[Spoilers]
Did anyone else notice that the Latino guy DIES in the big battle and at the end the team is all happy (in jail but whatever) and never mention him again? He sacrifices himself (for no good reason as far as I remember) and they completely forget about him and play it off as a happy ending. WTF?? I found that so frustrating.