Suicide Squad: Review/Discussion (NO SPOILERS)

[kalhawj]

I thought I start this thread now that people are starting to see early screening of Suicide Squad and some already posting their review. Please no spoiler in this thread.

To start it off here's a video of a guy who have seen the movie.

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[Greens]

Bump. Post your personal review here.

 

[Compi716]

I saw Suicide Squad last night. I liked it! I thought it was good, and entertained me throughout its runtime.

Having said that, much of the criticism is valid. The villain is underdeveloped, and the movie feels as if it was mangled in the edit bay. If anything Suicide Squad is squandered potential—this could have been an A movie (Ayer's End of Watch certainly is), but for whatever reason it sort of just rests at a B-.

 

[RadioSha]

I saw Suicide Squad last night. I liked it! I thought it was good, and entertained me throughout its runtime.

Having said that, much of the criticism is valid. The villain is underdeveloped, and the movie feels as if it was mangled in the edit bay. If anything Suicide Squad is squandered potential—this could have been an A movie (Ayer's End of Watch certainly is), but for whatever reason it sort of just rests at a B-.

Hmmm... level headed reviews always make me more skeptical.

 

[TheVileOne]

I got to be honest, I'm feeling like about a C+ here. Like I would give it a passing grade, and I genuinely believe there is a good movie to be had here, it's just buried under what appear to be a lot of bad editing and presentation decisions and some other confusing elements.

I genuinely like the characters. I like the Squad. I like most of the actors' performances. I like the dialogue and their interplay. it's just a script that needed to be re-worked, or it was a good script that got really done in by 1) executives and 2) test groups.

Jared Leto's Joker is a failure on every level. I'm not trying to be mean but it is. His character is like a moody, coked up rockstar who is a big fan of The Joker. He's like those rockers or hipsters that think Che Guevara was some cool, heroic dude. Like someone who thinks Guevara is awesome or misunderstood and decides to try and act like him. He's a pretender. Not the genuine article.

I get what they were going for here, but it doesn't work. The tattoos don't work. And he's really...not that bad at all. He's practically a cuddly teddy bear. His role in the plot is inconsequential. The trailers are very misleading about that.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

I wrote this brief blurb about my thoughts on the film for another website:

Reasonable performances and a colourful cast are unfortunately not enough to make up for the thinly written, poorly paced and bizarrely edited film that Suicide Squad is. Including an underwhelming Joker performance from Jared Leto and obnoxiously used licensed music, David Ayer's DC film features a cast of villains you will likely be emotionally unattached to the entire run-time, and action set-pieces that are serviceable at best.

 

[harlequinade]

Fellow blogger saw it - she is giving it 6/10. She thought the pacing was off and wishes Joker was main villain, says he was underused. She says the film was fun but could have been much better, the standout for her were Harley/Joker scenes and Will Smith's performance

 

[catch22]

Characters were generally good, the plot generally wasn't. Pretty disappointing overall. My biggest issue was probably some of the character motivations and the lame CGI villain. Could have done with more Joker and Boomerang

 

[harlequinade]

another fellow blogger saw it - says Jared+Margot awesome but everything else not so much :/ she says she rates it 5 or 6 out of 10

 

[harlequinade]

Another one - "Well I just got out of the theater and I actually enjoyed it! Better than BVS surely as it didn't feel long despite it being 130 minutes. Oh and you won't be disappointed with Harley Quinn"

Sounds like this one is more than 5/10 I'll link their reviews when they post them

 

[bapi]

Enjoyed first 40-50 mins but once they move to Midway City it's boring and repetitive and the finale is a complete mess. Smith was very good, just like Robbie, Davis and Courtney. Cara is a complete miscast. One of the worst performances in recent years. Villains are the worst since Sharon Stone in Catwoman. Leto's screentime must be under 10 mins IMHO and he's not very good. Leaves zero impression. He's like some 14 year old emo guy who only cares about his girlfriend.

4.5/10

 

[Baneis8feettall]

Reading these reviews...

 

[harlequinade]

Reading these reviews...

all of my fellow bloggers tho, and those are people who simply love films and aren't getting paid to write the reviews, say that yeah it is a mess, but it is a fun mess. So it's not like it's a horrible atrocious thing

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Just got back and I loved it. Great action, some genuinely funny moments, but the best part is the characters. They're fantastic.

I like Joker and I want to see more of him. I agree with others that say the main antagonist is not that great, but it didn't bother me. The main focus is on the Squad and they are amazing, especially Harley, Deadshot, Flag and Boomerang. Waller and Diablo are great too. Katana and Croc are cool.

 

[nogster]

My review.

DC cannot get it right.
This movie was a mess. A poorly edited mess. Limited characterization, Silly nonsensical story, poor villian, generic action against generic cannon fodder.

There are a handful of cool scenes and character moments, mainly Deadshot and Harley. The film started with some kind of promise. Introducing the characters and setting up the story, but from the 2nd act to the climax. The film lost its way. I was literally getting sleepy midway through the 2nd act.
And the marketing of them being so bad. pfft. Most of them had hearts of gold. there are scenes that betray their villainy.
I understand they are the heroes of the movie. But cmon. they have known each other for what, a few hours to a day or so.......and the film is constantly telling us how bad they are. Then not showing it.

Characters.

Deadshot: He was pretty much the main character. the films emotional center, revolving around his love for his daughter. Will Smith is fine in the role. he has a natural screen charisma which elevates the material.

Harley Quinn: Margot Robbie has fun with the role. and is the most entertaining, but there are some cringeworthy lines she delivers. I don't blame her deliver really. more the script. My big problem is the lack of characterization. Her turn from Psychologist to crazy girlfriend is explained in flashback scenes that last seconds.

Joker: I cannot rate the performance cause he is hardly in the movie and has no characterization. I think Leto's Joker would be fine if given a meaty role. but this is nothing. My problem as well is he only in the film to serve a side story for Harley. He is like the possessive boyfriend instead of well. the Joker.

Rick Flag. He probably had the 2nd biggest role. but yeah. Nothing special. Just serves as a link between the squad, the big bad and Amanda Waller.

El Diablo: the most powerful of the bunch, and also the softest. You feel sorry for him. He is more like an Xman that does not want this power than a villian.

Amanda Waller: Strong performance of the scheming super *****.

The rest of the cast just have minor moments.
The thing is. the story they are in is silly. They don't really serve a logical purpose doing what they are doing. There would of been much more logical and easier ways of combating the big bad plan than sending a ragtag group of criminals, some not even that special in regards to abilites. Ie: Harley.
Great character. but why is she in the film as part of the squad to stop a world destroying event. She is just some crazy chick with acrobatic abilities.

My biggest beef really is with the story the characters are in.
The potential for a cool suicide squad movie is there. but not in this dumb story.

And the editing. BvS bad.
It is like the powers that be won't let the creative team do their thing. For some reason or another.

Just dissappointing.
I really wanted to like this movie.
This is another film that will serve as a foundation to the Justice League. and it is simply too messy, too divisive and well. generic to a be stable base to continue the larger arc.

DC failed again.
2 out of 5.

 

[TheVileOne]

My official review is live if anyone wants to read it.

 

[Marathon]

Ie: Harley.
Great character. but why is she in the film as part of the squad to stop a world destroying event. She is just some crazy chick with acrobatic abilities.

That's why it's mystifying why they didn't use Joker as one of the main antagonists. That way Task Force X would have a valid reason to use Harley.

Sounds like they shot a script that was barely thought through. Unacceptable for a $175m film.

 

[tek]

enjoyed the opening 5 minutes and was thinking the reviews might have been off track but it descended quickly into a mess. Positives - will smith, margot robbie (though has some flat comedic moments), jai for light relief. Negatives - just about everything else. the squad coming together as a team has flimsy motivation at best if any at all. Flagg had some cringe worthy lines, killercroc was just there. cant be bothered talking about the rest, ah yeah I applaud Leto for having a go and doing something different, unfortunately it sucks. 4/10 p.s nogster nails his review

 

[Cats]

I've just come from watching Suicide Squad and I absolutely loved it! Here's my review, and I will try to avoid main spoilers, but I do reference stuff found in the trailers, so if you've been avoiding the trailers, you might want to look away.

The movie reminded me of everything I enjoy about the DC animated movies, and even the Batman: the animated series. I swear there were so many dejavu moments with Harley Quinn, it was just a fan's dream! Ayer even gave us a shot of her in the BTAS costume. Joker's a little different from what I've seen, as in this Joker actually loves Harley, and he's capable of running his own club, but in mannerisms and overall appearance, he's quite similar to the BTAS Mark Hamill Joker. Deadshot got the most screen time, by far. I'm glad they really humanized him and in spite of him being a cold hard killer, made him relatable. That goes for El Diablo with his terribly tragic story too. I hear he's become everyone's favourite member of the SS. I can see why. Boomerang was a fun character, like 40% of his shots end in laughter (love it when his pink unicorn makes it on screen), Killer Croc's a pure comic-fan's treat (love this interpretation) and other than Katana unnecessarily speaking in Japanese when she obviously knows how to speak English, she fit in well as Rick Flagg's bodyguard. I love how the entire team started out fairly suspicious of everyone, and even though they seemed like a complete bunch of misfits, I really did believe them when they started to feel invested in each other. It captured and fulfilled the whole satisfaction of watching a team up movie - regardless of whether they are heroes or villains.

I also appreciate that David Ayer gave each of the characters individual introductions, for general audiences. I feel that it helped flesh each of them out a lot. They were done in a very stylistic manner; colourful, animated and each with their own song. I read that some critics described the movie as one big music video. I would agree with them but only to the extent of the intro section. I found it to be a very fun and creative way to get everyone up to speed.

I found no fault with the acting, and those whose performances stood out for me were Leto's, Margot's, Viola's and while Will Smith was simply being himself, it worked here. Jai Courtney and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje didn't get a lot of screen time, but both of them fit their characters to a "T".

Batman was in it a lot more than I thought he would be. There was a particular scene that was really touching, both on Batman's part and Deadshot's. Reminded me yet again of the animated series.

The villain introduced the DCEU to the world of magic. And I, personally, enjoyed the villain's backstory and motivation. There were some complaints that it was a weak villain. If they meant in terms of strength, yeah maybe, but I found that it worked in the team's favour, because it brought them more to focus, and less on the threat at hand.

I've only two complaints. Small ones. One in regards to the scene in the elevator with Harley, which she did some really cool moves, but they failed to explain how the others got up to the floor she stopped at. The second in regards to a flashback scene between the Joker and Harley where she dances at his club. There was a moment that seemed a little out of character for both. But they don't take away from the rest of the movie.

Also, I can't end this review without rave praise for Viola's Amanda Waller. If you felt Jesse's Lex lacked just the right amount of malice, you'll find that in Suicide Squad's Amanda Waller. I can't wait to see more interaction with her, especially when it comes to the Justice League. Also, any moment between the Joker, Harley Quinn and Batman becomes an instant classic. So I'd love to see more interaction among those three in the solo Batman movie.

Suicide Squad earns an easy 8/10 from me

 

[ArmsHeldOut]

I've just come from watching Suicide Squad and I absolutely loved it! Here's my review, and I will try to avoid main spoilers, but I do reference stuff found in the trailers, so if you've been avoiding the trailers, you might want to look away.

The movie reminded me of everything I enjoy about the DC animated movies, and even the Batman: the animated series. I swear there were so many dejavu moments with Harley Quinn, it was just a fan's dream! Ayer even gave us a shot of her in the BTAS costume. Joker's a little different from what I've seen, as in this Joker actually loves Harley, and he's capable of running his own club, but in mannerisms and overall appearance, he's quite similar to the BTAS Mark Hamill Joker. Deadshot got the most screen time, by far. I'm glad they really humanized him and in spite of him being a cold hard killer, made him relatable. That goes for El Diablo with his terribly tragic story too. I hear he's become everyone's favourite member of the SS. I can see why. Boomerang was a fun character, like 40% of his shots end in laughter (love it when his pink unicorn makes it on screen), Killer Croc's a pure comic-fan's treat (love this interpretation) and other than Katana unnecessarily speaking in Japanese when she obviously knows how to speak English, she fit in well as Rick Flagg's bodyguard. I love how the entire team started out fairly suspicious of everyone, and even though they seemed like a complete bunch of misfits, I really did believe them when they started to feel invested in each other. It captured and fulfilled the whole satisfaction of watching a team up movie - regardless of whether they are heroes or villains.

I also appreciate that David Ayer gave each of the characters individual introductions, for general audiences. I feel that it helped flesh each of them out a lot. They were done in a very stylistic manner; colourful, animated and each with their own song. I read that some critics described the movie as one big music video. I would agree with them but only to the extent of the intro section. I found it to be a very fun and creative way to get everyone up to speed.

I found no fault with the acting, and those whose performances stood out for me were Leto's, Margot's, Viola's and while Will Smith was simply being himself, it worked here. Jai Courtney and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje didn't get a lot of screen time, but both of them fit their characters to a "T".

Batman was in it a lot more than I thought he would be. There was a particular scene that was really touching, both on Batman's part and Deadshot's. Reminded me yet again of the animated series.

The villain introduced the DCEU to the world of magic. And I, personally, enjoyed the villain's backstory and motivation. There were some complaints that it was a weak villain. If they meant in terms of strength, yeah maybe, but I found that it worked in the team's favour, because it brought them more to focus, and less on the threat at hand.

I've only two complaints. Small ones. One in regards to the scene in the elevator with Harley, which she did some really cool moves, but they failed to explain how the others got up to the floor she stopped at. The second in regards to a flashback scene between the Joker and Harley where she dances at his club. There was a moment that seemed a little out of character for both. But they don't take away from the rest of the movie.

Also, I can't end this review without rave praise for Viola's Amanda Waller. If you felt Jesse's Lex lacked just the right amount of malice, you'll find that in Suicide Squad's Amanda Waller. I can't wait to see more interaction with her, especially when it comes to the Justice League. Also, any moment between the Joker, Harley Quinn and Batman becomes an instant classic. So I'd love to see more interaction among those three in the solo Batman movie.

Suicide Squad earns an easy 8/10 from me

Did you get the sense that your audience was enjoying the film as well? Just curious.

 

[Cats]

Did you get the sense that your audience was enjoying the film as well? Just curious.

Yup, they were laughing and doing their "oohs" and "ahhs". I noticed big smiles as they exited.

 

[JtheDreamer]

Yup, they were laughing and doing their "oohs" and "ahhs". I noticed big smiles as they exited.

What about throwing roses?

 

[ArmsHeldOut]

Yup, they were laughing and doing their "oohs" and "ahhs". I noticed big smiles as they exited.

That's good to hear. Glad you enjoyed it as well.

 

[tanita_mors]

I absolutely loved the movie. The experience was 10/10. The movie itself was a 7 or an 8 out of 10. The editing problems are minuscule compered to BvS and most are present in with Joker scenes - those were edited heavily. The story is simple but flows rather well to me and yes, the

Spoiler

Enchantress and Incubus were weak villains

- their entire plotline was muddled as hell. The characters were fantastic - Harley is a star, Deadshot was fantastic, Flag, Waller , Boomer were great. Joker was great as well, but too little screen time and he was revolving about Harley too much - part of me loved that but a part of me knew he should be doing more. He was going for creepy and unpredictable and I dug that. And it's clear as day in this cut of the movie that he is obsessed with Harley, completely.

I went with a friend who knows nothing about any of this. She loved the movie so much we will probably see it again. She adored Leto and wants to know more about Harley and Joker because she was enthroned by their dynamic and when I told her that it's abusive in the comics that made her even more interested, they were fascinating to her.

If my audience is an indicator, the GA is going to love this movie. While there was no cheering, we don't do that, there was laughing at every joke. And no, the movie is not as funny as advertised, but is still fun as hell. I heard people saying they were baffled by the poor RT score.

 

[Greens]

My thoughts from the general discussion thread

Here are my slightly scatterbrained thoughts. Feel free to ask about details.

Did I absolutely love this movie? No. Is it a stinker like the BvS theatrical cut? Not even close.

Pros:
- Great first act, albeit a bit rushed. The movie jumps right in and gives the people who may not know the Suicide Squad that well a nice introduction.

- The actors. They all did the best they could with the material and none of them stick out as bad. Cara is a special case but I'll cover that later.

- The action. While the action is not as slick and flashy as say a Snyder or Matthew Vaughn scene, there's cool stuff in there. Most of the action is pretty dark though (literally, dark) which is not conducive to the orientation of the viewer.

- The way Ayer (or WB, lol) blended serious and funny. The movie is not a full blown comedy, but it's not a sour experience either. There are serious moments, there are jokes, and I think they even each other out pretty well.

- Unexpected moments. Even though the trailers do spoil a lot of the main story and action beats, the movie had a couple of quick unexpected moments (mostly to do with Joker and Harley) that did elevate my experience.

- Obviously this is not a direct adaptation of one story, but as a comic book story translated to the screen it works really well. Ayer didn't go to Ang Lee's Hulk's length to make it look like a comic book, but the way the movie goes from action scene to action scene and some of the visuals definitely feel like a comic book story.

Flawed:
- While I think the Joker's purpose in the story was good, the cuts definitely hurt his scenes. I had very high expectations for some of the scenes that were teased in the marketing campaign and some of them just kind of fell flat to me.

- Speaking of the Joker, while Leto did not do a bad job and the sparse use of the character prevents me from making a full judgment, he added some ticks to the character that I didn't really like.

- Some of the CGI is definitely sub par.

- The pacing. While the movie didn't BORE me, the second and third act definitely drag a little bit and have a samey feel to them as the movie goes along. This is until the finale, which was done really well IMO.

- The villain. I gotta be honest here, the "villain" was cringe inducing at times. It didn't take up a whole lot of screen time but when it was happening I groaned a bit.

- Over reliance on pop songs and a generic score. I'm all for a good soundtrack, but the movie contains so many songs that it becomes tiring. The score does its job, I guess, but I doubt I will be listening to it outside of the movie. Nothing really stands out.

- There is one moment in the movie that still confuses me. It's not huge, but I thought it was weird. I'll just explain it here: [blackout]after Rick Flag reaches Waller's command center in Midway City, she kills her INNOCENT staff in cold blood because she doesn't want witnesses. for some reason, Flag is totally okay with this. it seemed really out of character for him[/blackout]