Suicide Squad

After having read many reviews, I was a tad skeptical about going to see the Suicide Squad, though I had been looking forward to it ever since it was announced that Jared Leto, one of my favorite actors, was going to play the Joker. Many reviews commented on the movie being very bland, lacking of character development and being marketed wrongly. Though I agree with the latter, the first two I simply cannot agree with.

The story is written as any summer blockbuster is written. That is what this movie is, a summer blockbuster. It will not go on to win many Oscar nominations or other prizes worth mentioning. It's a fun filled 2 hours and 10 minutes.

At times, the movie feels as though it's a Will Smith party. The way his character Deadshot or Floyd Lawton is written is as though he's the squad leader, which is a shame and takes away from the other squad members. His overall performance as the hit man is an outstanding one, but it's a shame that his part is much larger than the others. Though some might say that Harley Quinn, played by the wonderful Margot Robbie, also has a lot of time in the spotlight, it is the character Deadshot that feels like the lead within the movie.

Speaking of Margot Robbie, I feel that many Harley Quinn fans will be pleased by her performance as the much loved character. There are references to her original costume, which many longed for as there have been many complaints about the outfit she is wearing throughout the entire movie. They tap into her origin story a lot more than with any of the other characters, though she will soon shine in a stand alone Harley Quinn movie which will be released at a later date.

The plot moves slow at the beginning, this is mainly due to the introduction of various characters. Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, El Diablo and Boomerang all get their introductions during flash back sequences. It's extremely difficult to do each and every one of these characters' origin stories justice within the time span that they had. Hopefully in the follow up Suicide Squad movie we'll dive more into the origin stories of these fantastic characters.

Amanda Waller, played by the fabulous Viola Davis, is everything you wanted the character to be and more. She's ruthless, somewhat egocentric and very calculative. Amanda Waller is the one playing chess, while the other characters are mere pawns upon the board. She's not above sacrificing her own men for her cause, which makes her a lethal but very interesting character to watch.

Jai Courtney as Boomerang (or Captain Boomerang as he's mostly known) was hilarious to watch. Though he lacked screen time and a more in depth development, his character functioned as somewhat of a comic relief without taking away from the character. Though it's been noted that some of his originally shot scenes have been cut from the film, which is a shame. Other characters such as Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc and Karen Fukuhara as Katana all have their moments to shine, though they all deserved more screen time in my opinion.

Joel Kinnaman who plays Rick Flag goes from being a military lackey to Amanda Waller to being his own man, which is some of the little character development within the show. Deadshot and Harley Quinn also face some of their inner demons, while El Diablo comes face to face with his inner demons in a massively important scene.

The bad guy is played by none other than Cara Delevingne, who plays the all powerful Enchantress. Though the trailers have been misleading, painting the joker as the bad guy within the film, it is actually Enchantress that is set to destroy the planet. Cara Delevingne her performance as Enchantress is creepy and captivating, though the deep voice and old language spoken by the character often seem disconnected from the acting done by Delevingne.

Many scenes that involved the Joker, played by Jared Leto, were short and seemingly irrelevant. From what we saw within the trailer, there were many scenes used within promoting the movie that weren't included within the film itself. Much to the dismay of Jared Leto himself. This made it feel as though the Joker was simply added on for dramatic effect, though he's been promoted as being a bigger character than he actually is within the film. This is a shame, because they could have done much more with this character and I would have loved to see more of Leto's performance as the notorious Batman villain. That said, I think that there wasn't enough material there to really get a feel for this version of the Joker, and if he does or does not live up to the footsteps he needs to fill.

Speaking of promotion! The film was being promoted as a very dark and gritty film. Though the film settings must have been far from ideal, which could be the reason for many of the actors to say that it was sometimes very difficult to shoot, it wasn't dark or gritty. It was a fun filled summer block buster and it should be viewed as such. The writing is okay, but far from outstanding. None of these characters have had stand alone films in which they could have been properly introduced with a proper origin story, which means the writers did the best to their abilities to show you who these guys are and what motivates them.

I don't think this film deserves all the flack it has been getting. I really enjoyed myself. I didn't fool myself into believing this was going to be an outstanding movie that would leave me shaken to my core. It was a nice 2 hour and 10 minute distraction that left me with a smile upon my face. If you are into mindless fun, I would recommend you go see it regardless of the bad reviews you might have read. If you want in depth character development, amazing origin stories and plot we have never ever seen before? Than you should stay home and read the comics.

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