Review: Suicide Squad

Wow Suicide Squad was a fun film, better than Batman v Superman. Not by a lot, but enough to be enjoyable, while BvS wasn't in the end.

Did I come out of the movie at the end and think, "well that was fun?" Yes I did. Were there issues that I noticed during the film? Yep, but I thought they were minor at the time and let them slide. Now that I've had time to think through the tangled storyline, I am starting to agree with the reviews that marked this film at 26% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Story A: Assemble a team of bad guys to do the dirty work that the government can't do
Story B: Rescue a person or persons in a danger zone in Midway City.
Story C: Defeat the bad guy that Story A created.
Story D: Deadshot (Will Smith) and his daughter.
Story E: Joker (Jared Leto) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie)
Story F: Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) and Dr. Moon (Cara Delevingne)
Story G: backstory on Diablo (Jay Hernandez)
Story H: backstory on Boomerang (Jai Courtney)

Just be glad they took out the backstories on Katana (Karen Fukuhara), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and Slipknot (Adam Beach), they would have made this even more of a mess.

Story A is basicly Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) recapping how she managed to capture all these bad guys. In a way it works as an intro story to each of them, but then we get a whole nother intro to them in prison that is unneeded. She then uses one of her "bad guys" to help convince US Generals to let her have this project and team not long before that very "bad guy" goes rogue and creates a danger in Midway City that someone needs to be rescued from.

Story B is them activating the team and setting the wheels in motion for them to rescue the person(s) trapped in Midway City while being told to avoid the danger that the person(s) need rescuing from.

Story C is the danger, a magical entity known as the Enchantress and her brother that are creating a massive blue light "swirly thing in the sky" that is systematically wiping out the American armies, so that Enchantress can take over the world.

Story D is about an assassin and his love for his daughter, and how that gets in the way of him being a bad guy. It's a good story, and it tries to carry the film and be a moral compass for Deadshot and the rest of the team, but while it works for the one character, there is no reason given for it to work for any of the others.

Story E is by far the most messed up piece of trash that Warner Bros. has ever presented us with. Dr. Quinzel falls in love with the craziest of her patients at Arkham Asylum, so much so that she provides him with the tool that he needs to:

1. Escape
2. Kill lots of people
3. Capture and torture her

Then, at his request she does something to kill herself. He rescues her and their true romance begins. Including Joker pimping her out to another gang leader. The guy smartly refuses her, not rudely. "Hey Joker, she's your girl." To which the Joker shoots him. What was that about?

There is a lot of this film with Harley and no Joker, which is great, as Margot Robbie carries this film.

Story F: Rick Flagg is a military soldier that is assigned to Dr. June Moon, who was possessed by an artifact that she purposely broke open during an archaeological expedition. Rick watches her and falls in love with June, and she with him.

Story G: Diablo, believes that he is cursed by the devil and uses his pyrotechnic powers to gain power in the gangs of L.A. in doing so he loses his wife and kids.

Story H: Boomerang is an Australian, who uses his signature weapon to rob every bank in Oz, and then comes to the US to try his luck and kills his partner because, "he doesn't work well with others"

This is one of the elements that took me out of the story. He doesn't work well with others, so when he gets a chance at freedom, he takes it and leaves. So why on earth does he come back when the gang re-solidified themselves and saddle up to for Story C? There is no reason for it.

The Stories D-H are done in little disjointed snippets with exposition from Amanda Waller that can make them sometimes harder to follow than they should be, and there I can understand professional critics being disapproving of this film. Not to mention the soundtrack that sounds like an eleven-year-old channel surfing on the car stereo.

For me, was it fun? Yes and I enjoyed myself, so I really can't score it below 5/10. The disjointedness and the questionable plot elements and double introductions, plus the inconsistent characters. Keep it at the 5/10. If I hadn't of enjoyed it, I might have dropped it a point or two.

5/10 or D-