Expectations are funny in how they change our perception of
something. If I had gone for Suicide Squad without any idea of the drubbing it
has got from critics (and many fans), I probably would have not enjoyed the
movie at all. But, when I saw the movie yesterday with the lowest of
expectations, I’ve gotta say – I kinda enjoyed it. Sure, there are many flaws
in the movie some of which we will go into in a minute (mild spoilers ahead),
but at the end of the day, the movie did entertain me.
The plot is threadbare, to put it generously. In order to
combat the threat metahumans like Superman could potentially pose to the world
if they turn evil, intelligence agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) forms a
taskforce of villains who can be used to fight them. Things quickly go south
when the metahuman in the proposed task force turns rogue and forms an honestly
unclear plan of either world domination or world destruction (I never really
got that part). So it’s up to the remaining assortment of bad guys in to fight the
menace.
So let’s start with what doesn’t work. For starters, the
plot (rather the lack of it) is the biggest let-down. There are many plot holes,
convenient scenarios and no real sense of danger for the protagonists. This is further
accentuated by the fact that their major challenges are literally a faceless
horde of zombie like creatures who die pretty easily. The whole movie has a
sense of a video game being played in super-easy mode. Not to mention that the
grand plan of Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) is not explained at all. The
character itself is laughable and the final act is cringe-worthy for the most
part. Like with many other comic book movies, it’s the main villain that turns
out the weakest link here. Which is a shame, since DC has some amazing
villains. Jared Leto’s Joker creates an impression with limited screen time,
but despite being very edgy and intimidating, the character doesn’t really rise
above being a mob boss. Hopefully in the coming movies – fingers crossed. Another
thing that irritated me was that the squad members are portrayed as
misunderstood softies with hearts of gold, which honestly just throws away the
potential the movie had in being more edgy and giving us real nasty bad guys
for us to root for (something Breaking Bad did so amazingly).
But despite all this, the movie definitely achieves one
thing – it entertains. Peppered with the right amount of humour and enough
character development to keep you invested, the film is definitely more fun
than Batman v Superman. Unlike BvS, which was overly muddled and complicated with
a cop-out ending, David Ayer sticks to the (extremely limited) plot and does
not try to add too much complication (it still has a cop-out ending though). And
there are enough threads to link the movie to the DC extended universe (the
mid-credits scene doesn’t add much, but is aimed to do just that). But the biggest
plus here may be the performances of the leads. Will Smith plays Deadshot
perfectly, and his charm goes a long way in making the character. Special
mention to Jai Courtney who makes an impression as Captain Boomerang. Viola
Davis does well, though her character could have been written to be more
intimidating. Perhaps the one most under the scanner, Jared Leto does well to
do his own take of the iconic Joker – he does step up to fill some iconic
shoes. It’ll be interesting to see how this character will be handled in the
upcoming movies. The scene stealer here is Margot Robbie though, who plays
Harley Quinn as crazy and eccentric without making the character a caricature.
All said and done, despite its numerous flaws, Suicide Squad
wasn’t all bad. I think that most people have reached saturation point with
regular by-the-numbers superhero movies which don’t add too much by way of new
stuff (which is probably also why X’-Men: Apocalypse’, another movie I didn’t mind
too much, was panned by the critics). All I know is, for the most part, I
had a good time at the movie. And that’ll do for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment