Suicide Squad

For all its promising trailers and casting choices, the hype surrounding this movie left the viewer slightly disappointed after seeing it.

The first half consisted mainly of introductions and exposition, and while it was cleverly done and executed, it felt rushed. Every bad guy needed a background to justify their crimes and attitude, and any explanatory text which appeared on screen disappeared before it could be read. Only two of the villainous cast give a lasting impression of being something more than a two dimensional character: Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). Deadshot is the real ‘hero’ of the story, and the plot tries valiantly to place him as its central character – the good guy among the bad guys. This is mainly achieved through his relationship with his daughter, sold to the audience as his ‘only weakness’. Not exactly a gripping back-story. While Harley Quinn is a fun wild card, lightening up every scene she is in, it could easily be said that the studio exploits Robbie’s physical appearance in order to sell more tickets. In a film with villains facing villains, Cara Delevigne fails to convince in her role as the Enchantress. Whether this is due to the studio failing to give her adequate screen time to establish her as the main villain, or because of lacking acting talent, is up for discussion. Other highly publicised members of the cast were barely in the movie at all, such as Jared Leto’s Joker who formed a sub-plot of a sub-plot.

Director David Ayer made a valiant attempt to give the film a comic book style feel, and the action sequences in particular succeeded in this. Other parts, such as a large folder labelled “top secret”, felt a little outdated and overstated. With a musical score which is reminiscent of the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy, a team forced to work together (much like in Avengers Assemble) and a final showdown similar to the original Ghostbusters film, it feels as if Suicide Squad takes the bits which worked best for other films and capitalises on them. With films like Deadpool demonstrating how good and innovative antihero films can be these days, Suicide Squad just does not make the cut.