Movie Review: Suicide Squad

I'm going to catch up with a few reviews here. The first one up is the latest from DC's Cinematic Universe that shows a bunch of bad guys trying to prevent world destruction. You know, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

Following the death of Superman (complete with funeral footage from  Batman V Superman) government agent and cold fish Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) decides there needs to be a response team to handle "meta-humans" just in case the next one isn't as friendly. She puts together "the worst of the worst," a team that includes hitman Deadshot (Will Smith), former psychiatrist turned crazy Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Aussie thief Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), a rope expert named Slipknot, fire controller Diabolo (Jay Hernandez) and Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) to save the world or just rot in jail. But when one of the Squad, Dr. June Moone (Cara Delevingne) unleashes the witch Enchantress that is inhabiting her body and plans to destroy the world well you gonna call?

In some respects the critics are right about the issues Suicide Squad has. It's cluttered, busy with too many characters to focus on or care about (can anyone tell me anything about the nameless army guys who go in), a battle for tone between director David Ayer's vision and what Warner Bros wants, has a weak villain,an end of the world plot pulled right out of Ghostbusters and underuses Jared Leto's Joker you wonder why they bothered including him except for name recognition. And yet despite these major bumps the film isn't a total loss. In fact of the current three DC movies that make up their new film universe I would say this one is the best, if only because we don't have Zack Snyder's poor man Nolan routine weighing it down.

Part of what does work is the actors do give it their all, especially Robbie (making a nice 180 turn from Jane Porter in The Legend of Tarzan), Davis and Hernandez. The action sequences are handled well, even if the fact that the "enemy" is faceless zombie creatures turns makes it seem like outtakes from a Resident Evil movie, and a sense of humor that more often than not works.

In closing I'm giving Suicide Squad a *** out of 4. It may not be the best movie this summer but it's not the worst either. You're opinion may vary though.