After the rather divisive reaction toward BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, and the staggering critical and audience praise for Marvel’s DEADPOOL, Warner Bros has been pushing their latest comic book adaptation heavily, and hoping pop culture fans will go nuts for the end result. There were rumors that DEADPOOL‘s success led to re-shoots on SUICIDE SQUAD and added humor to the final cut, though it’s safe to say this is already not a typical comic book film, which can also be a gamble for the studio. If audiences don’t take to the style or story, word of mouth could potentially kill any box office success. So does a big screen tale about villains having to fight together and save the day deliver anything new? In some ways yes, but surprisingly not that much.

Slight spoiler here if you haven’t seen BATMAN v SUPERMAN… you’ve been warned. So after Superman died in the battle with Lex Luthor’s monstrosity (something directly referenced in the opening of this film), certain members of government started to wonder what we as a society could do should another alien come down to earth and cause trouble. Who would we send to stop them? The basic story here revolves around a top-ranking government agent named Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who has a plan to assemble some of the world’s worst criminals and metahumans (humans with special powers) and basically force them (by way of explosive neck implants) to become a hit team that would run into danger. Deadshot (Will Smith) is a high-dollar hit man who never misses, brought down by none other than Batman (Ben Affleck in a cameo, shown heavily in the commercials and trailers). Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is a former psychiatrist from Arkham Asylum in Gotham City, assigned to work on The Joker (Jared Leto) and hopefully cure him, but she falls in love and helps him escape instead. He molds her into a cartoon-like sidekick and lover that is now possibly more dangerous than he is. Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) is an Australian thief who uses boomerangs to commit crimes and kill unwanted accomplices. Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is a half-man half-crocodile who eats people if they get in his way. Diablo (Jay Hernandez) is a heavily-tattooed man with the power to create fire from his hands. They’re all being held in prisons, and Waller has them assembled against their will and put under the leadership of Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and his sword-wielding bodyguard Katana (Karen Fukahara). Waller is also utilizing June Moone (Cara Delevingne), a doctor who went searching in the wrong cave, and now is possessed from time to time by a powerful entity calling herself Enchantress… and to complicate things Rick Flag and June Moone are romantically involved. When Enchantress disappears and a bizarre form of havoc starts hitting the city, Flag tells the team they’ve got their first mission, they must rescue someone trapped in the chaos. But these are all villains… can they possibly work together in any sort of hero capacity? And Joker wants his girl back, which isn’t going to make things any easier.

Watching SUICIDE SQUAD feels like you’re watching a super-expensive music video, complete with loud music and glossy effects. It’s so flashy at times it feels like overkill, almost as if it’s overcompensating and trying to be something more than it is. But the biggest surprise is how the basic plot is kind of simple considering the potential with this sort of story. There’s also a sad lack of back story for some of the characters, which prevents us from feeling much for them or ever getting a sense of why they are who they are. We see a little bit of background on Will Smith and Margot Robbie’s roles, but no one really gets a fleshed out origin the way we’d want to experience. Captain Boomerang for example has little to no origin, just one quick flashback showing he doesn’t work well with others. Diablo, played quite well by Jay Hernandez, ends up being the most interesting character of the principals, mainly because there’s a layered aspect to his origin, and he genuinely doesn’t want to be a “bad” guy. We get entertaining scenes with Deadshot, with Will Smith finding moments of charm playing the stunningly accurate marksman, and there’s one scene in particular where he steps up in a big way… leading to big cheers from the audience. The filmmakers obviously know that Harley Quinn is a comic book favorite, giving her ample screen time, and Robbie does play her in a fun way, but my friend Andy actually pointed out that they kind of spoiled ALL of the good Harley moments in the trailers and commercials. If you’ve seen the marketing for the film, there’s basically nothing left to look forward to with her character as you’ll know what’s coming in almost every scene.

Joel Kinnaman does his best at the authority figure leading the team, and while I like him as an actor, he feels a little outmatched here. Viola Davis is excellent as the cold-blooded Waller, and is definitely one of the shining aspects of the production. I wanted more from Karen Fukahara as Katana, as it’s an interesting character that never has much to do in this story. We get hints of her origin, but she’s ultimately a bit of an afterthought. Cara Delevingne is okay as Enchantress, though she’s helped a lot by the special effects put in making her look like a creepy ghost girl from one of those Japanese horror films from the past decade. The character goes through changes as the story unfolds, and by the end it really feels like they only cast her because she’s a hot name of the moment. A lot of folks will be curious to see Jared Leto’s take on The Joker, but it’s surprisingly not that memorable. Those hoping to see a lot of that character might be disappointed too, as he’s just peppered throughout the core story, definitely not in it all that much. At times it feels like he’s channeling Heath Ledger’s Joker from THE DARK KNIGHT, but there’s also moments where he’s almost downplayed. I guess the idea was making him quiet and unpredictable would be scary enough, but it’s just not anything unexpected. I’ll put it this way, when we were standing outside after the screening talking about different aspects of the movie with other colleagues, no one even mentioned The Joker… and that’s probably saying something.

David Ayer (FURY) wrote and directed the film, which is pretty dark and gloomy with moments of amusing dialogue and decent action sequences, but I can’t help thinking we’re watching a two-hour movie that had a lot more to it before hitting the editing room. And there needed to be more to make this feel right, because right now it feels like a rushed experiment more than a satisfying narrative. I also wanted more unpredictable moments, I wanted to see these villains be who they are and not follow expected conventions… instead things play out in a predictable fashion, and the leave off at the end almost feels like an ending to another and perhaps better movie. The third act in particular suffers, and feels sloppy compared to the rest of the movie. The easiest way to describe SUICIDE SQUAD is to call it an over-produced, moderately fun mess. There’s so many back-to-back radio hit songs, you’ll almost certainly feel like the film is pandering to the crowd, and while it may work on some it will likely leave others unimpressed or just exhausted. The one thing you can admire is the attempt at world building, and perhaps connecting this story with other DC movies we’ve already seen or will be seeing soon. I wish Warner Bros. wasn’t trying to rush that aspect of their comic adaptations so much, but with Marvel dominating the superhero cinema market, they’ve got some pretty serious catching up to do. Make sure to stay through the credits to see a pretty important moment, which in some ways is more effective than the rest of the film you have to endure to get to it.

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