By Jason Yon
Elm Staff Writer
The DC Universe’s newest action hero film, “Suicide Squad,” aims to make up for previous shortcomings from the studio, by teaming up lesser known characters into one movie, much like Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” to create an underdog anti-hero theme.
While “Suicide Squad” features eight villains, most of the focus falls on the characters Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Deadshot (Will Smith), who lead the gang of DC misfits. Each character on the team is given a brief introduction and backstory before they are thrust into the story. An interesting aspect of the introductions were the occasional freeze frames where statistics and little facts would pop up in neon font, almost like some sort of playing card pertaining to each character.
“Suicide Squad” takes place shortly after the events of “Batman vs. Superman,” in a world where normal people have a lot to fear from so called meta-humans. A sly government official, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), decides that a security system needs to be put in place as a fallback if another less friendly Superman arrives on Earth. Her solution is the Suicide Squad or Task Force X. These wild card anti-heroes could be sent in against any outside force with limited repercussions. If anything goes wrong, they are completely disposable and any blame will be laid upon them. As with any plan like this goes, problems arose and the team is sent into action. The plot from this point on is marginally generic and predictable, but most people are here simply for the advent of new and possibly interesting characters.
Undoubtedly, the intended focus of “Suicide Squad” was on Harley Quinn. A majority of the character flashbacks center around her and her relationship with the Joker (Jared Leto). If there is such a thing as too crazy, Robbie’s Harely Quinn certainly makes it there. It was often uncomfortable when she was on screen, simply due to how insane she was. At certain times, it seemed like the character herself was acting crazier than she might have been, adding to the uneasiness associated with her. While it is possible that this was done intentionally to keep the audience on their toes concerning her relationship with the rest of the team, it might have backfired creating a weird and awkward character.
Even though Harley Quinn was set up to be the focus of “Suicide Squad,” Smith’s Deadshot definitely stole the show. As a mercenary for hire that has “never missed a shot,” he is a talented killer that should be feared or even hated. However, the audience is drawn to Deadshot for his wit and unexpected good nature. At one point in the film, he doesn’t shy away from pointing out the hypocrisy of Waller’s despicable methods of getting what she wants while simultaneously branding the Task Force as lowly criminals. The audience is further set to empathize with his character when we learn of his family. Deadshot’s motivation for cooperating as part of Waller’s anti-hero team is his young daughter.
One of the major advertising points for “Suicide Squad” was the inclusion of a new Joker, played by Leto. Unfortunately, every Joker seems to pale in comparison to Heath Ledger’s Joker from the “Dark Knight.” When Leto’s Joker is allowed to stand without be comparison to others, it doesn’t seem nearly as bad. He is certainly eccentric and no shortage of bizarre mannerisms, but these only seem to compliment the other twisted characters. If anything, this new Joker would seem to fit into a comic book better than Christopher Nolan’s realistic representation. Regardless, his over the top nature is balanced by the lack of screentime the character receives. This is completely appropriate; any more time in the movie would have felt forced.
All in all, “Suicide Squad” was a good time. Its main pitfalls were a poor story and the inclusion of too many hit rock songs for the audience to recognize. After the first few, it got rather annoying. These two issues did not detract from the movie as a whole, however.
The main purpose of “Suicide Squad” was to introduce a variety of new characters to the DC film franchise, and it achieved just that. Cameos were spread throughout the movie, teasing upcoming DC projects such as Justice League and the Ben Affleck standalone Batman movie. I would recommend “Suicide Squad” to anyone looking for some good mindless super hero action.
Score: B-