REVIEW: Suicide Squad

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Suicide Squad, the latest entry in DC Comics’ movie universe, isn’t very good, but at least it’s interesting. Plus, writer-director David Ayer doesn’t seem ashamed of the source material’s comic book roots. That’s a heck of a lot more than you can say for Zack Snyder and the disaster that was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. At least the studio is on an upward trajectory.

There are a ton of problems – far too many to list in the space I’ve got here – but all except the most glaring are spackled over with the help of a talented cast (aside from a couple of obvious exceptions) and Ayer’s intermittent eye for visually intriguing set pieces and clever dialogue.

Besides, I’ve got a feeling a lot of the stuff that bugged me probably wasn’t even the director’s fault. Suicide Squad, which had a notoriously troubled production, is the kind of movie where the war between art and commerce plays out in front of the audience and neither wins in the end.

There’s no getting around the fact that the plot’s a mess. An intriguing premise ultimately turns into yet another mega-budget CGI overload involving a villain who sets up a giant glowing doodad that the heroes (or antiheroes, in this case) must destroy in order to save the world. But I’m getting ahead of myself – let’s focus on the positives first.

The first half-hour is terrific, a twisted version of the “putting the team together” trope that always pops up in ensemble movies like this one. We meet Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), the head of a shadowy government organization who assembles a squad of the worst criminals in existence to tackle impossibly dangerous missions. If they succeed, their prison sentences get reduced. If not, the government throws them under the bus.

Waller and her right-hand man, Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), end up with a handful of interesting characters and a few snoozers as well. The former category includes assassin Deadshot (Will Smith), gorgeous-but-demented Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and fiery Diablo (Jay Hernandez). Rounding out the “why are they even here?” column are jewel thief Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), mutant Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and expert climber Slipknot (Adam Beach).

They’re soon recruited for their first mission, which involves extracting an important asset from a city under attack by the ancient Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) and her ’90s-era CGI brother. They want to take over the world by – you guessed it – building a giant machine thingy. But this one also turns people into weird, blobby automatons, so that’s supposed to make it different. Further complicating matters is Harley Quinn’s boyfriend, The Joker (Jared Leto), who decides this would be a perfect time to come rescue his lady love.

Got all that? If not, it doesn’t really matter. The plot is basically window dressing to set up a series of unconnected action sequences and quip-filled scenes designed to build the characters’ camaraderie, backed by some of the most obvious music choices I’ve ever heard in a movie. (What song do you think Ayer uses to introduce the morally compromised Amanda Waller? If you guessed The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” you win!)

There’s no real sense of geography to the city and no urgency to the mission. Heck, the team even has time to stop for a few drinks at an abandoned bar. Shortly after that, Captain Boomerang takes up Flag’s offer to quit the team and immediately reappears for a cool slow-mo walk in the next scene. I still have no idea why he was in the movie to begin with.

Luckily, it’s easy to ignore those elements thanks to some absolutely phenomenal work from Smith and Robbie. The duo, reuniting onscreen after their work in the equally frustrating Focus, try their darnedest to make viewers focus on the fun instead of the head-scratching stuff.  Smith hasn’t been this good in years (since Hitch, maybe?); he’s almost back to peak charm levels.

Robbie is just as compelling, proving once again why she’s one of this generation’s best actresses. On paper, Harley Quinn is almost offensive and what this movie puts her through is downright misogynistic. But Robbie doesn’t shy away from the problematic aspects of the character; in fact, she turns them into strengths. Harley knows what the world – men, in particular – thinks of her. As such, she often uses those expectations to her advantage, usually as a weapon.

Hernandez, practically unrecognizable under layers of fake tattoos, is the stealth MVP of Suicide Squad. Hesitant to use his pyrotechnic powers because of a tragic past, he serves as the team’s haunted moral center. I was stunned at how grounded his character was in a sea of weird zombies, mutant crocodile men and murderous clowns.

Speaking of clowns, this is where I have to talk about Leto’s performance as The Joker. Hoo boy, I honestly don’t even know where to start. It’s some of the most grating, baffling acting I’ve ever seen, wrongheaded on every level. IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich brilliantly described him as “Tony Montana if Jim Carrey had starred in Scarface.” I can’t put it any better than that.

I was alarmed when early photos of the character’s look hit the internet early last year, deriding him as “Hot Topic Joker” almost immediately. Still, I tried to give Leto and Ayer the benefit of the doubt, chalking it up as an attempt to distance themselves as much as possible from Heath Ledger’s and Jack Nicholson’s iconic versions.

I gave them too much credit. This Joker is too ridiculous and annoying to be scary. To make matters worse, you could remove his subplot from the film and it would make almost no difference whatsoever. Early in the third act, in an obvious fake-out, the movie tries to make viewers think he dies in a helicopter crash. I kept hoping against hope that the death would actually stick.

That being said, I wouldn’t be completely opposed to a Suicide Squad sequel. Now that the clunky table-setting is out of the way, it might be more fun. I wonder if there’s a chance it could focus solely on Deadshot and Harley Quinn?

Suicide Squad is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language.

Grade: C+