With the first, recent anti-hero based movies hitting the big screen, people had high expectations for the new DC movie. The movie went through major script changes halfway through production, which worried a lot of die-hard fans of the characters and comics. Suicide Squad received a collective “yeah, it was okay” from the majority of the audience. It was fun eye candy to watch but not to be invested in the choppy plot.
The movie started out strong with unique introductions to the new renditions of the comic book characters accompanied by great tunes to jam out to. Songs like Twenty One Pilot’s “Heathens” to Grace’s “You Don’t Own Me” kept the audience hooked.
Unfortunately, people viewed that the plot was severely lacking. This could be due to the hasty script change in post-production or that they didn’t have enough screen time to go into more detail on the character’s backstories. However, there is legitimate reasoning behind the lackluster character development. Suicide Squad is a set up movie for future DC films. Killer Croc, Boomerang, Slipknot, Katana, and Rick Flag all got shoved into the corner of “they don’t have any motives or defining features other than their powers, isn’t that cool?”, but can always be potentially explored in future films. The Enchantress is also known for getting slotted in the story without much of a reason other than the purpose of being the antagonist, a purpose that the Joker would’ve easily carried out and was expected to by the audience.
Ironically enough, the biggest advocate of the poor plot in Suicide Squad is Jared Leto, the actor of Joker. As a very devoted method actor, he was very hurt that the majority of his scenes were scrapped in the post-production change. He didn’t hesitate to let all of the interviewers know how enraged he was. When interviewers commented on how they wished that Joker had more screen time, his response was always, “Me too.”
The editing was known among reviewers as somewhat thrown together, another effect of the abrupt script change. Despite the giant flame war in response to the movie, it was a very enjoyable film to watch. There’s always going to be a devoted fan base that are unhappy with a movie’s rendition of comic books. The cast did an amazing job with their roles, especially Jared Leto (Joker) and Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn) according to the fans. The abusive relationship of Harley and Joker didn’t get much of the limelight, but they still captured the hearts of many new fans. Halloween this year will mostly consist of the twin pigtail blonde and her psycho companion.
Overall, the movie was a great addition to the DC universe and provided a new perspective to the abundance of superhero-oriented films. It left the audience excited for more and hopefully for some redemption for the weaker aspects of the film.
Rating: 7/10
Hannah Makholm// Head of Graphics
