Suicide Squad (2016)

Director: David Ayer

Writer: David Ayer

Composer: Steven Price

Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, Ezra Miller, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman, Karen Fukuhara, Ben Affleck

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Justice has a bad side.

Plot: A secret government agency recruits a group of imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency, which inevitably leads to chaos.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably.

Up until now the newly created, re-vamped cinematic DC universe has been weak and polluted with problems, mostly stemming from folks not knowing who these characters are so that they can create movies that respect them and make them fun.  They gave Supes and Bats their shot and now it's the bad guys' turn and it's definitely an improvement but not a home run.  There's a lot to like in this picture.  Robbie is great as Harley Quinn and should've been in it more.  It's Will Smith's Deadshot that gets the bulk of the spotlight and I liked him more than usual because he was more reserved and grounded.  Robbie's all over the picture but she shines the brightest.  The rest of the cast does fine.  Leto's Joker is pretty darn good.  He's not in it much so you get little moments here and there.  I think that worked fine for what he was bringing to the iconic role.  You'd have to have a REALLY GOOD story to support a Joker-centric film with Leto.  I'm not convinced that the current talent behind the camera (mostly the studio and suits that are helping to ruin these films) could make it work.  I'd still love to see a Joker/Harely/Batman movie.  There are some nice moments between Joker and Harley.  Really nice.

The biggest problem the film has is the rushed pacing of introducing all of the characters AND giving most of them their back stories.  For the most part we don't need to know their origins.  The result is an almost clunky presentation of introductions.  Sometimes it works.  THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) is a primo example of how you introduce a lot of characters in a short enough amount of time that you get a real good sense of who they are.  Their traits are stripped down to the bone so that you know who they are without necessarily knowing why they are.  The pacing in SS is a mixed bag.  It's quick and there's a point where the action is almost non-stop and that's a problem.  The only real moment we as an audience get to breathe is when the squad takes a break and hangs out alone in a bar.  It's a great scene and it goes a long way in humanizing these villains.  Then it's back tot he action until the credits roll.  I know this is comic book movie and Ayer had one hell of a task of introducing all of these characters and then throwing them into combat (a-hem, THE DIRTY DOZEN) but there's something missing.  Expecting these villains (all strangers to one another) to not only fight for the good guys' cause but to do it efficiently and effectively as a team (which they surprisingly do on their own) is a tall order.  If you saw any of the trailers you probably thought that this was going to be one fun as hell movie that would hopefully make up for the poor Supes and Bats movies that came before it.  You'd be wrong.  It sort of does.  The trailers made promises that this finished film couldn't deliver.  It's entertaining but it's not nearly as fun as it could have been, should have been and what the trailers promised.  You should still see it.  There's a lot to like and you'll find it in between all of the jumbled scenes that are thrown at the wall in the first half.