Suicide Squad (2016)

Suicide Squad is the first film in the DC cinematic universe not to feature Superman or be directed by Zack Snyder. There is, in theory at least, a lot ridding on this film in terms of opening up said universe. In terms of box office success as of this writing the film has made more then $570 Million box office on a $175 Million budget. So its doing good financially thought critically its scored a mere 26% positive reviews on Rotten Tomato's, on par with Batman v Superman which came out earlier this year and has a 27% fresh rating on the same site. DC is just not getting the critical love that Marvel has, and I think at least part of that is critics not knowing what to make of it.

It's been the better part of two weeks since I saw Suicide Squad and I'm not fully sure that I know what I think of it either. It's hard to point out specific flaws, the nominal villain of the piece is kind of weak, the stakes never fully seem earned, and ultimately I'm not really sure what then whole point of this exercise was, beyond making money. At the same time I can't say that I've ever seen anything quite like this before, a team of villains assembled to combat a larger threat, but one that maybe wouldn't have even existed had this group not been formed. The films pretty well put together, I didn't have any major problems with the structure, though I had a hard time connecting with the piece. Part of that is that I'm just not that familiar with who most of these characters are, I don't have a history with them, I'd only even heard of three or four of them before. One of those of course was the Joker, and I must say I did not care of Jared Leto's take on the character, though apparently most of his scenes were cut so maybe the performance would play better in a longer cut.

So after thinking about it for awhile I've decided to give Suicide Squad *** because I'm not sure what I even wanted out of it in the first place, and at the very least it was something that I hadn't seen in a super hero movie before, namely one largely devoid of super hero's. Will Smith is likable even when he's playing a hired assassin, and the rest of the ensemble cast is given pretty balanced screen time and are largely fleshed out. Joel Kinnaman gives probably the strongest performance out of the lesser known actors in the film, and Viola Davis is great as always. Margot Robbie will certainly sell tickets though I liked her a lot more in Whisky Tango Foxtrot.