Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad is not so much a movie, as it is an explosion at the screenplay factory.  We can see bits and pieces of workable ideas, and maybe an interesting character or two, but they've been pieced together by writer-director David Ayer (Fury) in such a way that the final result is a jumbled, sloppy mess of symbols and plot elements that never get going.

It does, at least, have a million dollar idea at its core.  Take a group of villains from the DC Comics Universe, and turn them into a ragtag team that are forced to work for the government with the promise of getting some time removed from their prison sentences.  If they refuse or try to cause trouble, they have been implanted with a tiny explosive device in their head that can be activated by remote, killing them instantly.  The "Suicide Squad" is brought together by a government agent named Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who sees the need for such a team when "Meta Humans" (people who possess magic) start popping up, possibly threatening regular people.  And with Superman gone, and Batman (Ben Affleck) off gathering up the Justice League, Amanda feels the best course of action is to round up this team of supervillains, and use their abilities to battle the growing threat, which comes in the form of The Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), an ancient evil possessing the body of poor archeologist, June Moone, so now she has two souls fighting for control of her body within her.

The team that Amanda dreams up consists of Deadshot (Will Smith), a skilled assassin and marksman who only wants to see his sweet 11-year-old daughter again, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who was once a brilliant criminal psychologist until the notorious Joker (Jared Leto) got inside her head and made her his sidekick/girlfriend, Boomerang (Jai Courtney) who is skilled with his namesake weapon, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a human-like mutant with reptilian skin, and Diablo (an unrecognizable Jay Hernandez), who can control and manipulate fire.  Leading the team and keeping them in check is military soldier, Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), who has fallen in love with the woman The Enchantress is currently occupying, and wants to save her.  He is aided by Katana (Karen Fukuhara), a Japanese warrior woman who hides behind a mask, and possesses a sword that is not only inhabited by the spirit of her dead husband (whom she can talk to), but also the souls of the various criminals she has struck down with it.  This is an interesting idea, and I wish the movie had gone into more detail.  Can she talk to the various criminals trapped inside the sword like she can to her husband?  Do they have not very nice things to say about her?

I realize that I've spent the past two paragraphs almost doing nothing but describing the cast, and their individual abilities and/or backstories.  Suicide Squad feels like that stretched to two hours.  It's all set up, demonstration and introductions, but it never builds to anything worth caring about.  Just imagine how fascinating a movie made up entirely of supervillains could have been.  How do they feel about being sent on what is basically a suicide mission for the government?  Do they crave vengeance?  Are they happy to be out on the streets again?  How do they feel about working together?  Ayer's screenplay doesn't come close to even breaking the surface of any of these questions.  Instead, he throws the characters headlong into one fight after another with The Enchantress' minions, who are CG creatures that are not very interesting to look at and are about as bright as the aliens from this summer's Independence Day: Resurgence. 

And much like the last DC movie, Batman v. Superman, the movie probably will not be very much fun for anyone who doesn't already hold advance knowledge about these characters in the comics pages.  I can only assume that the filmmakers believe we are familiar with these characters, which is why they forget to give any personality to Boomerang and Killer Croc, and kind of keep Diablo an enigma for most of the movie.  Deadshot and Harley are the two characters with the most screen time, but they fail to have much chemistry together, which is surprising given Smith and Robbie had good chemistry together in last year's Focus.  I'm not sure whether to blame the screenplay (which seems simplistic and basic), or the awful editing, which comes across as if entire chunks of the film are missing.  Considering that a number of scenes from the trailers did not make it into the final film, I can only guess that this movie was hacked to pieces before being unleashed on audiences.  I can only imagine the look on the face of John Gilroy (he edited the film) as he watched the raw footage, and tried to make sense of it all. 

With the severe edits this movie went through on its way to the big screen, it at times struggles to resemble a coherent narrative.  There are random flashbacks, a subplot concerning the Joker that goes nowhere and seems completely out of place, ideas that seem like they used to be fleshed out a lot better before they ended up on the cutting room floor, and characters or plot elements that the film just doesn't bother to explain.  I again want to focus on Katana, who seems like someone worthy of her own movie, instead of being crammed into a supporting role here.  Where did her spiritual sword come from?  How did she get it?  Did it belong to her husband at one time?  Why was her husband killed with the sword, which allowed his soul to enter it?  Who killed him?  Why did she briefly give up her quest for vengeance so that she could help a bunch of criminals fight a witch?  You could make an entire movie just out of these questions alone.  Instead, this movie treats her and everyone else with indifference.  At one point, everyone sees her talking to her sword.  Someone explains that it possesses the soul of her dead husband.  How do the others react?  They don't.  You think learning that information would at least warrant a "well, that's interesting".

That's the kind of movie Suicide Squad ultimately is.  It rushes out information, then doesn't bother to explain or to focus on anything.  Instead, we get to watch a lot of mindless action, when we really just want to know who these people are.  This movie doesn't reward curiosity of interest.  It merely tramples it to the ground and goes screaming forward, creating an ugly, loud and forgettable experience.

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