Sendric's Lair

Time for a quick movie review. Yes, this movie is old, but I wasn’t doing this four years ago, and I need to get this off my chest.

Prior to the release of Aquaman I heard it said Suicide Squad was the second best movie in the DCEU. I was blown away by this statement. I understand fans of DC aren’t real happy with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League, but seriously…have you seen Suicide Squad?

Disclaimer: I’m not an avid reader of DC comics, or even a casual reader for that matter, so my opinions on these movies do not take into account accuracy to the comics. I’m sorry. You’ll just have to deal with that.

Things I liked about Suicide Squad:

That’s it. Everything else about this movie pretty much sucked. I’m sure DC fans know who the villains were, but when I try to remember, this is all I can picture:

Yes, she’s from the Mummy, but is she really different from whoever the villain was in Suicide Squad? I think she had a brother while the Mummy had a lover. That’s all I know.

Since we’re here, let’s see if we can’t make this movie better, shall we? Here’s my list of things I would do to improve the movie:

• Remove Katana. Katana has no purpose in this movie. She comes in to supplement the team as some sort of expert tactician or something. Rick Flag provides us with more background for her than most of the other characters. She then proceeds to do absolutely nothing. What did she provide the group that couldn’t otherwise have been done? If you can remove a character that’s supposed to be important without really changing the movie, then you should probably remove that character. It’s a waste of time.
• Better Foreshadowing. Remember when they hit the bar on their travels and we got to learn about the member of the team who was basically a giant fire demon? How many of you didn’t immediately think “well, he’s dead”. I know I did. Maybe sprinkle in some background about the rest of the team to make it less obvious. Also, if he can turn in a giant fire demon, wouldn’t that have destroyed the thing in his head that prevented him from just walking away? Seems like it would, doesn’t it?
• Less Joker. Basically everyone hated Jared Leto’s take on the Joker. Also, he was apparently a complete douche behind the scenes. I understand going fully into your role, but when you go so deep you become an a-hole so reviled by everyone they literally write you out of future movies maybe you went too far. Anyway, his performance didn’t really bother me. It was his usage that I hated. The use of flashbacks to give us more depth into Harley’s character were fine. They also foreshadowed his rescue of her. However, the entire sequence with the helicopter was ridiculous and stupid. Joker comes flying in to save his beloved Harley Quinn from danger. Deadshot is ordered to shoot her or die. He doesn’t shoot her or die. At this point, the group is weakened because they lost one of their best fighters, but they must continue on so they go downstairs and head outside to find — Harley Quinn waiting for them because the copter got shot down. Well, that was pointless.
• Seriously, who are these villains? By removing Katana and the entire sequence involving the helicopter the movie could have spent more time telling us who these villains are and what their story is. I’m sure DC fans know. I don’t. I watched the entire movie, and by the end I didn’t know their names or what they were doing. I mean, they were clearly bad, and they seemed to have destroyed much of the city, but like, why? Rick Flag was good at giving background. Have him tell us that instead of wasting time on Katana.
• Amanda Waller. I’m told she’s true to the character in the comics, which if so, yikes. How is still alive? She forces a bunch of villains to come into a ruined city to rescue her without telling them that’s what they’re doing. She does this by implanting small bombs in their heads and threatening to kill them if they don’t comply. When they finally get to her, she then orders them to kill everyone else there (you know, all the nameless but loyal employees working beneath her) and get her out. If you have Amanda Waller as a boss, find another job immediately. Hard to root for her to be saved from the audience’s perspective. Maybe remove that part of it and just have the team focus on stopping the villains.

At the end of the day, the movie just needed to be simplified. They tried to do too much and introduce too many characters. Cut back on the extraneous stuff and just focus on the team going into the city and stopping the villains. Keep the last scene of Joker rescuing Harley (needed for Harley’s follow up anyway) and you’re fine. This is something studios trying to mimic the MCU have struggled with (ie. DCEU and the Dark Universe).