Movie Review: Suicide Squad

The launch of DC's "cinematic universe" has been rocky to say the least. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice-the first official film in DC's attempt to catch up with Marvel in terms of interconnected plots and world-building-went over like a fart in church with critics and audiences alike, and raised numerous questions about whether or not their attempt to build a universe that matches their CW-based television empire had immediately been ruined. The pressure turned to David Ayer's "bad vs. evil" supervillain team-up film Suicide Squad to reverse the public perception of the DC brand and held build up good will for the comic giant's long line of future big-screen endeavors. Unfortunately for DC, distributor Warner Brothers Pictures and their respective PR teams, that didn't happen.

The negative reviews came flowing in by the truck load when the studio-imposed embargo was lifted last Tuesday, criticizing the film for being another poorly-conceived, muddled and tonally-challenged movie from the cinematic division of DC Comics. Of course, the mass critical trashing was followed up by a wave of rumors citing a rushed, troubled production and studio interference to add more humor to the final cut of the film after audiences responded poorly to the relentlessly dark tone of Batman v. Superman as the catalysts for the film's failure. After spending most of the past week sifting through the endless flood of negative reviews and pissed-off tweets directed at the people involved with the film, I was pleasantly surprised that Suicide Squad not only wasn't an epic turd, but that it ended up being one of the most entertaining superhero films in recent memory.

Given that the content and nature of all superhero film plots are almost identical, the charisma of the characters are usually what determine the success of a movie in this genre. In this sense, Suicide Squad succeeds in a major way as it possesses one of the most dynamic and exciting groups of primary characters to ever appear in a superhero film. The casting for every single member of the titular team of supervillians was note-perfect with the terrific performances from Will Smith (Deadshot), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomarang) and Jay Hernandez (El Diablo) especially standing out. The entire ensemble has an excellent, believable dynamic and Ayer's script does a great job of giving them intimate character moments throughout the movie. When a film is driven by a group of characters that's as lively, funny and compelling as this ragtag bunch of antiheroes, it's impossible to not have a good time.

The most refreshing aspect of Suicide Squad was that you could tell that the film was entirely Ayer's vision. From the frantic, quick-cut action scenes to the way the characters interacted with each other, this film had the gritty veteran filmmaker's fingerprints stamped all over it. Given that that was his first venture writing and directing a film based on a previously published work, Ayer did a pretty damn good job of honoring the source material while also taking the appropriate creative liberties to make the film adaption his own. He was able to work in a lot of the defining characteristics of his past films (focus on the familial bond between the main characters, a tone that delicately balances lighthearted fun and suffocating darkness, the aforementioned intimate, revealing character moments) into Suicide Squad without completely changing the nature of the material the film was based on. The start of DC's venture into the world of feature films has been far from perfect, but I really respect the fact that they're giving the directors they employ the freedom to make the movies they want to make with no substantial interference.

For as much as there as is to like about it, I'd be lying if I said Suicide Squad doesn't have its fair share of issues. Enchantress is a horrible villain (played by the wooden and often confused-looking Cara Delevingne), there's some pretty significant plot holes/gaps in logic at various points of the film and the subplot featuring the Joker (a corny and unmemorable Jared Leto) is dumb and completely inconsequential to the events of the rest of the film. Thankfully, all of these flaws can be easily glossed over here due to the strength of the acting ensemble and how much fun the proceedings are throughout the film.

While it isn't quite the insane game-changer the trailers promised, Suicide Squad is still a completely worthwhile entry in the superhero genre and more than enough to inspire confidence in DC's upcoming film slate. I feel like there's a ton of potential to turn this into a great series and if the future installments fully embrace the full-on anarchy this film regularly teases, it could end up turning into one of the genre's cornerstone franchises. Plenty of people are going to despise this for a variety of reasons, but as far as I'm concerned, Suicide Squad is one of the most purely entertaining films to be released this summer and completely undeserving of a majority of the hate that it's currently receiving.
    
4/5 Stars