(Non-Spoilery) So, finally saw Suicide Squad Friday night and while I still had some fun, I'm glad I came in with pretty low expectations. Like most of the reviews say, it is kind of a complete mess, particularly from an editing perspective, but at least I did have some fun at times. When I say poor editing, there is actually a lot of similarities there between the same poor editing we saw in Batman vs Superman where nothing flowed well. It seemed many scenes were either missing or cut too short, while at the same time, I was left scratching my head why certain scenes were left in. It definitely wreaked of a movie with a lot of turmoil going on in the background (like has been rumored), and also a movie where they made major changes to the director's original vision probably too late in the process (reaction to Batman vs Superman). Oh yeah, and the final ending battle was just awful.
Nevertheless, I will again say there was still some fun and laughs to be had, even if not every joke landed, and there were quite a few that didn't. Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, and Deadshot were probably the three funniest characters. In fact, Boomerang had one moment I nearly spit out my drink in laughter. You can probably guess what I'm talking about.
From an overall character perspective, there were some good characters and some not very good ones. Harley Quinn was very good, even though not everything landed for her (some should have been cut), and at times, seemed pulled straight from her original cartoon (good thing). Deadshot was also fantastic and probably my favorite character overall, not to mention he had the coolest action sequence by far in the entire movie, close to the level of Batman's sweet scene in Batman vs Superman. Otherwise, Boomerang was okay overall, Amanda Waller was good, Croc needed more material, El-Diablo was terrible, Slipknot was non-existent, Katana was awful, Rick Flag was half-good (battle leader), half-bad (love stuff), Enchantress was terrible, Batman was decent (not much material), and I'm still not sure what to think of the Joker. In general, the Joker was kind of all over the place where some stuff was good and some stuff just didn't make any sense. He might have been the biggest sufferer of the editing mistakes as he has said a TON of stuff was cut out from him, which might have made his part flow better. I still want to give him a second chance still. Definitely not Heath Ledger, but I'm okay with a different take on the character and this is a very different take. One last thing to mention on the character side was how bad the shifting of character motivations was handled overall with most everyone, which was a another very fatal flaw of the movie. You can't just shift around everyone's motivations on a dime with no good explanation and expect the audience to still love and feel for the characters. Again, some of it was poor editing.
Lastly, to elaborate more on the awful final battle, talk about another really crappy villain culminating in yet another generic CGI orgy of a final stupid battle (I'm so sick of these), similar to Batman vs Superman. It didn't help either how vague the villains true powers were and in the end, none of everyone's powers made sense as to what and why stuff was happening the way it was. With that said, for all the crap DC fans give Marvel fans about their crappy villains, after the past two DCEU movies, I feel like they have ZERO room to talk. This villain might be even worse than Doomsday was, which says a lot.
In conclusion, was this a good movie? No. Does it help to come in with low expectations? Yes. Was there some more fun to be had than Batman vs Superman? Yes. Was it better than Batman vs Superman? Unsure. I also still think Man of Steel is much better than both. Do I want to see a Suicide Squad Sequel? Not sure right now, leaning no. Do I want to see some of these characters again, maybe just showing up in other DCEU movies? Absolutely, particularly Deadshot and Harley Quinn. Deadshot was the best part of this movie. Was this the savior of a movie for the DCEU that everyone was hoping for? No, but I don't know that it kills it either. In the end, I've got to say I was pretty disappointed in this movie because I REALLY wanted it to be good and it wasn't, similar to Batman vs Superman. With that said, everything now shifts to Wonder Woman which still stands as probably my most anticipated upcoming movie even with how many times the DCEU has been failing me. That comic-con trailer was pretty amazing. I also think by that movie, we'll finally start to see some of the improvements Geoff Johns is making to the universe. Lets all hope so at least because the DCEU really needs it.
