Ice Tyrant goes to the movies - Suicide Squad 3D (UPDATED)

Seeing as this is my first movie review, I should likely lay out some ground rules. First, let me be quite honest and say that I don't go to many movies. Typically I will visit the movie theater only for bigger movies that I really want to see. The good news is that movie watching can be accomplished just as effectively (and more cheaply) at home. The experience is different, but not so much to impact my ability to review the film. Therefore I will review movies that I watch at home or in the theater. In order to keep the reviews concise and readable, I will review movies based on three factors that I consider to be critical to a movie's essence.

1) Story: Think plot. The what, where, why and how. Was it compelling? Did it tell a complete story? What was the intent of the story and did it accomplish its goal? The story being told through a cinematic experience is essential to determining whether it has any value. Without at least a coherent and interesting story line, most movies just do not matter. This is where the director and writers play the big role. Do they create a seamless storytelling experience?

2) Characters: In conjunction with a good story, the characters must have some appeal. They either need to be loved or hated or elicit some form of emotion from the viewers to matter. Also, the chemistry of the characters on screen is very meaningful. Do they fit in the puzzle in a way that facilitates the story being told? Each character generally serves a purpose and in some cases you may find that some of the characters do and other do not. How impacting are the performances by the actors portraying the characters? Have the characters been properly cast? Visual fit and appropriate verbal style can go a long way to making a character compelling or uninteresting.

3) Enjoy-ability: In the end, sometimes the sum of the pieces can be greater than the whole. When looked at by themselves, you may find the story or characters lacking yet you the movie was still enjoyable to watch. I call this the experience of the film. Special effects or cinematography can make up for deficiencies in other areas. This can be heightened by the type of film being watched, perhaps such as an animated film or action flick. This category is more about how you feel when you leave the theater or turn off the TV.

OK, with that out of the way, onto my first review.

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SUICIDE SQUAD - 3D

This movie is flat out boring. Let me just get that out there right away. It has too many holes, and is a mess. Frankly all one has to do is look at the reviews to figure out that there are tons of flaws. The movie has been consistently crushed in critic reviews. Here, Here, Here, and Here. Now listen, I will be the first to tell you that critical reviews of movies that are based in the sci-fi or comic book genres are generally unreliable for the true fan of those genres. Critics tend to miss the mark as to what makes movies like these good. So I usually take bad reviews with a grain of salt. However, the reviews for Suicide Squad are so universally horrific that its hard to ignore them. I mean when you see comments written like, "Suicide Squad amounts to an all-out attack on the whole idea of entertainment", you quickly realize that this has the potential for being really bad. Another major concern is the PG-13 rating. This movie should be Rated R. Period. Think Deadpool. I have heard rumors that the original version shot by the director was a little darker and more mature in feel. Apparently the studio then got hold of it and edited it to a PG-13 rating to allow for a larger market audience. This may help explain why the film felt so dis-jointed. If true, SHAME on you Warner Bros. You shall reap what you sow.

Lets get into my review shall we?

Movie Facts:

Director: David Ayer

Cast: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Ledo, Viola Davis among others.

Duration: 123 minutes

Story: Where to begin. The story of Suicide Squad is perhaps the worst part of the entire experience. It is all over the place. You feel somewhat confused, then ultimately bored by the end of the movie. Like you really don't care what happens. There is no sense of connection from scene to scene and it feels like the director is just slapping things together to make sure each character gets their moment in the sun. The comic book Suicide Squad brings together a D list ensemble of villains that appear throughout the DC comic universe in books like Batman, The Flash, Justice League, etc. However, none of the characters by themselves are really stars of the show. They just aren't meant to be that. The Joker, while an important character in the Suicide Squad universe, is really just an accompaniment to Harley Quinn. The Joker here is actually the best part of the movie for me, but that is primarily due to the very different style given to him by Jared Ledo. He is kind of side story though and ultimately not that important.

The plot revolves around the government's plan to create a secret team of meta-humans known as Task-Force X. They are assembled to combat the potential for other meta-humans going rogue and threatening the world. This all feeds off of the Batman v. Superman movie and the fears raised in that movie concerning Superman as an all powerful being. The weird thing here is that the ultimate enemy the Suicide Squad ends up fighting is a result of this government unit being unleashed from their maximum security prison. The Enchantress, aka June Moone, is mistakenly freed to wreck shop on the world through the rather standard trope that the government thinks they can control an all powerful being hell bent on world domination. Think again. The problem ends up being that The Enchantress just isn't that compelling of final boss character. Frankly, the fight between El Diablo and The Incubus is far more interesting than what happens between Suicide Squad and the Enchantress.

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The story feels contrived and far too lighthearted for a movie about a squad of serial killers trying to save the world. I think the director was going for something along the lines of Deadpool, but that is a totally different character and movie. They really are not similar in style or substance. The humor woven into the dialogue between the characters is just not very funny and adds nothing to the overall movie. The story here would have been better served in a darker more sadistic humor style. DC movies have been criticized for their lack of humor recently. However, you must remain true to the universe within which you are working. These characters can have moments, but I think the attempt was a little too on the nose and forced.

Characters: I want to love all of the characters in this movie. These are not characters that most casual fans of the DC universe will know much about. As a result these characters don't lend themselves to being central stars of a movie. They are villains that battle other DC universe super heroes. They often have one book or maybe a small series of books devoted to them as part of those larger comics. We have seen this before over on the Marvel side with Guardians of the Galaxy. That movie was successful because it did a good job of tying the characters together to make them compelling as a team. Suicide Squad is not as successful with doing this. The main issue here is that it always feels like each member is out for themselves, as suicidal maniacs tend to be, and where they have moments of camaraderie it feels forced and weird.

I really want to like Deadshot. He is the de facto leader of the Suicide Squad, but Will Smith just doesn't get me there. Deadshot is a mercenary. A gun for hire. Frankly, why would he care about these other maniacs who have no values or principles? I know, he is being led like a horse to water with the promise of seeing his daughter again, but just I don't believe the character as a leader in this instance. It feels forced and of no value to the plot. Will Smith delivers a mostly good performance, but the character's role just doesn't feel right. The most redeeming part here is Deadshot's back story. Which in and of itself is not terribly unique or interesting, but does provide a sense of emotional depth to the character.

The most interesting character in the Suicide Squad is Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. The girlfriend of The Joker and nemesis of Batman. As part of her and Deadshot's back story, you do get some of Ben Affleck's Batman thrown in for brand continuity. However, if you have seen Batman vs Superman you already know that this isn't a value add. Robbie's Harley Quinn pulls off the visual aspect really well.

However, she only captures part of the crazy factor about Harley Quinn which is entirely rooted in her love for the Joker. What she really misses on is the conflicted side of Harley Quinn. The character is in love with The Joker and therefore must be slightly insane, but throughout the various story lines in the comic books, she has her moments of clarity and realization that The Joker is a cruel and wicked man who will stop at nothing to terrorize people. I do think the play between Jared Ledo's Joker and Harley Quinn is sufficient to give the viewer the flavor of their dysfunctional relationship. However, you definitely get the sense at the end that it really isn't all the important to the overall movie. It is just a side bar that pops up from time to time. Perhaps their relationship would be better fleshed out in a different movie altogether. 

The other characters are less important to the overall plot line and are played admirably by the cast of actors and actresses. Captain Boomerang, Katana, a brief appearance by Slipknot, Killer Croc, and El Diablo all have their moments. Honestly, El Diablo's character is by far the most compelling of this group. With his back story being that of a gang banger who can shoot fire out of his hands and in a fit of rage kills his family. He spends most of the movie on the sidelines as his guilt over what he has done overwhelms him. He eventually gets involved in the fighting towards the end and plays a pivotal role in the final battle in what is likely the best action sequence in the movie. Everyone else is just not very interesting. Especially in the humor department where the dialogue can just be plain bad. There were many times where a vulgar one liner was delivered and barely any laughter was heard in the theater. It was awkward in most cases. Side note: Do not bring children to movies like this. I mean what the heck is wrong with parents these days?!

The anti-hero, if you can call her that in this movie, is The Enchantress, played by Carol Delevigne.

 While the character gets some marks for style, there just isn't enough substance to the character. There is not enough time devoted to what makes her so evil and why she is doing what she is doing in the movie. The end scene where Suicide Squad faces off with her in final form could be the ending of any number of recent blockbusters, most comparably Ghost Busters. There just isn't really anything that makes you care about her defeat frankly. Even the sappy love story between Captain Flag and June Moone, the human host for The Enchantress, doesn't save this sloppy and indifferent boss battle.

All in all you really want to like these characters, but you just can't get invested. Such a shame. There is a ton of potential. But by the end of the movie it remains just potential.

Enjoy-ability: Well I think it's pretty clear that this movie just isn't that enjoyable. I actually dozed off a couple of times towards the end of the movie. This is usually when you are most invested in a movie. You want to see what happens. I really couldn't care less. The story is too much a hodge-podge and comes to end with an unsatisfying final boss battle and character wrap up. The worst part is the attempt at making the characters funny. There are only a few very funny lines or moments in this movie, despite the fact that the intent is to try and capture some of what made Deadpool and Avengers so great. The 3D aspect did nothing to save the movie or enhance it. The movie is dark and frankly at times it can be hard to tell what is happening. All it did was cost me more money which made me regret going to see the film even more. It's really a shame because I think that DC has the character base to be successful with these films, but it fails on so many levels by trying to be something it is not. Just like so many of Suicide Squad's predecessor films in the DC universe. Truly a shame.

8/8 UPDATE: So it seems that there must be a lot of people who enjoy watching bad movies. Perhaps the word hasn't gotten out yet, but Suicide Squad broke the opening weekend record at the box office for the month of August taking in an estimated $135 million. Crazy.  I assume that is largely due to the lack of any other highly anticipated movie opening this past weekend. The interesting thing will be to see how it continues to do over the next couple of weeks. My guess is that those numbers will fall fast based on reviews and word of mouth.

8/17 UPDATE: It has come out that Jared Ledo is so disappointed with the movie that he has not actually watched it nor does he plan to do so. He also claims to have been tricked into doing the movie in the first place, which seems a little disingenuous, but this is just one more nail in the coffin.