The Diva Del Mar Struggles with Her Feelings about Suicide Squad
A couple nights ago, I was bouncing with excitement on my way to the screening of Suicide Squad. Having come off a particularly rough couple days, the sound of a maniacal, anti-hero action flick sounded like a better remedy than a spoonful of sugar. I was ready for some grungy escapism into the somewhat unfamiliar world of DC Comics. You see, apart from Superman & Batman, this little Diva isn’t very familiar with the DC universe. This gives me the advantage of walking into the story fresh, unbiased, and tackling the film for its merits as cinema, and not just a favorite comic come to life.
Upon finished the screening, my first impulse was to hate it. It took me a day of processing to realize that I really didn’t hate the movie, I was just frustrated by some very poor aspects of the film. Namely, the cinematography, the Swiss cheese character development, and the editing. I’ll get into that in a minute. The aspects in the movie that deserve merit are solid, particularly the performances and the general esthetics.
David Ayer, as a director and writer has remarkable talent. Fury and End of Watch are fantastic films, both dark and gritty, and still loaded with emotion. His specialty is gravitas with a rough-around-the-edges kick. He plays on this specialty beautifully in Suicide Squad, and you end up loving a good handful of the characters thanks to his knack for character development of very, VERY flawed folk. The dramatic aspects of this film are nicely executed, albeit poorly timed, and carry weight when they need to, assisted wonderfully by some phenomenal talent.
Let’s start with Jared Leto, playing my new favorite Joker of all time. Some of you will scoff this as akin to blasphemy, and I’ll argue that this Joker is not like anything you have ever seen before. Nicholson’s Joker was perfect in his cartoony intensity, eliciting a macabre tone to his violence. Ledger’s Joker was like staring into the face of chaotic horror that shone with intelligent brilliance. Leto takes the role into the depth of poisonous insanity, anchored with a true and profound love for Harley Quinn. His look alone is terrifying, predatory, and strangely sexy. Transformative as usual, Leto shines on us with another side of the Joker. We get to see how he corrupts and falls in love with the beautiful Dr. Quinn. My favorite scenes are the ones they share. I just can’t help it. Their twisted romance is a delicious treat and the only underside is that they needed more screen time together.
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is dead on. She fits the part like a glove, and I would have like to see her spin it just a touch more crazy. Will Smith plays Deadshot well, mostly because it’s Will Smith doing what he does best: ego-laced one-liners with a slick delivery. Viola Davis is powerful as the tough-as-nails Amanda Waller who leads the Suicide Squad with an iron hand. She’s just delightful in everything she does and this part is no exception. Joel Kinnaman, a personal favorite of mine from Netflix’s The Killing also pulls his weight, although I wished he had a more dynamic part. He plays kind of a weak link in the story. His talent, as well as Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s (Killer Croc) were under-utilized for this project.
Esthetically, this film is gorgeous, playing out colorful set designs, and wonderful make-up. Killer Croc is a particularly marvelous work of art.
The movie starts strongly enough, jacking up the potential excitement as the criminal rag-tag team is given a brief intro summarizing each person’s powers, abilities, and unique temperament. With such a psycho bunch of bad-asses one would think the first group action sequence would be a wild ride in violence and jaw-dropping awesomeness. Well, it’s not. It begins before you really understand that the heck is happening and with no build-up of anticipation. Literally, one moment the Squad is strolling down an abandoned city street and the next moment, blobby-faced humanoids are running towards them by the dozen. The sequence plays out more like a street brawl than a cleverly shot action ensemble and the strange humanoid creatures are never explained. We are left to assume they are humans converted into strange minions by the super villain, Enchantress, who is also terribly under-developed. The filmmakers don’t seem to know how to use a camera to get the full impact out of a fight scene. I can’t speak for the choreography, as the film’s composition during all of the action sequences is lacking. As somebody with a joyful affinity for martial arts & combat films, I was sorely disappointed with the editing and cinematography. This is where I started to disconnect with the movie, and I had to fight hard to keep watching with a grain of salt.
I am glad I did, as there were great moments that wove themselves into the remaining length of the film. Mostly it was Harley and The Joker that kept me engaged. I really wanted to see more of them together, frolicking in their love-sick toxicity. I found the final action sequence anti-climactic and as sloppy as the first big fight. There were moments that were supposed to amaze, and due to the selective character development, it was hard to care. Diablo, played by Jay Hernandez, is a perfect example of this. Knee-deep into the plot, we discover his depressing back-story, but it’s almost too late at that point. His character had been established and reinforced as a bit of a cliché with just a smattering of racist stereotyping. Then it turns out, in the final action scene, that there’s even more to him, WAY more. And yet, we never find out exactly what he’s all about, at least those of us who didn’t read the comic. A film, whether it comes from a famous novel, or comic, must stand on its own merit to be good. A story told well, transcends the vehicle of its telling, and in this case, I have no freaking idea why (spoiler) Diablo turns into some sort of fire demon at the 11th hour. I would have liked to know, because another merit of this film, is how the dialogue is written.
I want to say the writing is good, and it is, as far as the dialogue between characters goes. This is another strength of Ayer. He is great with banter and with intense delivery of intimate moments between characters. The overall writing lacks flow and feels choppy, tying into the poor choices of editing. The movie jumps around too much between story-lines without offering the audience a moment for impact and processing. Scenes lack conclusions or transitions, thus, as the unanswered questions start to stack up, you get frustrated instead of excited. Ayer leaves a lot of information for the audience to assume, and he misses the mark with that choice. This is not an intellectual film. This is a fun, action movie. The story should be told fully, without pieces of it left floating up in the air, leaving the audience distracted.
Impressive in talent and gigantic in potential, Suicide Squad could have been the ensemble Deadpool break-out for DC. Instead it falls short as a silly, guilty-pleasure that I’ll admittedly watch again. And I’ll also watch the sequel, if its green lit. I just can’t help myself. I want to see Leto’s Joker again, and again, and again! Oh, and I love his creepy chuckle!
Thanks for reading!
Diva Del Mar
