The hype for Suicide Squad was real. Unfortunately, the tone and visual brilliance of the trailers, clips and TV spots hid the fact that the film would have such uneven composition. But that's not to say the film is without its own merits and charm.
Will Smith's Deadshot, Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Viola Davis' Amanda Waller are all characters I can't wait to see again in future DCEU installments. Jai Courtney's Boomerang and Karen Fukuhara's Katana had genuine screen presence and just enough screen time to develop fan interest in their backstories. Cara Delevingne's Enchantress and Alain Chanoine's Incubus were dreadful villains in the same vein of Christopher Eccleston's Malekith the Accursed and Lee Pace's Ronan the Accuser. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's Killer Croc and Jared Leto's Joker were given so little to do that they would have been better served being cut entirely from the movie and saved for a Batman feature.
Visually, the film is a cinematic treat. There's a fluidity to Deadshot jumping on cop cars and mowing down nondescript baddies that will be sure to tickle your inner fanboy. Even Incubus, despite having virtually no development whatsoever (seriously, years and years of movie history mandates that he was supposed to double-cross Enchantress the moment he had her heart), has a certain aesthetic flair. It's obvious that the costumes were the product of great attention to detail as the transition from page to screen was virtually flawless. The film should also be commended for relying on actual real-world locations and sets instead of using green screen. Combined with the fact that a lot of the cast performed their own stunts, Suicide Squad contained only a handful of scenes which featured vfx doppelgangers and backdrops - a rarity in today's blockbuster landscape.
Where the film suffers is with inconsistent pacing, the use of a boisterous soundtrack instead of an original score and exposition-heavy dialogue that felt like narration instead of character reactions. Stop me if you've heard this before - a superhero movie is visually alluring, has fantastic superhero costumes and an A-list cast that captures the spirit of their respective characters but suffers from uninspired humor, a head-scratching plot and a stale villain. If David Ayer seriously only had 6 weeks to write the script then the cringe-worthy dialogue and aimless plot makes perfect sense. In contrast, Marvel Studios had over a year to finalize the script for Iron Man and also had the benefit of access to decades of previous development from when the Iron Man rights were at Universal, New Line and 20th Century Fox. Where one studio continues to improve and redefine the genre, the other (albeit in its infancy) appears to be regressing.
SUMMARY: Suicide Squad is a movie filled with stellar imagery, colorful characters and frenetic action that's hamstrung by exposition-heavy dialogue and a meandering plot. It's fun to watch but ultimately lacks substance.
PROS:
-Great costumes.
-Solid action.
-Charismatic main cast.
CONS:
-Weak score.
-Choppy editing.
- Exposition heavy dialogue