The movie opens with our anti-heroes in a secret prison somewhere in the swamps of Louisiana. There is Deadshot (Will Smith), an assassin with uncanny accuracy. Next there is Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), a former prison psychiatrist who fell in love with a patient. The patient was the Joker (Jared Leto). Then we have Killer Croc, a fellow who looks to be half crocodile and half human. For inexplicable reasons, his cell in under a sewer grate and whole animal carcasses are tossed down for meal time. Uh huh. Lastly, we see Diablo, a heavily tattooed gangbanger who happens to be a human flamethrower.
In Washington DC, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has a meeting at the Pentagon. One attendee asks what they would have done if Superman had ripped the roof off the White House and grabbed the president. She wants to make use of these super villains. Of course, never addressed is the fact that her team of super villains would have been no match for Superman but let's not discuss that. To demonstrate her point, she calls for Enchantress (Cara Delevingne). The Enchantress retrieves top secret material from Iran in the blink of an eye. Of note, Enchantress is not a willing pawn for Waller, who keeps her leashed by having her heart in briefcase. No sooner is her idea approved than Enchantress goes rogue and attempts to destroy the world. Who can save us now?
The Suicide Squad is activated and additional members arrive as they don their combat gear. There is Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Slipknot. Rick Flag (Joel Kennaman) of Special Forces will command the team with the aid of Katana (Karen Fukuhara) and a contingent of Navy Seals. The mission is to rescue a VIP from the area where Enchantress is active but not to engage Enchantress. Go! Where are Batman (Ben Affleck) and Flash, both of whom appeared in flashbacks in this movie.
Do these villains add value to the Seal Team? Deadshot makes sense. The guy is murderous with a gun and has uncanny accuracy. Yes, he is an asset. Diablo shoots fire. He is a walking flamethrower! Huge asset. Killer Croc is inhumanly strong, has natural armor, and swims like a fish. Could be useful. Slipknot is a skilled climber with a variety of tools to allow him to scale anything very quickly. Potentially useful in a cityscape. Captain Boomerang is a burglar who throws boomerangs. Any super powers? Nope. Oh, but he had a boomerang with a camera that served as a drone. The special forces didn't have an actual drone to do that? You know, you can buy drones at Walmart these days? Let's move on to Katana. Skilled martial artist who specializes in using a soul-sucking katana. Could be useful in close combat but I don't see her as more useful than a Navy Seal. Harley Quinn is a mental case who is, for unclear reasons, unusually skilled in close combat (psychiatry training is more strenuous than I thought). Her favored weapon is a baseball bat but she also has a pistol. More trouble than she's worth.
In Washington DC, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has a meeting at the Pentagon. One attendee asks what they would have done if Superman had ripped the roof off the White House and grabbed the president. She wants to make use of these super villains. Of course, never addressed is the fact that her team of super villains would have been no match for Superman but let's not discuss that. To demonstrate her point, she calls for Enchantress (Cara Delevingne). The Enchantress retrieves top secret material from Iran in the blink of an eye. Of note, Enchantress is not a willing pawn for Waller, who keeps her leashed by having her heart in briefcase. No sooner is her idea approved than Enchantress goes rogue and attempts to destroy the world. Who can save us now?
The Suicide Squad is activated and additional members arrive as they don their combat gear. There is Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Slipknot. Rick Flag (Joel Kennaman) of Special Forces will command the team with the aid of Katana (Karen Fukuhara) and a contingent of Navy Seals. The mission is to rescue a VIP from the area where Enchantress is active but not to engage Enchantress. Go! Where are Batman (Ben Affleck) and Flash, both of whom appeared in flashbacks in this movie.
Do these villains add value to the Seal Team? Deadshot makes sense. The guy is murderous with a gun and has uncanny accuracy. Yes, he is an asset. Diablo shoots fire. He is a walking flamethrower! Huge asset. Killer Croc is inhumanly strong, has natural armor, and swims like a fish. Could be useful. Slipknot is a skilled climber with a variety of tools to allow him to scale anything very quickly. Potentially useful in a cityscape. Captain Boomerang is a burglar who throws boomerangs. Any super powers? Nope. Oh, but he had a boomerang with a camera that served as a drone. The special forces didn't have an actual drone to do that? You know, you can buy drones at Walmart these days? Let's move on to Katana. Skilled martial artist who specializes in using a soul-sucking katana. Could be useful in close combat but I don't see her as more useful than a Navy Seal. Harley Quinn is a mental case who is, for unclear reasons, unusually skilled in close combat (psychiatry training is more strenuous than I thought). Her favored weapon is a baseball bat but she also has a pistol. More trouble than she's worth.
The movie is just too cartoony. Joker was particularly bad. In the Tim Burton era, we knew that Gotham was in an alternate universe with gothic architecture and perpetual darkness. It was a place where a villain might have a bunch of machinegun wielding clowns as members of his gang. His was a dark version of the 60s TV show. Chris Nolan's universe sought to be closer to reality, allowing greater verisimilitude with somewhat more realistic action and villains. In Dark Knight, Joker's goons might wear a clown mask but a Panda Suit would be out of the question! Suicide Squad mixes the two styles, giving a setting closer to Nolan's but characters that would fit better into Burton's. That doesn't work.
Jared Leto is the wrong actor for the Joker. He has the face of a 17 year-old. He reminds me of David Cassidy from the Partridge Family. He is only menacing because the script says so. Leto does the crazy but not the threatening. Where Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero were presentable and Heath Ledger viewed grooming as optional, Jared Leto is the metrosexual Joker. Maybe his best work was left on the cutting room floor.
Now for the utter stupidity. June Moone is supposedly an archeologist but when she finds an ancient artifact, she immediately snaps off the head and unleashes the evil spirit contained within. Maybe we could have had it break accidentally rather than through vandalism. Deadshot has a gun bracelet on his arm which he used at one point to make an impossible shot. It is a stupid weapon that should be useless beyond a dozen yards. Once the VIP is recovered, the pickup helicopter flies into the path of the big baddie rather than directly away. Sigh. Waller slaughters her staff. Well, that shows how nasty she is. Murder charges, anyone? No? Enchantress can teleport to Iran and back in an instant and pops in and out so fast that she nearly trounces the Suicide Squad single-handedly. Why didn't she just grab the briefcase with her heart and thus end Waller's influence over her? The fact that Enchantress went rogue demonstrates that Waller is incompetent. She thought she could manage Enchantress and failed miserably, causing all the trouble that followed in the movie. She should be tossed into a cell between Deadshot and Harley Quinn at the secret prison.
It has its moments but rarely rises above mediocre. There is a lot of good material and interesting characters here but this was the wrong story for them. Maybe Suicide Squad 2 will turn this around.
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