Suicide Squad Review (Spoilers)

Let's talk Suicide Squad and the DCEU: Part 1: Suicide Squad Review

I was going to post a thing about Star Trek and share my opinions so far about the DCEU vs. the MCU, but I clearly haven't. See, I normally write these posts on the Bus and Train, but Pokémon Go kind of took over what I did during public transportation. So I am putting down the Pokémon Go for one day so I can (as Hillary would put it) Pokémon Go-write-a-blog-post. So, before I saw Suicide Squad over the weekend, I was really disappointed to see the early reviews: Just as bad as they were reviewing Batman v Superman. I liked Batman v Superman, and I liked Suicide Squad. I will admit that I kind of like it just a little less because of how bad the reviews are. I don't want to do a full review of the movie; I'd rather talk the DCEU as a whole instead. But I should also explain why I enjoyed the film against all the critics. Am I the only one with the correct opinion here!? First, I will go through all the cons. This movie has cons; nothing big enough to compromise the movie (I think) but maybe they are to others. A big theme with this movie is that everyone thought it was one thing and it turned out to be a different thing. 1) The trailers for this movie were great. The movie was not at all what they advertised. The Joker was barely in this movie. I know everyone says that but he was advertised as a main character and he wasn't. I totally get why they advertised him so much (following up Heath Ledger but in a new universe, being a fan favorite...etc) but they still shouldn't have told us he was a main character. You can tell they cut a lot of scenes. Jared Leto even said they cut a lot of his scenes! I think that it was a good decision to keep him a minor minor character; he was only there to compliment and explain Harley Quinn, and if he was in any more scenes he would have brought the focus to him instead of her. The Joker has been a minor character in a lot of Batman comics and episodes. One that comes to mind is Batman: The Long Halloween. He was in it for Christmas and New Years and that was it. He pulled attention away from the main story while he was in it. Same for Suicide Squad: The Joker's biggest heist was him stealing the spotlight and attention from the rest of the film. The Joker as a character demands that we pay attention to him and he did that in this movie. If he was any bigger of a presence, it would have detracted from Harley, Deadshot, Amanda Waller, and the villain (We'll get to that later). All we got was a taste and I'm fine with that. That being said, they better release those cut scenes for the home video release. 2) The editing was definitely the worst aspect of the movie. I'm not saying that I am a great editor, but if I was payed as much as I'm sure whoever edited this was, I would've tried harder. I’m sure the editor got fed up after all the changes, but come on, man, it's your job. The movie screams corporate decisions and interference. Now I don't know which ones were David Ayer's and which ones were WB's but it shows that two parties fought over how the film would be played out. It's very clear that they cut a lot of scenes that they shouldn't have. You can tell they filmed it but either cut it short or cut it out. Here are some: (spoilers) There's a scene in between Capt. Boomerang leaving the bar and coming back to join the Squad. They could have added a joke there like, "Sorry, Oi had to take a whizz, mate", or he leaves, runs into a lot of baddies, and runs back to the bar and say "on second thought, theh's strength in numbas, right?" I was waiting for Capt. Boomerang's fantasy. I thought his was gonna be a great punchline. Like his fantasy was riding a pink unicorn into a giant pool of diamonds and cash. Instead they skipped it. Captain Boomerang only used like four boomerangs and only one boomerang returned to him. I wanted to see him compete against Deadshot a little. They should have given Harley a rebound relationship with Deadshot after she thought the joker died and they could have teased it while she was with the squad. When the Joker left her in the river, she kissed Batman, latching on to whichever is the alpha of the present group. They rushed through Harley's transformation. They didn't even try to introduce Slipknot. Everyone and their grandma knew he was the DOA, but come on, nothing!? I'm not going to complain about Killer Croc. I thought he was fine; it's a reimagining, but they could of gave him more lines and purpose. More focus on his backstory would not be missed. Margot Robbie learned to hold her breath for 5 minutes for the movie. If they cut out Killer Croc, they could've had her go underwater to plant the bomb. 3) The villain. She was a little bland and underdeveloped. For the purposes of this movie, it was fine, but it could have been better. When she is defeated, that other girl returns. I thought she'd be dead in a gloomier universe, but no. It's more of a happy ending which I thought would be better if she died. 4) Not all the jokes landed. They needed better timing and audio setup. I guess this attaches to the editing problems but they needed more humor to let the audience know that these characters are happy-go-lucky, not just Harley. That's enough I think. I said I liked the movie, right? Pros: 1) The acting. Everyone was great. They embraced their characters and the effort shows. I did want to see Amanda Waller go a little more hardcore and the joker be a little more unhinged but all and all, great job! Special shout out to Margot Robbie. She was the best out of everyone! Will Smith was great too, but he was more Will Smith than Deadshot. 2) The first third of the movie: the intros to the characters. That was the film the trailers were advertising. I don't want to describe it; just know that that was the best part of the movie. 3) The plot. I thought it worked. It was contained. Remember in Ant-Man, when they, for no reason, visited the Avengers HQ and it didn't fit with the rest of the movie? It was there just for connecting to the rest of the MCU? Yeah, well, we didn't have anything like that here. 3.5) About the villain. People are wondering why a supernatural being is fought by by the Squad and not an actual superhero. But Enchantress was caused by Amanda Waller so it works that she's responsible for cleaning it up. It was a little out of nowhere when Waller shot her whole team. If she threw in just one line why she did it, it would have been great for her ruthlessness. "They were not essential personnel and I can't have the Squad covering everybody; they need to be concentrated on protecting me and you [Flag] not a bunch of interns." Boom, right there I turned a con into a pro for the character. 4) I liked the soundtrack. At points it was louder than the other audio. I think it would be better if they played with it more, like have a character hum along to the music as if he/she heard that song too; adding to the insanity vibe that the suicide squad is known for. I wish there was a better montage of characters kicking ass, but whatever. 5) El Diablo's storyline. It was great. He was great. Katana was intriguing and badass. She was awesome. She's aside from the Squad, she's a paid bodyguard, so I really liked how she didn't really fit in with the rest of the characters. In a longer cut of the bar scene, I'm sure she gets a few more English lines, where she warms up to them a little like Flag had. They kept her a mysterious minor character. Enchantress was really cool until she freed her [brother]. Then she got weird and had a man's demon voice. It should have been a siren-esque seductive voice but whatever. I know I said that they should have killed off June Moone but keeping her alive has potential too. She now has a similar story to Jessica Jones. They should have expanded on that in this movie, but they could expand on it in future installments of the DCEU. Wait! What if she goes mad and gets sent to Arkham!? Eh? Little cameo in the Batman solo film, and she begs him to end her suffering or something because she has recurring nightmares of all the Enchantress's memories and fears that she is still inside her? That'd be really cool. All and all, this movie was good. Was it better than Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel's movie that closely resembles Suicide Squad? No. Guardians of the Galaxy was more fun, better paced and had a smaller cast which was better. I will say that Suicide Squad's villain was tied into the story way better, though. Also, I like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Heathens" way more than "Hooked on a Feeling" and "I want you back". What about DC's own animated movie "Batman: Assault on Arkham"? Eh... I'm gonna have to give it to The animated movie, too. That one made the Joker a villain but that took a backseat to the other stuff that happened. Same thing with Batman. I really wanted them to just translate that movie into live action, and the trailers made it look like they were. I understand why they didn't though, it'd be redundant, so whatever. The first third of Suicide Squad clearly took inspiration from Assault on Arkham. Also taken from that movie was the scene in which the Joker was in a helicoptering it crashes into a skyscraper and he's presumed dead until it's later revealed that he's not (obviously). The characters there meshed together better. Harley has revenge sex with Deadshot. Deadshot and Capt. Boomerang quarrel. Killer Frost is kickass and grows fond of King Shark. The Movie and the Asylum itself is tied with the Arkham games. I would definitely recommend watching Batman: Assault on Arkham before watching Suicide Squad. It will help you understand what they are trying to do here. It's clear the critics have not, which is why they didn't seem to understand what the movie was all about. So that took longer than I thought to write so I will talk about the DCEU as a whole later. Thursday is the long awaited Rogue One trailer and I still want to do a trailer analysis, so stay tuned for that.