Suicide Squad (2016) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Suicide Squad
Year: 2016
Director: David Ayer
Country: US
Language: English

Admittedly I'm not a fan of either DC or Marvel. Superhero films aren't my cup of tea & it would take a lot of convincing to get me to watch anything that is even remotely associated with comic books (although Black Hole is a pretty decent graphic novel). I do have a fondness for The Joker however regardless of who it is played by. My favorite joker is Heath Ledger, but I also like Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill's version. Since Joker (Jared Leto) is in Suicide Squad I thought it was a must-see event. 

In Suicide Squad a secret government agency recruits a group of imprisoned supervillains (Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Deadshot, Boomerang & Mexican stereotype)  to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency, which inevitably leads to chaos.

Jared Leto’s much marketed role as Joker appears mostly in flashbacks, or Harley’s memories. He's an afterthought to the main plot, and honestly not very good. This joker is an underdeveloped character who could probably be the love-child of Jim Carrey and Marilyn Manson. I kept thinking "boy does this remind me of Jim Carrey's Riddler from Batman Forever". The script gives nothing for the character to do and much of his presence just seems like it was filmed specifically for the trailer. Why is he randomly laughing in a room full of knives?

Suicide Squad has no structure, and not in an artsy fartsy avante garde kind of way. We move forward and backward through flashbacks and cutaways without rhyme or reason, often (only) to the film's detriment. The film does provide plenty of action, but not enough breathing room to fully understand the characters and their motivations. We do get the cliche "I'm doing this for my daughter" bit from Will Smith which seems to be the motivation for almost every character he's ever played. 

Overall the plot is predictable, the writing is horrendous and the music is...random? Suicide Squad's soundtrack pretends to be cool with it's  mix of Eminem, Black Sabbath and Queen but it doesn't add anything to the story or characters, unlike how Martin Scorsese's soundtrack frequently does. I didn't want to hate this movie as much as I do, I was REALLY hoping Leto would be on the same level as Ledger, but unfortunately I can't give it a pass. The trailers are far better than the film.