My Thoughts on Suicide Squad

SPOILERS

Earlier today I was finally able to see Suicide Squad. For me, it was one of the most anticipated movies of the summer (but I was interested in a lot of movies this summer so it's really hard to say), easily much more so than Batman vs Superman. I'll admit, this was primarily due to my disappointment with Man of Steel, but over all, I think what I found more appealing about Suicide Squad was that it was something different. It seemed like it was going to bring much more to the table than your traditional super hero movie, much like Guardians of the Galaxy did back in 2014.

Before I talk about what I thought, lets get something out of the way. When it comes to the recent DC movies, I'm not much of a fan. It's not that I am some die-hard Marvel fanboy. I enjoy DC super heroes, I just feel that their movies fall short. As I mentioned already, I was disappointed with Man of Steel. I felt like it was a movie that had a lot of potential, but ultimately didn't live up to it due to story problems. In my opinion, Batman vs Superman had even more potential and could have been something truly amazing. But again, I feel like it suffered with story problems, got distracted, and tried to be too many things at once. Even with all of this in mind, I was still really looking forward to Suicide Squad and went in with an open mind.

So now, what did I think? Well, I think that Suicide Squad is easily the best movie we've had so far in the DC Extended Universe. It did a lot of things right that the previous two movies just didn't.

Let's talk about the cast first. For the most part, the acting is good. There's nothing that stands out as terrible or underwhelming. But on the flip side, I thought that Margot Robbie and Jared Leto as Harley Quinn and the Joker, respectively, were fantastic. Jared Leto's performance may have been a bit cartoonish and over the top, but I think that's acceptable for the character, and I think I'll come to like his take on the Joker.

Suicide Squad, in my opinion, easily had a more focused and prominent story than Batman v Superman. In that movie, we're lead to believe that the main story is the fight between Batman and Superman, but in reality, that was just a plot device to bring about a much large (and in my opinion) much less interesting story of defeating Lex Luthor and his plans.

This isn't to say that Suicide Squad's story was perfect. I still feel like at times it was a bit distracted. I know that Harley Quinn and the Joker are hugely popular characters, and I will freely admit that I would like to see a movie dedicated solely to them, but in a lot of ways I felt like the subplot involving the Joker was in a lot of ways unnecessary. The people in charge of making the film must agree with this to a certain extent because there were many scenes involving the Joker that ultimately didn't make the final cut. Certain of these flashbacks were necessary, particularly the ones telling us more about Harley, but the ones that dealt almost exclusively with characterizing the Joker weren't needed. I feel like they existed solely to set up another movie.

And that's hitting on something that's really bothered me with the DC Extended Universe thus far. It's obvious that DC is trying to emulate the highly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe by making a series of movies that are all interconnected and lead to a big crossover movie. However, Marvel does this very naturally and DC seems to be doing it rather clumsily. All f the Marvel movies flow very well into one another. There's no awkward or forced connections, no unnecessary and shoehorned set ups for the next movie or next character. Marvel introduced all of it's Avengers super heroes either through their own stand alone films, or as side characters in those movies. But these side characters, like Black Widow (Iron Man 2) and Hawkeye (Thor) and their place in the film don't feel forced. They fit very naturally into the existing story and the movie is never truly about them.

However, I feel DC does the opposite. In Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman is shoehorned into a little subplot, solely to introduce her character, instead of more naturally introducing her in her own movie, which is coming out next year anyway. The bottom line is that because its not naturally part of the story, it feels awkward and distracting. The movie momentarily becomes about her, rather than Batman and Superman. That's what the Joker scenes in Suicide Squad felt like to me. Yes, the Joker does serve some purpose in that his death provides the catalyst for some characterization of Harley, and ultimately something Harley could trick Enchantress with in the finale. But did the film really need all of the scenes involving the Joker that it actually had? I learned more about the Joker and his character than I did about half of the actual members of Suicide Squad, and I think that's a problem. And it seems like this was done for no other purpose that to introduce Joker for a later movie.

So with that in mind do I hate the movie? No, it's a fun ride. Yeah, it has problems. Yeah, certain depictions of the characters may be a bit unconventional, the story might not be air tight, and the soundtrack may seem strange at points, but it's still a fun, enjoyable movie. I still would rank this the best of the DCEU movies thus far and see it as an improvement.