Movie Review: Suicide Squad (2016)

The movie stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Jared Leto and Joel Kinnaman.

Even though she has never been into superhero comics, my oldest daughter wanted to watch this movie because her friends recommended it to her. So, being a good dad, I ended up getting it on DVD through Netflix.

I had some doubts about this film when we finally had a chance to watch it yesterday evening. However, mostly because it starred Will Smith, I was willing to give it a fair chance. Unfortunately, I just wasn't impressed with it.

I'll start out by saying the movie did have an outstanding cast. There was a big ensemble and the various actors owned their characters. This is especially true of Robbie, who was awesome as Harley Quinn and Leto, who made a surprisingly creepy Joker (though I was kind of disappointed he didn't get too much of a role in this film).

I think my biggest problem with this film was the overall execution. The writers had a tough task because, since the various characters might not be well known to those of us who don't read comic books religiously, they had to take the time to introduce them. This, in turn, caused the movie to become somewhat bogged down at times because of their backstories, especially early on, when it seemed like the various introductions dragged on forever.

On top of it, as is usually the case with movies that try to use a variety of different characters, there were some that simply were forced into the background. The movie really was about Deadshot (Smith) and Harley Quinn with Diablo (Jay Hernandez) stealing some of the time later in the film. Despite the effort to give everyone else a personality, they really were just along for the ride.

Another issue I had with this movie was the overall plot seemed a bit too predictable. There weren't any real surprises and the fight scenes (when we finally had them) looked like something out of a point-and-shoot video game. Instead of being on the edge of my seat, I found myself fidgeting in my seat because I was starting to get bored, especially when the ending seemed to drag on (did we really need all that slow motion?) to the point I was wondering if the movie would ever be over with.

The various actors did a great job in their individual roles. However, there were just too many backstories to keep track of and, as a result, the film never reaches the level of excitement it had the potential to reach. 

My Grade: C