By: Nicholas Riedl
It’s been a long five months following the release of Batman v Superman and although the
reception to that movie was generally negative, fans and critics alike seemed
excited by the studio’s next project: Suicide
Squad. We’ve been treated to
incredibly fun trailers over the last few months that highlighted the mayhem
that was to ensue as we followed a team of fan-favorite villains from the DC
universe. To make it even more
promising, it was being helmed by a proven director with an immensely talented
cast. However, over the last few days
there have been mutterings of the films quality, and having now seen the film,
those concerns seem to be the unfortunate reality. Suicide
Squad is a convoluted, poorly written film with questionable decisions and
shoddy editing around every corner.
The story follows Task Force X (aka The Suicide Squad) who
have been forcefully recruited by government official Amanda Waller as a
contingency plan for the potential of a meta-human attack on US soil. The idea behind this team is that it is
comprised entirely of hardened criminals who could be sent into deadly combat
situations without having to worry about whether or not they survive. The team, which features such names as
Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and Captain Boomerang, are called upon when an unknown
threat materializes in midway city, trapping an important government agent on
the inside. The team is tasked with
rescuing this official at all costs, and as one could imagine, not exactly
everything goes according to plan.
If one were to boil down all of this film’s issues to a
singular source, you’d probably find yourself pointing to the script. Not only is the writing unorganized; it’s
predictable, juvenile, and at times, flat out insulting to the audience. Within the first few minutes of the film,
it’s already easy to be confused as to what exactly is going on. And without prior knowledge of the characters
you might find yourself struggling to keep up with the quickly paced and poorly
laid out background stories that are displayed for Deadshot and Harley
Quinn. To make things even more
convoluted we are then given a range of too short and too long descriptions for
the remainder of the team, and all without any sort of real reason for why we
should care about what’s happening.
Speaking of which, the film never really lends any incentive
for us to care about anything. The rapid
background stories and emotional ties are never given enough time for us to
latch on to, and thus when ‘stakes’ are presented, they never hold any weight. Relationships appear to build off of nothing,
and motivations change for seemingly no reason at all.
The script also appears to be ‘fixing’ itself as it goes
along. Characters are constantly
explaining plot details to the audience in case they were lost in the chaos,
and snippy one-liners are shoehorned in as a potential course correction from
the studio. There’s just no sense of
coherence here. The film stumbles
through boring action sequences until they feel as though a plot point needs to
be explained, then stumbles some more until we reach the endgame.
Surprisingly, the writing (with all of its issues) might
not be entirely to blame. There’s
nothing more powerful in the filmmaking process than editing, and if rumors are
to be believed, Suicide Squad might
have had a few too many in the editing room.
There was a sort of a cycle to this movie once it got into
the real bulk of the story: comedy scene, action scene, emotional scene,
one-liner, repeat. Repetition is
generally never a good thing when it comes to the flow of a film, and to make
matters more frustrating, it was easy to tell that the script was probably not
originally written in this format, and was altered at a later date in order to
purvey a certain tone. It could even be
possible that the writing itself was completely lost during the editing phase,
and hurt beyond repair for the film’s final cut. To describe this strange relationship; it
felt as though the editors and writer were told to create completely different
products, and never once matched with the vision that the director had in
mind. Now whether this was studio
interference or just a miscommunication, I’m not sure. The end result, however, speaks for itself.
Finally, the biggest topic that you will likely read about
online is the portrayal of characters and how close to the source material this
adaptation was. Personally, I believe
this is irrelevant, as creativity and artistic interpretation should never be
considered as reasons for why a piece of art is not ‘good’. These can be seen as reasons to why one
didn’t ‘like’ a piece of art, but should be seen as non-factors when
determining the quality of such pieces. No matter how you felt about Joker, Harley, Enchantress, etc.; Remember,
we’d still have a flightless Superman if changes were never made.
So what’s the verdict?
Is it possible to enjoy Suicide
Squad? Of course it is, and I’m sure
there will be plenty of you out there that do.
The facts of the films fundamentals however, are much less to be
desired. Writing and editing problems
overwhelm any fun that might be delivered from the cast, and bland action
sequences find home wherever they can fit.
David Ayers’ Suicide Squad is
a victim of style over substance, and falls flat as a barely legible foot note
on DC’s growing cinematic universe.
