The Daily Gamecock

'Suicide Squad' brings welcome levity to DC Universe

"Suicide Squad." (Universal Pictures)
"Suicide Squad." (Universal Pictures)

Like DC’s previous theatrical release of the summer — “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" — “Suicide Squad” had a lot of pressure to perform critically and commercially after the former failed in both ways.

It seems that, because of this pressure, the studio created a pretty safe and simple, yet fun, summer blockbuster.

If you were interested in the "Suicide Squad" antiheroes before this movie, I would bet it was because of the interesting mix of “bad” guys that are forced to do “good” things. Thankfully, the movie does really well with making almost all of the characters likable and pretty funny, but only Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and — weirdly enough — El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) are actually given deeper backstory.

However, the Squad’s newfound affection for one another comes off as very premature and unearned by the finale. For the most part, the ensemble cast is only there to play off of each other for laughs and engage in an action sequence or two — but for this sort of movie, it works.

The subplot of the Joker (Jared Leto) was welcome — especially since this was the audience’s first taste of a new Clown Prince of Crime since Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” — but was ultimately expendable to the plot. Sadly, without Batman to bounce off of, the Joker just seemed to not fit in with the film. Regardless, Leto’s rendition is still rather unnerving while still departing significantly from Ledger’s version. As much as the promotion for the film tries to tell you that this is a Joker story, it very much isn’t.

That being said, the characterization is not at all the problem with the movie —unfortunately that lies almost completely upon the plot, conflict and antagonist. Without going too much into spoiler territory, it would have been beneficial for the film if the Squad had been sent to take in someone like the Joker rather than struggle with the super-powered villains that were used.

Although initially interesting and even somewhat horrifying, the antagonists’ “plan” as it played out on screen was rather nonsensical, and the two adversaries were far too powerful to realistically be defeated by Task Force X.

Overall, “Suicide Squad” is an enjoyable if somewhat mindless action-comedy, but critically thinking about it reveals some significant storytelling flaws — and this is coming from someone who really liked “Batman v Superman.”

As entertaining as “Suicide Squad” is, DC has obviously not struck the gold mine that Marvel has, and they are clearly still playing catch-up theatrically. However, if there is one thing to be excited about, it is that DC seems to intently be listening to fans and critics alike.


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