Suicide Squad (Official Thread)

[loyola llothta]

Review: Loaded with Jokes But Devoid of Wit, Suicide Squad Is Dead on Arrival

Harley Quinn’s entrance is the best moment in Suicide Squad. After that, you can leave

So much happens in David Ayer’s DC Comics adaptation Suicide Squadthat by the end, it’s as if you’ve seen nothing. Ayer spends the first quarter of the picture introducing the characters, because there are tons: Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller is the head of a shady government operation who enlists the world’s most crazy-dangerous convicted felons to wipe out a bunch of treacherous something-or-others that have taken hold of Gotham. The allegedly colorful miscreants she assembles include, but are not limited to, Will Smith’s superassassin Deadshot, Jay Hernandez’s gangbanger pyromaniac Diablo and, most memorably, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, the psychotic tootsie who used to be a brainy psychiatrist, Dr. Harleen Quinzel. Dr. Quinzel’s life changed forever when, as an Arkham Asylum shrink, she began treating the Joker (Jared Leto) and fell crazy in love with him. She busted him out of prison, and in a choppy flashback we see the pair living a dazzling life of sick romance and criminal escapades, until Batman (Ben Affleck, in an obligatory cameo) shows up and puts an end to it all by punching her in the face—smooth move, Bat Dude. The Joker escapes, but Harley doesn’t. When we first meet her, she’s executing an improvised slow-mo trapeze act in her Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary prison cage, a glowing blond wraith going all Cirque du Soleil to Lesley Gore’s ghostly anthem of self-determination “You Don’t Own Me.”



Harley Quinn’s entrance is the best moment in Suicide Squad. After that, you can leave. Robbie is a criminally appealing actress, likable in just about every way, but that intro aside, Suicide Squad doesn’t serve her well. It serves no one well, least of all its audience. Other actors wander through listlessly: As Colonel Rick Flag, one of Waller’s helpless henchmen, Joel Kinnaman struts about sullenly, desperately looking for something to do. Cara Delevingne (the model with the fabulous eyebrows, now launching a movie career) is June Moon, the ace scientist who now and then falls under the spell of the power-mad ancient crone Enchantress. It turns out that Enchantress—who speaks in a growly language and likes to strut around in a skimpy golden goddess-warrior outfit—is key to the horrors that have befallen the city, commanding an army of goons whose faceless heads are covered with throbbing black pustules.

TMI, I know. But all of Suicide Squad is TMI, a bunch of character stuff and plot stuff chopped and diced and tossed up on the screen with no regard for plot or logic or mood, as if we’re just not supposed to care about those things anymore. The script is loaded with jokes and devoid of wit; the movie’s overall tone is snickering and dour. The setting is your standard gloomy, grimy, grayed-out post-apocalyptic city, the same one we’ve seen hundreds of times before in hundreds of other movies. Now and then there’s a dash of color, especially when Leto’s Joker appears, with his silvery capped teeth and Day-Glo hair. Leto seems to be channeling, consciously or otherwise, Richard Widmark in the 1947 noir Kiss of Death—that’s the one where Widmark’s truly creepy-evil character pushes an old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs. But Leto is so textbook twitchy that he barely comes off as menacing. And his scenes with Robbie have no spark, no lunatic ardor. If you can’t strike a spark with Robbie, something’s terribly wrong.

Suicide Squad moves fast, so fast that the characters barely have time to hate one another, let alone bond. But instead of making the picture more exciting, the cluttery blur of the editing flattens it out—it’s like watching helicopter blades whir for two hours. Writer-director Ayer (who wroteTraining Day, and directed Fury and End of Watch) is also fond of using pop songs, some old and some not-so-old, as a kind of aural Epi-pen, a way of goosing a scene toward some semblance of excitement. But he tosses his cool vinyl collection around so indiscriminately that, after that one inspired Lesley Gore moment, none of it works. Hey, it’s Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”! Wow, White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”—haven’t heard that one in a while! By the time he gets around to Etta James’ stupendous “I’d Rather Go Blind,” throwing it away as background music in a bar scene, it’s well past time to turn off the ADD jukebox. Click.

Review: 'Suicide Squad' Is Dead on Arrival

 

[BelowTheMasonDixon]

Of course it's from devin.

The same guy who started the rumours that suicide squad had extensive reshoots (which was bullshyt he made up) is now saying in his review that the "reshoots muddied the waters"

He's talking out of his ass as usual.

That dude is a fan boy through and through and his word means nothing.

Why anybody continues to post his nonsense his beyond me.

Breh he's one of the few people that gave it a fresh rating. Just said the shyt has hella flaws.

 

[AnonymityX1000]

Pop shyt apologize just ask kiss . . .

 

[Dr. Narcisse]

It's just wild.... like I said, DC cannot win for nothing. You got a decent director, several Oscar winning or nominated actors, gave them the so-called "fun" these critics been asking for, filled it up with action, and made it a point of being a summer popcorn flick that's not supposed to be taken serious....yet it gets bashed for the very things they asked for in the 1st place.

It probably isn't the type of fun people were expecting. Also it sounds as messy as Thor The Dark World, but that seemed to have the right kind of "fun"


Is it what it is. DC gotta take the L's and just do course correcting.

Dark/grim movies are officially done in the DCEU.

 

[OnFleekTing]

All that matters is how the audience responds.

Current top trend on twitter is suicide squad
That's all that matters right?
Break the August record and maybe become do a bit more business before the bad reviews cut off its legs

 

[Clark Wayne]

Damn even David Ayer giving up

Said he made it for the fans.

 

[loyola llothta]

how much marvel came out the pocket. Stark mad the call



The Playlist:

And while “Suicide Squad” isn’t as poorly stitched together as its nearly unintelligible forebear “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” it’s still a patchy, makeshift effort of mismatched tones, tacked on jokes and messy narrative. While a flippant sense of humor assists its entertainment factor, the second DCU film ain’t no “Deadpool” either.

The Daily Beast:

Needless to say stylistic flourishes, like unstable villains, are bountiful in Suicide Squad. The fun is in letting yourself go along with every silly bit. Do you like montages and flashbacks? Writer-director David Ayer loves them. He cannot get enough of them. He leans on both far too heavily for far too long in a movie so stuffed to the rafters with colorful characters, there’s barely any room for a serviceable plot.

Indiewire:

Just when you think the summer movie season can’t get any worse, along come the “Worst. Heroes. Ever.” And while the film’s official tagline is selling its stars a little bit short (surely last year’s incarnation of The Fantastic Four still holds that dubious distinction), the mundane, milquetoast, and often mind-bogglingly stupid “Suicide Squad” almost makes good on the threat of its marketing campaign.

/Film:

Unfortunately, Suicide Squad suffers from a lot of the same issues that have kneecapped many of this year’s other similarly sized blockbusters. The pacing is wildly uneven, as the film moves from a relatively zippy first act to a virtually nonexistent second act to an endless third act. Action is often prioritized at the expense of emotional beats or character moments, and too much of the dialogue feels like explanatory or expository. At one point in the climax, one character turns to another to explain the plot point we’ve been watching play out for the past 20 minutes. My audience laughed at how ridiculously clunky it felt.

THR:

But the evil is never properly defined and, worse, isn’t personified in a way to balance the firepower of the opposition. In a fuzzy and hokey manner that encourages immediate viewer check-out, unlimited malevolence is made to reside in an ancient witch goddess whose physical heart literally is held by Waller and whose horrific spirit insinuates itself into a modern archeologist (played by Cara Delevingne); the latter’s boyfriend is Kinnaman’s Col. Flag, the guy who just happens to be in charge of the criminal team. Why anyone thought this creaky narrative line was a good idea for a wannabe-edgy superhero action piece is unfathomable. Indeed, it brings any and all investment in what’s going on to a quite complete end.

EW:

Writer-director David Ayer (End of Watch) skillfully sets up the film, introducing each of the crazies with caffeinated comic-book energy. But their mission — to take down Cara Delevingne’s undersketched witch, Enchantress, and her giant golem-like brother — is a bit of a bust. The stakes should feel higher. As someone who isn’t fluent in Suicide Squad lore, I can’t imagine there wasn’t a better villain in its back catalog. Still, it’s nothing compared with how wasted Leto’s scene-stealing Joker is. With his toxic-green hair, shiny metal teeth, and demented rictus grin, he’s the most dangerous live wire in the film. But he’s stranded in the periphery. For DC, which blew it with Batman v Superman last spring, Suicide Squad is a small step forward. But it could have been a giant leap.

UPROXX:

Suicide Squad is the most frustrating movie I’ve seen in 2016.

Variety:

Blame it on Batman, but the DC universe has gotten awfully dark in recent years, especially compared with the candy-colored competition over at Marvel. Rather than bringing levity and irreverence to the increasingly unpleasant comic-book sphere, as its psychedelic acid-twisted marketing campaign suggests, “Suicide Squad” plunges audiences right back into the coal-black world of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” picking up after the Man of Steel’s demise to imagine a government so desperate that its only hope to fight the next “meta-human” threat is by assembling a team of the gnarliest super-villains around.

Io9:

Suicide Squad is a weird movie, and not just because it’s about a motley crew of supervillains set in the DC universe. The movie itself is also a motley amalgamation—a strange blend of different tones, stories, and pacing all mashed into something that has cool individual elements, but never really comes together.

ScreenCrush:

If you liked the scene in Batman v Superman where Bruce Wayne watched YouTube videos about the future members of the Justice League, you’ll love Suicide Squad.

 

[OnFleekTing]

Damn even David Ayer giving up

Said he made it for the fans.

Yeah the reviews are starting to wear the creative forces down
You better hope this shyt makes bank and the fans say f the critics because otherwise...

 

[wire28]

What's disavow mean in this context? He didn't direct it?

maybe it was just too intellectual for you man

 

[HoldThisL]

David Ayer is a real one. Definitely going out and seeing this on Friday

 

[BelowTheMasonDixon]

'Suicide Squad' Review: DC Bad Guys' Movie is Anything but Super
The Joker's on fans as this all-star epic about crimefighting villains blows itself to smithereens

The anticipated savior of a bummer summer turns out to be a grabbag of what's been off and awful about recent comic-book epics (Captain America: Civil War excepted). Suicide Squad wussies out when it should have been down with the Dirty Dozen of DC Comics. Audiences complained that Batman v Superman was too dark and depressing. So director-writer David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury) counters with light and candy-assed. I call bullshyt.

You've never seen a more lovable team of death-row supervillains, hilariously dubbed "the worst of the worst." Viola Davis is actually scarier than any of these maniacs as Amanda Waller, the ethics-starved fed who corrals these killer "meta-humans" from Louisiana's Belle Reve prison to work for the good guys just in case of another alien invasion. Will Smith gets laughs as Deadshot — but should he? He's playing a heartless assassin. It turns out Smith's bad guy cares less about getting released from prison than getting his daughter into an Ivy League college. "I need you to 'white people' that thing," he says, Fresh Prince-ing his captors. And there's the usually irresistible Margot Robbie as the bat-wielding Harley Quinn, a shrink who turns deranged and deadly under the spell of the Joker (Jared Leto), the psycho she'd die for. "But would you live for me?" he asks. Leto's cackle really is chilling, but Ayer reduces his role to a glorified walk-on. And, hey, these crazy kids really do love each other. All together now: Awww.

The rest of the squad are introduced with all the resonance of a roll call: Jai Courney gets in a few early licks as the Aussie thief Boomerang, and then rarely comes back. As the tattooed Diablo, Jay Hernandez has the power to spew flames, but he's held back by — get this! — his conscience. Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje rises from the sewers as Killer Croc, a cannibal with a full-body skin condition that does the acting for him. And poor Adam Beach barely registers at all as the rope guru Slipknot.

Surprisingly, the actors on the "good" side fare marginally better, such as Joel Kinnaman as Col. Rick Flag, the conflicted Navy SEAL in charge of keeping the squad in line. Cara Delevingne starts promisingly as Flag's archaeologist love Dr. June Moone, but as soon as her spirit is corrupted she becomes the evil Enchantress and the film's reigning scourge. Say what? Is this Ghostbusters? Don't even try to navigate the logic at play here.

Though look closely at Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Flag's ninja second-in-command — her sword absorbs the soul of her victims. Who stole the soul ofSuicide Squad? I'd say it's Ayer's willingness to go all limp-dikk and compromise his hardcore action bona fides for a PG-13 crowdpleaser that would rather ingratiate than cut deep, or even cut at all. My heart sank during the film's big battle between the Squad and zombie soldiers. You heard me: zombies! The walking dead aren't the only clichés that eat away at the potential in this material. Superfreaks become supersweeties and Suicide Squad: Dawn of Dullness(my subtitle) does the impossible. Forget Batman v Superman — at least it tried. This botch job makes Fantastic Four look good.

 

[wire28]

Nah they just beat DC to the punch. DC waited too long. Had they just released one Batfleck solo I honestly think they would have more juice right now.

the way batman was lookin in BvS they royally fukked up by trying to stuff everything into that crapfest that was BvS. a solo batflick would have had them sitting pretty. i said it before that BvS was a big risk, if it sucked it would decrease interest in everything following because you cant get higher than batman and superman, they are the two most well known comic figures in the world for the past few decades

 

[loyola llothta]

"Forget Batman v Superman — at least it tried. This botch job makes Fantastic Fourlook good."...

 

[wire28]

Damn even David Ayer giving up

Said he made it for the fans.

thats basically standard rapper talk when his album goes double wood

he gonna have to hold this L

 

[Disgustya Stallone]

Pop shyt apologize just ask kiss . . .