Direction: David Ayer; Cast:
Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai
Courtney; Story: Based on DC Comics Characters; Screenplay:
David Ayer; Producer Charles Roven, Richard Suckle; Cinematogrpahy:
Roman Vasyanov; Music: Steven Price; Editing: John
Gilroy; Genre: Action-Fantasy; Distributor: Warner Bros.
Pictures; Location: USA Running Time: 123
minutes ;
Technical assessment: 2.5
Moral assessment: 2
CINEMA rating: V18
Intelligence
Operative Amanda Waller (Davis) puts together Task Force X from hardened and
dangerous criminals to protect mankind from future attacks after the death of
Superman (as depicted in the movie Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice). The
team is composed of Deadshot (Smith), Harley Quinn (Robbie), El Diablo
(Hernandez), Killer Croc (Agbaje) with Army Special Forces Col. Rick Flag (Kinnaman)
as their leader. Unknown to the team, Waller chose them because she believes
they are expendable and that she can control them by controlling the heart of
the Enchantress (Delevigne), a powerful sorceress possessing Flag’s girlfriend
Dr. June Moone. Unknown to Waller, the Enchantress frees her brother and plots
to seek revenge against the world for imprisoning their souls and ceasing to
worship them as gods. Consequently, each of Task Force X’s members have their
own issues and pains which lead them to choose to do good or remain bad.
The
film’s title might be an indication of the audience’s feelings after sitting
through two whole hours of Suicide Squad
in the theaters. Visually, it just goes through so many confusing darkly lit
scenes put together in a very rushed manner. The musical introductions per
character lose their cuteness after the second song. And even with all the fight
scenes and explosions, you get edgy and bored. But the greater failure of the
film is in its narrative. The plot is muddled, the characters fail to
develop into something comprehensible and the direction is very rough. The
backstories feel rushed and the actual storyline is a jumble of clichés and
disconnection. Delevinge should stick to modelling because she is just pathetic
as June and embarrassing as the Enchantress. Leto’s Joker tries too hard to
surpass Ledger’s unsettling version and Nicholson’s freakish take and ends up
simply irritating. While Harley Quinn and Deadshot make good chemistry, and the
script has better humor, they are not enough to salvage the
production.
Suicide Squad could have delivered a
powerful message: especially in the light of the current fight of the incumbent
Philippine president against illegal drugs. Criminals are not dispensable.
Regardless of their actions, they deserve compassion, they deserve respect and
more importantly they deserve a chance to reform their lives. No matter how bad
a person may seem, there is still an ounce of goodness somewhere as long as
they have discovered love—true love. Deadshot’s love for his daughter, El
Diablo’s love for his family and even Harley Quinn’s dysfunctional love for
Joker—all brought them to realize there is a greater good in the world which
they are called to be part of. Unfortunately,
the viewers will instead remember the number of deaths and kills and violence.
