My Personal Worst Films: Suicide Squad (2016)

Suicide Squad «½
PG-13, 123m. 2016

Cast & Credits: Will Smith (Floyd Lawton/Deadshot), Jared Leto (The Joker), Margot Robie (Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn), Joel Kinnaman (Colonel Rick Flag), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Jai Courtney (George “Digger” Harkness/Captain Boomerang), Jay Hernandez (Chato Santana/El Diablo), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Waylon Jones/Killer Croc), Cara Delevingne (June Moone/Enchantress), Karen Fukuhara (Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana), Adam Beach (Christopher Weiss/Slipknot), Ike Barinholtz (Griggs), Scott Eastwood (GQ Edwards), Ben Affleck (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Ezra Miller (Barry Allen/Flash). Written and directed by David Ayer.

“I feel like I should watch it again. The movie didn't make much sense to me. More like the script was written by someone with ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). I did think it was funny when Harley was telling Batman that he was ruining date night and I thought the Enchantress character was really well done, visually. But the story, overall, left me with more questions. Also, if they are the baddest of the bad, why would they so seemingly easily team up and protect each other?”

While I don't necessarily call that a glowing review from friend, Wendy Potraza Frazer, who I asked on Facebook what she thought of "Suicide Squad" after seeing it, her comments are slightly more positive than my opinion of the film.

"Suicide Squad" was 2016's late summer’s "Fantastic Four" (2015) in terms of being a box office catastrophe. Anyone who claimed the critically lambasted film was a hit was like saying Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, broke no laws deleting the 30,000 plus emails from her private server. The one and only reason, (ok, maybe two), the film stayed in the number one or two spots when it opened in early August that year grossing over $200 million was because no other new release was able to compete with it, except maybe the R-rated animated "Sausage Party" (2016).

The film’s only selling point, and perhaps the second reason why it did well every weekend had to do with the casting of 2014 Oscar winning actor, Jared Leto, as the Joker. Leto’s appearance, if you believed the entertainment tabloids, totaled up to seven minutes of screen time and not one scene was wasted. Leto’s pale white nightmarish machine- gun toting creation may be everything mass murderer, James Holmes, thought he was when he opened fire on moviegoers at The Dark Knight Rises screening opening night in July 2012 in Aurora, Colorado.

Much like previous Joker incarnations created by Jack Nicholson in "Batman" (1989) and the late Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (2008), Leto made his clown faced villain his own sporting metallic teeth like as though he still has braces from when he was in high school, and a smile tattoo on his hand he uses to cover his mouth when he speaks. Whereas Nicholson’s Joker was a homicidal dancing artist and Ledger’s version promoted anarchy, Leto’s Joker has no real method to his madness, which is what makes him so frighteningly unpredictable. I can’t speak for anyone else but when ex-psychiatrist/girlfriend Harley Quinn (Margot Robie) receives the Joker’s text messages that he is coming for her, I couldn’t wait for the killer clown's oh-so-brief appearance.

Suicide Squad’s best moments occurred during the film’s first hour as intelligence agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) unveils plans to the nation's top military commanders to recruit the country’s “worst of the worst” criminals, currently imprisoned to ward off what she perceives an even worse threat following the tragic events in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016). If only that threat was a true menace, if not a formidable villain worthy enough for the “Suicide Squad” to engage in. More on that in a moment.

As Waller introduces her band of “anti-heroes”, the film literally comes to life as each criminal’s back story is cleverly told through some of the greatest songs from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. I say “clever” because each tune fits the personality of each convict. Rick James’ “Super Freak” (1981), for example, plays as sexually suggestive Harley Quinn’s life is shown how she was once a high-heeled, over-the-knee skirted psychiatrist who fell in love with the Joker. “Talk about a workplace romance gone wrong,” Waller says.

When the film opens panning in on the convict's prison, The Animals “House of the Rising Sun” (1964) is heard and, when the group is sent back to continue serving time, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975) is heard.

The most developed characters whose dialogue almost seem to jump off the screenplay pages are the Joker (“I can’t wait to show you my toys”), and Harley Quinn (“I’m quite vexing") along with Deadshot (Will Smith). As an expert marksman trying to do right by his daughter, Deadshot won’t carry out a hit until he sees the payment wired to his bank account from his employers while checking his cell phone.

If only the rest of the characters were as interesting. It’s as if screenwriter/director David Ayer put so much effort into creating the Davis, Leto, Robie and Smith roles that he lost the desire to do the same for the other antiheroes (Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, Katana, El Diablo). The rest of whom would not even be worth the $300 plus price tags Hot Toys Limited charges movie collectors when the company produces the latest 12-inch-action figures based on the film, other than maybe the Enchantress (Cara Delevingue) who was once known as Dr. June Moone, a female Indiana Jones type archeologist who’s possessed by a witch goddess.

Therein lies the problem with the film’s second act. Like "Fantastic Four" whose climax reminded me of a couple Star Trek (1979-1991) movies from the ‘80s (which were better), Suicide Squad" brought to mind a similar battle played out in "Ghostbusters" (1984) where when a female entity gets into the minds of the supernatural fighters, Dan Aykroyd’s character recalls his childhood hero, the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man, and as a result is the toy to bring about the “Ghostbusters” doom.

By comparison, (warning: spoilers), when the “Suicide Squad” arrive at the Enchantress’ lair, located at a downtown railway station, she gets into the minds of the criminals offering them images of how great their lives would be if they join her army. “He married me,” Harley Quinn says upon seeing how good her life would be with the Joker as her husband and raising two kids.

If the Enchantress had created a “Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man” for the “heroes” to shoot at, I’d ponder who the devoted fans would be upset with more. Would their anger be directed towards filmmaker David Ayer for putting in something so lacking in creative license, or still with the critics, the majority of who didn’t give "Suicide Squad" a favorable review?

Then there’s Delevingne’s Enchantress who, as the main foe, isn’t given much to do. The minute Moone becomes the Enchantress, she stands in front atop the steps outside the railway station in a skimpy black looking bikini outfit, her body covered in ancient markings, doing a dance in one place while some blue light from the sky shines down on her as she turns men into her personal alien type warriors. I was not even sure what the Enchantress wanted to accomplish, let alone wonder where all the citizens went the minute chaos erupted. Was the entire city evacuated and if they were, where were the armed forces who helped carry out the evacuation?

Unlike last year’s Fantastic Four where I wrote in my 9/9/15 review calling it “the equivalent of a rough first draft where a group of screenwriters got together and brainstormed some good ideas as to what they wanted to see done on film but it’s never fully developed into a final product,” "Suicide Squad" actually has a great first act, but barely a second. The stories I’ve read on the Internet that reveal a slew of deleted scenes, many of which feature the Joker, along with supposed behind the scenes interference from worried executives at Warner Brothers who wanted a more PG-13 oriented version to bring in more crowds and higher box office earnings from screenwriter/director Ayer brought to mind the rule Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel (1946-1999) used when he reviewed movies.

“I always ask myself, ‘Is the movie that I am watching as interesting as a documentary of the same actors having lunch together,’” Siskel reportedly said.

I asked myself that same question watching "Suicide Squad". The conclusion I came to is I’ll be interested seeing the deleted scenes when the film arrives on disc early next year. I have no doubt the footage will reveal how much great potential the film had. This might well be the first fun bad movie I love to hate to add to my other current list of fun bad movies ("Deal of the Century" (1983), "Dune" (1984), "Firestarter" (1984), "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (1982), "The Hindenburg" (1975), "The Osterman Weekend" (1983) among them) I never get tired of watching, or have them playing just to listen to while I am doing something else. "Suicide Squad" is so bad it’s almost entertainingly bad, just not in a good way.

©2/22/23