https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7y8oHI-W3M
TL;DR: 4/10
Summary: An ok movie. Underwhelming given the hype. Wasted casting.
There’s a reason why this review has a trailer instead of the image most of you know me for. The answer is this: I would prefer rewatch the trailer instead of watching the movie, even if you paid me to rewatch the latter.
SO. FUCKING. WASTED.
The cast, the crew, the SETTING of the entire movie? FULL POINTS. I enjoyed seeing all the characters, enjoyed the costumes, the setting of the sets. They’re the reason why this movie is a 4/10 (aka 2/5). The actors were so on point in their roles, I can’t really divorce them from their players now.
I expected to love Harley, but I didn’t expect to love her this much. She’s so batshit insane.
Deadshot? Quite alright. And Will Smith is pretty good at this.
Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc and Enchantress? Could have used more touches. So could Slipknot and Katana.
Amanda Waller? She’s here and there, but I think that’s more of the script, and less of the actress. There were some very out of character lines. @.@
What I didn’t expect? Holy crap EL DIABLO. He’s the surprise scene stealer.
Flag had no on-screen presence. Next to everyone else he’s kinda… not there.
The Joker. ARGH this annoys me so much. You can sense there’s so many things between him and Harley and yet NONE of them are alluded to. NONE are even shown. There’s a huge disconnect between the flashbacks and how he acts that it’s maddening. And not in a good way (this section alone would have given the movie a R-rating, and you know what? They should have!).
Which brings me to the point of why the movie just flops for me:
What the hell was that excuse of a plot? It feels like the characters were being pushed into places they had to go because “they have to.” Like a bad fanfic writer trying to do a self-insert and deciding not to because it’d be too embarrassing, but yet not really understanding how to write.
Case in point: Final battle sequence. Why in the world would anyone have followed Flag after he gave them their freedom? Two characters definitely had motivation, but the others… is there any reason for them to?
Flag calls himself a soldier but the way he follows orders is so… @.@ his character is contradictory (and not in a good way).
We never got an explanation for how the main villain managed to delay dying. Except vampirism of some weird sort.
And these are just the spoiler-free versions. The worst part of it? You can tell there was so much more. Each of the actors were very much in character (except Flag) but what they portrayed didn’t fit what the story wanted, and it shows. It really shows.
And yes, this part I will spoil you: A lot of what you see in that trailer? Never made the final cut. Which leads me to think it’s probably the fault of Without Balls (aka WB). Ayers is not an incompetent director and that makes me think the studio probably didn’t have the guts to let him release the version he intended.
Hey WB, a word of advice. When you let your middle managers tell you taking a risk is a bad thing, despite the hype of the fans, this is how you kill your own business. I wanted to watch Suicide Squad with the Joker probably going all demented on them. Getting your lame attempt at a McGuffin? Way to kill someone else’s career because you can’t, in Harley’s words, “Own your shit.”
Oh, and yes, I think it’s definitely studio interference. Here, have a Reddit mention of the novelisation (I would have expected some minor differences but not this much):
… Damn you.