Have you seen ‘Suicide Squad?’ I have. So I am back with another edition of “Couch or Cinema”
So let’s get into this summer’s most highly anticipated film Suicide Squad.
Suicide Squad broke all of the August box office records bringing in $135.1 million its opening weekend in the states. The film had a boastfully talented cast that included Viola Davis, Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and Jared Leto. There was only one tiny problem. It wasn’t good. You can keep the Marvel movie super-fan comments to yourself because it’s not even worth the comparison. Marvel has the superhero films down to a science, whereas the DC cinematic universe seems to be slowly crumbling ever since Christopher and Jonathan Nolan broke ties. The Nolan brothers resurrected and re-imagined ‘Batman’ in a way that, to this day, goes unmatched.
So what happened? Starting with the opening scene, Suicide Squad unsuccessfully borrowed the use of pop songs to add to the brevity of character backstories. Sorry but Guardians of the Galaxy, which also opened in August 2014 and was a fantastic movie, did it much better so trying to mimic that made it even cornier. Other missteps include; too many flashbacks with not enough depth, throw away characters, an unclear mission, the use of the Joker character, cringe-worthy dialogue, and the nagging feeling that this is a set-up for a sequel. I expected much, much more.
After all, DC did bring us ‘The Dark Knight.’ I’m guessing the intent was to make this film about a group of anti-heroes feel dark but…I wish they hadn’t taken that so literally. For some odd reason, an unnecessary dark/low opacity filter was cast over the entire film, as in, it was difficult to see. For that reason alone it might be easier to watch the film as a projection in the cinema. (I would suggest a matinee showing and not in 3-D.)
More thoughts…
During the film I began to worry…if Batman vs. Superman is better than Suicide Squad, and I did not like Batman vs. Superman, what will Wonder Woman be like? Dear DC Cinematic Universe, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t have to pump out superhero movies all willy-nilly to keep up with Marvel. Focus on the quality of the content. Use the Nolan classics as your measuring stick and deliver like you did once before. Sincerely, One of the many hopefuls.