As sometimes happens, I had today off. In an excellent coincidence this was also opening weekend for Suicide Squad. Once I was done in the real world (taking the kiddo to the dentist) I scooted on over to the theater. The hype caught me with this one – I was at the 10 am show – and there were far more folks there on a weekday morning at 10 than I thought there would be. I was excited. This was going to be good. (Minor spoilers ahead)
About twenty minutes of trailers dulled my excitement. Some I’d seen, some I hadn’t and a few I totally didn’t care about. There was a weird mix of films on that list too. There was one that was about a 17 year old girl that doesn’t fit in, then Doctor Strange (obvious choice for comic fans), then a Chinese film staring Matt Damon of all people. It was weird. When the logo came up at the start of the film I was afraid it was another trailer.
The folks in Hollywood make amazing two minute films. The problem is, and likely has been for some time, that the movie couldn’t match the hype. People love the characters. People love the music that was used in the trailer. OH, the trailer. Splashy, neon amazing looking trailer. As usual, the folks cutting that two minute movie were spot on. How cool. Look at it in all its glory. Awesome. It’s the longer version that needed the work.
IF you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen a fair chunk of the good stuff already. I hate to say it, but the rest of the film was mildly interesting, but if you’ve seen all the trailers you’ve seen the good stuff. You’ve even seen some stuff that didn’t make the cut for the final film I think. It’s difficult to remember. The whole thing was a bit disjointed.
The flow of the story wasn’t there. This was a link movie or a set up movie or something that wasn’t as good on its own as it would have been with other films surrounding it. Like Avengers going first, then having Thor and Captain America and Iron man get individual films later (or not at all). The first half hour of the movie at least was all back story and set up. Literally flash backs as you go over character profiles from a top secret folder. Each bit was good, but they were just lined up and trotted out one at a time. Then all those people are dumped into a war picture that turns into a comic book hero film… sort of. There’s a primary mission but a second primary mission that allows the first one to happen – or something. I’m not sure. There was cool music that matched each scene but seemed like a patchwork when hung together.
I think that’s it. This movie is a quilt. There are little square patches that are really cool. Somebody took all those square patches and sewed them together to make a big quilt. Once they did that they took Batman and trimmed the whole thing around the edges.
She owned every scene she was in-
I’m not saying this movie was bad because it wasn’t. I actually really loved Harley (Margot Robbie) in this film. Every scene she was in was totally hers. I thought Diablo had real potential too, but there wasn’t much screen time for him. The rest of them were there and were good. Will Smith is himself at this point. He’s a good actor but all I ever see is him in whatever role he’s in. He gets the most screen time. He’s good. I disliked the people I was supposed to dislike. I liked and rooted for the people I was supposed to root for. It worked out in the end – I guess?
Yes, stay for one more scene in the end credits but you only get one. Yes, this is DC attempting to match what Mavel has done with building a series of connected films. Yes, it’s a bit of a mess, but it was still fun. IF you don’t want to jumble in with the crowds this weekend, the next week or two should be just fine.