Before you delve into this review, its important to know I did this review for an assignment for my second year module on 'Film and the American Imagination,' where I chose to write a review on a blockbuster, a type of film we did studied for a seminar. I've got a stronger hatred for this film, bear that in mind, this review is a little too nice for me, and it's not really with my usual way of reviewing and how I'd write one. Nevertheless, I've uploaded it for your reading pleasure, and for maybe even some feedback from some of you, on perhaps what I could do better! I got a 2:1 for this piece, which is good, but I strive to do better. So any constructive criticism is welcomed. Any who, do enjoy!

Thank Squad we now know better.

It feels like the wait for this film has been almost a millennium. Ever since Warner Bros. released the line-up for their slate of DC comic based films, Suicide Squad has been the one everyone has been excited for, and why shouldn’t we be? A team of supervillains who are forced against their will to defeat the forces of evil. That should give Marvel a run for its money. And ever since the first photo of Jared Leto’s Joker and the leaked, haunting 2015 Comic Con footage was viewed by the masses, this film would without a doubt be the biggest blockbuster of the summer. Well, it’s here, and here is the verdict. It’s a good blockbuster, and it’s also a terrible one.

‘Suicide Squad’ is directed by the talented David Ayer, famous for other group films such as ‘Fury’ and has an impressive ensemble cast lead by Will Smith as the man who never misses, the assassin Deadshot, the infamous girlfriend of the Joker, Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie) and the fantastic Jared Leto as the clown prince of crime himself, the Joker. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) a sinister government official puts together a team of dangerous super criminals against their own will to defend mankind from dangerous threats other than themselves. These criminals include Deadshot and Quinn, Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) amongst others, kept under control by Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) The concept sounds brilliant, a breath of fresh air to the superhero genre. It almost sounds like a play on ‘The Magnificent Seven,’ but if this reviewer is going to be perfectly honest with you, go see the remake of ‘The Magnificent Seven,’ as this film is a better ‘Suicide Squad’ movie than ‘Suicide Squad.’

Where to start? Well the film is a choppy, fast paced mess in terms of editing, that often leaves you thinking: ‘what the hell just happened here? Am I missing something?’ It makes you feel pretty dizzy, the transitions feeling like they just came from iMovie. The story is pretty good for the first act, with all the characters getting their introductions: Smith, Robbie and Courtney are an absolute joy to watch – but when the story and action kicks in, as does the audience disgruntlement. Everything just seems to happen at once and its left feeling very sloppy by the end of the film. The villain of the film, Enchantress, played by Cara Delavigne is possibly the worst, most cringe-worthy supervillain ever seen. She salsa dances for about three quarters of the film – that’s right, salsa dances, and her dialogue is almost as bad as some of the other characters cheesy one liners. As the Enchantress, her voice is dubbed over, which is something Ayer got right there – this dubbed voice exceeds over Delavigne’s shoddy performance.

Admittedly, the rest of the characters and performances are fantastic, Amanda Waller being the real villain of the film is delightful to watch. Smith’s Deadshot is very charismatic, and even fan favourite Harley is done justice. But a lot of the development falls flat – I questioned a lot of the motives of some of the characters, and Karen Fukuhara’s Katana really does nothing throughout the film, quite similarly to Adam Beach’s Slipknot. The build up to the final act of the film felt like it could possibly make said final act worth watching, but it’s really a big old CGI mess. Two words to describe this film: Mindless entertainment.

Some people like that, understandable. That’s why it’s a good instance of a good blockbuster and if you’re like most people, you’ve seen merchandise and adverts pretty much everywhere you go, often with Leto’s Joker looming all over them. And if you’re wondering if Leto brings any new gravitas to the iconic character, he’s intriguing, for about the full five minutes he’s in the entirety of the film. I wish I could have seen more of him, and honestly there is more of the Joker in the trailers, some of the footage of the Joker not even in the final film. To say that he and Harley were the main selling points of the film, it should be said that yes, they sell the film well. Iconography and synergy help to make this a blockbuster just from these two characters, it’s really high concept cinema if you see a poster with the either of them on it. You know its DC, you know its supervillain related, if you’re a fan of the comics you know the drill. And since Joker has been advertised to death for this film, you’d expect a bigger presence from him, but you just don’t, and it makes you question what went wrong.

The film succeeds in being the biggest film of the summer, it was sold out in most cinemas from release date for me. But after you’ve seen it some of you will realize it really is about commercialism, and I have to question what Ayer was thinking with what should have been a revolutionary film for the genre, but turned into a studio driven product that sold dolls, posters, costumes and the like, and yes they succeeded in selling the film – but the film failed in winning us over. Now we are stuck with that ‘Daddy’s Little Monster’ phone case, haunting us on how good of a film this could have been. Perhaps Ayer isn’t entirely to blame, possibly the studio is too and that’s why ‘Suicide Squad’ is great at teaching us not to believe the hype, because so many of these films have done so before. They always seem to let us down in some way or another.

So there you have it, the film wins as a blockbuster in the commercial and ideological aspect, but fails miserably as well, a film. In credit to it, the performances and comedy are something to really love, but not enough to win you over.