The Suicide Squad films show how studio meddling can make or break a film.
The concept for Suicide Squad originates from the DC comics and is a different idea for a “superhero” team, in which the team is almost entirely composed of villains.
The idea is that super villains already in prison are sent to go on highly dangerous government black ops missions in return for months being taken off of their sentences. The idea is that in case a mission goes bad, the U.S has plausible deniability and can just blame everything on the villains.
To make sure that these dangerous individuals stay in line, they have bombs planted in their heads. And the creator and overseer of the squad, the ruthless Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis), is all too willing to do so.
The team also has a field commander, Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), the only non-supervillain in the field who leads the team and makes sure they stay on task.
The big draw of the concept is that aside from the staple characters like Flag and Waller, you never know who’s going to live or die.
The first film, Suicide Squad, (2016) directed by David Ayer, is a film that’s trying to be several things at once and failing at most of them.
The plot is that the Enchantress (AKA June Moon, played by Cara Delevigne), a powerful and ancient sorceress who was initially part of the team, has gotten loose, and is trying to destroy the world.
To stop her Waller sends in the Suicide Squad, consisting of Col. Flag; Deadshot (AKA Floyd Lawton, Will Smith), an expert marksman who never misses; Harley Quinn (AKA Harleen Quinzel, Margot Robbie), the Joker’s (Jared Leto) girlfriend, who’s almost as crazy as him; Captain Boomerang (AKA Digger Harkness, Jai Courtney), a bank robber armed with trick boomerangs for almost every occasion; El Diablo (AKA Chato Santana, Jay Hernandez), an ex-gang member who can create and control fire; Killer Croc (AKA Waylon Jones, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a man with a rare skin condition that grants him super durability and strength and the ability to breathe underwater; Slipknot (AKA Christopher Weiss, Adam Beach) who can make knots that are impossible to untie; and Katana (AKA Tatsu Yamashiro, Karen Fukuhara), a woman whose sword can absorb the souls it has killed and who has Rick Flag’s back.
The main problem with the film is that it’s clearly been torn apart and put back together by WB, making it a jumbled mess.
The film had a lot of reshoots and it’s kind of obvious to anyone paying attention. For instance, in some scenes Rick Flag has a buzz cut, but a couple scenes later he has longer hair.
Tonally, the film is all over the place. Some scenes are horror, some are comedic, and others are generic comic book movie fight scenes and in no way do they naturally flow into each other.
The movie’s soundtrack also is a mess. While the music itself is good, and by itself would be a good listen, most of the time it doesn’t fit the film and feels jarring.
It’s like the creators wanted to make the DC version of Guardians of the Galaxy so they just added a bunch of popular music, without realizing that the music in Guardians of the Galaxy actually served a point and connected to the story.
The film’s plot also has many problems. For instance, if Enchantress was so powerful and Waller had, until partway through the film, a way to control her, why did she even need the Suicide Squad? The only one who comes close to matching her power level is El Diablo and he’s a pacifist. The rest of the squad is superfluous.
Speaking of Enchantress, she’s such a generic and weak villain. Why does she want to destroy the world? Because she’s evil. How is she going to do it? With a giant sky beam. She also has an army of faceless minions that are easy to take down.
Also the Joker is in this movie, when he really doesn’t need to be. The entire time he’s trying to get Harley back, but it never really adds anything of importance to the story, and could easily be written out and without changing the film.
And no offense to Jared Leto, the Joker kind of sucks in this film. He keeps changing voices, has “Damaged” written on his forehead, and has random tattoos all over his body, which makes him look less threatening and more stupid if anything.
Another problem with Joker in this film is that he actually loves Harley, which is a big disservice to both of their characters.
To put it simply, Joker and Harley’s partnership is the very picture of an abusive relationship. This adds tragedy to Harley and shows even more just how evil Joker is. Making him actually care for her misses the entire point of their relationship
But the big problem with this film’s plot is that it’s full of so many characters that most of them don’t really contribute to the story. The only characters that are actually explored or that the audience really gets to know are Rick Flag, Deadshot, Harley Quin, and El Diablo. The rest are just there to either die, deliver quips or fill action scenes.
But despite the film’s numerous faults it still has plenty of good.
The acting is well done by everyone involved. None of the main character actors feel like they’re slacking.
Special mention goes to Margot Robbie and Viola Davis. Both are pitch perfect casting and easily slip into their roles.
While most of the characters don’t have anything resembling a character arc, El Diablo is actually pretty well done and interesting. He’s the most powerful member of the team, but has taken a vow of pacifism. But throughout the film he starts to slowly care about the team, gets over his tragic past, and decides to use the powers he’s sworn off in order to help them.
The makeup and design for the characters (other than the Joker) are also well done and implemented pretty well. In fact the film won an Oscar for make-up.
The action is fine, not atrocious, but not the best out there.
In the end, Suicide Squad, is a Frankenstein’s monster of movie, patched together with reshoots, and different visions that make it a mess. But has good parts to it, and can be decent fun if one turns off their brain.
Several years later a sequel/soft reboot was released in 2021 to theaters and HBO Max. The film was titled The Suicide Squad (directed by James Gunn, famous for directing the Guardians of the Galaxy films), with most of the surviving cast of the first movie returning to reprise their roles.
Amanda Waller sends in the Suicide Squad to the South American country of Corto Maltese to locate and destroy a secret weapon called “Project Starfish.”
The team is once again led by Rick Flag, with the only other returning members being Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang. New members consist of Blackguard (AKA Richard Hertz, Pete Davidson), a man with a special armor that gave him super strength and the ability to shoot energy projectiles; Bloodsport (AKA Robert DuBois, Idris Elba), an assassin good with any weapon and is literally covered in guns; Javlin (AKA Gunter Braun, Flula Borg), who is really good at throwing javelins; Ratcatcher 2 (AKA Cleo Cazo, Daniela Melchior), a woman with the ability to control rats; Savant (AKA Brian Durlan, Michael Rooker), a weapons expert; Peacemaker (AKA Chris Smith, John Cena), a sociopath who loves peace so much he’ll kill anyone to achieve it; Mongal (Mayling No), an alien with super strength; Polka Dot Man (AKA Abner Krill, David Dastmalchian), who can shoot polka dots; Weasel (Sean Gunn, director James Gunn’s brother), a weasel person; King Shark (AKA Nanaue, Sylvester Stallone), a walking talking shark person with super strength and durability; and T.D.K (Nathan Filion), whose powers are unknown.
It’s funny how the original Suicide Squad was basically a discount Guardians of the Galaxy, when this film is directed by those films’ director. And unsurprisingly this works to this film’s strength.
In the original, even with the fantastical elements, the film still tried to be dark and down to earth, with a muted palette tone and more serious characters. This didn’t work when all the characters were kookie and weird.
This film feels more like a comic book movie and it works. The color palette and character designs are a lot less real world, which makes it a more interesting viewing experience.
The film is also a dark comedy, with many comedic moments mixed with moments of extreme violence. Like when Bloodsport and Peacemaker are sneaking into an enemy base and constantly trying to one up each other on the coolest kill.
This is due to the new R rating the film has compared to the previous film’s PG-13, allowing Gunn to go wild with the characters and the story.
Something else the film does better than the original is that it’s legitimately hard to figure out who’s going to live or die. Some characters played by big actors that look like they’re important to the story are killed off quickly. Others who look like cannon fodder, actually make it.
It helps that all the main characters at least have some sort of arc compared to the last film’s one- character arc. For instance, Polka-Dot Man is trying to not to think of himself as a monster, Rick Flag is growing a conscience, and Harley is trying to make sure she doesn’t get into another relationship like her time with the Joker, who she’s since broken up with.
The needle drops in film also now serve a purpose, whether helping to hammer in a scene or showing what a character is thinking or feeling.
If the film does have any problems is that there’s a point in the film where it basically becomes the Harley Quinn movie for a bit, before it gets back on track with the plot.
Suicide Squad films, whether bad or good, are at least different.
Patrick will soon be appearing in a film about water treatment, The Sewer Side Squad.
