Movie Review: Suicide Squad

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The worst villains on the planet all assembled into one team as Suicide Squad arrives in theaters this week.

I want to preface this review by saying, I'm not a comic book fan and haven't read any of the DC Comics that go along with the series.

Suicide Squad is the third installment in the DC Extended Universe. That being said, I am a movie fan, so this review will be purely based off of the movie itself, and not how well the movie is adapted from the comic books.

The premise of the movie holds promise; assemble the worst villains on the planet into one team, to fight anything human, or metahuman that might threaten mankind.

The movie was written and directed by David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch).

The team, known as the Suicide Squad, is comprised of Deadshot (Will Smith), Dr. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Diablo (Jay Hernandez), and Katana (Karen Fukuhara).

Viola Davis plays Amanda Waller, the military's architect of the Suicide Squad and Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) is brought in to take charge of Waller's mission.

A lot of the movie is spent on telling the backstory of each of the characters, which is fine because as a non-comic book person it's good to see where each character came from. The only problem is that you don't have a lot of time left for the rest of the movie to develop; the squad is thrown into action immediately after being formed.

One thing I loved about the movie, the way Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn) stole the show. Every scene she was in left you wanting more. She was the one you consistently watched throughout the movie to see what she was going to say, do, or even wear.

Her interaction with Jared Leto as The Joker was simply brilliant. Their on-screen chemistry was enchanting to watch, then again, so was Leto's portrayal of The Joker. I thought he was masterful and I can't wait to see more from him in the future.

Will Smith also did a fantastic job. You felt as if Smith was torn between trying to play his character of Deadshot, or playing a Deadpool-like character. It was unfortunate because in my opinion, one of the best comic book adaptions, thus far, has been Deadpool. One thing is safe to say, without some of the star characters like Robbie, Leto, and Smith, the movie could have been a major disappointment.

Suicide Squad really towed the PG-13 line and could have been so much better as a darker, R-rated movie. Now I'm not going to say Suicide Squad was the worst comic book adaption movie that has been made, but it definitely wasn't one of the best. As I said before, I'm looking at it purely from an entertainment factor, and the movie was entertaining.

One of my major gripes with the film is the plot. Seriously, couldn't we think of anything better than fighting an evil witch, Mummy-like character, who turns people into zombie-esque creatures? The evil Enchantress leads a lot to be desired when it comes to bad guys fighting bad guys. The end of the movie reminded me of Ghostbusters meets The Mummy; there wasn't really anything that made it stand apart from at least half a dozen other blockbuster endings.

Overall Suicide Squad did entertain for most of its two hours and two minutes run time.

The good: Margot Robbie, Will Smith, the soundtrack, Jared Leto and Viola Davis.

The bad: Poor plot, dumbed down for PG-13 audiences, left a lot to be desired, CGI zombie blobs and the ending.

The film wasn't the worst, but it could have been so much better. Will it do well at the box office? Only time will tell. I believe critics are being harder on the movie than the word-of-mouth folks will be.

Director David Ayer has already taken to social media after numerous bad reviews came out about the film.

I give Suicide Squad a "B" rating, nothing to write home about, but fun to watch. As with most of these movies, make sure you stay through the credits.

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