Suicide Squad

Even after the DC Universe defining flop that was BvS:DoJ, I still had high hopes for The Suicide Squad.  Knowing DC's current "show all and everything" tactic in their continuous bombardment of trailers and TV spots I also decided that one trailer was enough and avoided everything the was subsequently released, I wanted to enjoy the film without knowing every plot point prior.

This was definitely the right approach for me.  Unfortunately, the reviews of the film were harder to ignore.  Negative critical reviews bombarded the interwebs and the berating of the DC franchise continued.  Always in competition with the brighter and more enjoyable Marvel Expended Universe, DC has a tall order ahead of them.

The Suicide Squads teams up a rogue gallery of villains from the DC universe, each with restrictive explosives embedded in their necks to avoid any insubordinate behaviour.  They must embark on a rescue mission and protect a city from annihilation against their will but using all their "meta-human" strengths and acquired skills.  Among the group are fan favourites, Harley Quinn, Dead Shot, Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang (ok, so the last one may not be a massive favourite).

This is more the Anti-Hero Movie were the good guys are not that good and the bad guys are really bad.  Margo Robbie is perfectly matched to Harleen Quinzell and perfectly embodies the role, Will Smith as DeadShot is basically Will Smith with all his usual charm and the supporting cast each have their moments.  The big let down for me was Jared Leto as The Joker, there was a lot of hype around his embodiment of the Clown Prince but the film could have achieved more without him.  Admittedly, he was enjoyable to watch, but it felt like his scenes where shoehorned in just to raise a little interest to the film, they felt superfluous to the actual narrative. A little cameo (there are a couple in the film already - no spoilers) would have sufficed.

It was great to see a full cinema on the opening night with almost all showings with limited availability.  It goes to show that the interest in the film, and not having a massive name on the title card, was there from the start.

Suicide Squad is a thoroughly entertaining, leave your brain at the door, film.  Some enjoyable characters (although the big bads were far from menacing...or interesting) and some great interactions with the bigger named actors.