Somewhere towards the end of Suicide Squad, Will Smith's Deadshot remarks, "Well, we almost did it..." And I can think of no more accurate statement to describe this movie. It almost works. It's almost good, but not quite. The movie is far from being as bad as the critical consensus would have you believe. It's actually pretty fun and, at least for the first two-thirds, it moves along at a brisk pace with plenty of action.It isn't even so much a matter of parts of the movie not working as it is parts of the movie working but not quite as well as you would like. Without a doubt, the one part of the movie that works more than any other is Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. The beloved fan favorite is perfectly embodied by the Aussie bombshell. She's the perfect combination of crazy, sexy, and funny. They even manage to create a version of the Joker/Harley relationship that is far less problematic than the one depicted in the comics and the animated series (in short, rather than being manipulated by the Joker, she falls for him becomes his willing accomplice and, rather than being abusive or manipulative, this Joker seems to, in his own twisted way, legitimately care for Harley).
And speaking of the Joker, Jared Leto's Joker is one of those things that almost works. He's no Heath Ledger, but he still gives a creepy, madcap performance as the Clown Prince of Crime. In fact, I don't have a problem with most of the Joker's look--- except for that damned 'damaged' tattoo across the forehead. It's a bit too on the nose. It doesn't so much make him seem crazy as it makes him seem like someone who desperately wants people to think he's crazy (then again, that might be what Leto has in mind for his version). The result is a Joker who isn't so much disturbing as he is what teenagers who shop at Hot Topic think is disturbing (In fact, the movie even has a tie-in clothing line at that very store and my friend and comic writer Jeremy Whitley even quipped, "I can think of no better analogy for Hot Topic than PG-13 Suicide Squad").
Will Smith's 'Hitman with a Heart' (he never shoots women or children; has a daughter that he wants the best for), is another character that almost works. Smith has a natural charm, particularly when his humor is given a chance to shine (which, unfortunately, isn't quite often enough in this film). The character just doesn't have quite enough meat to him and, as a result, it looks like Smith, more or less, just phoned in his performance.
Jai Courtney's Captain Boomerang is a welcomed bit of comic relief but, unfortunately, is woefully underused. Speaking of laughs, if the rumors are true and the film underwent massive reshoots in order to inject more humor, they were definitely a sound investment. The film contains the bare minimum amount of laughs that it needs to be entertaining. It's still not quite as funny as it needs to be to attain the level of irreverence of, say, Deadpool or Guardians of The Galaxy but it's JUST funny enough to prevent the movie from being a tonal bore.
Another online theory about those reshoots claimed that they were to inject more action into the movie. If this were the case, they were not only unnecessary, but they may have actually made the movie worse. Suicide Squad isn't bad at it's 2 hour running time but, if it had been 20 minutes shorter, it could easily be upgraded to "pretty good" (still not great though). Like many modern blockbusters of the sci-fi/superhero genre, Suicide Squad suffers from action overload in its final act. This is something that affects both movies that are actually halfway decent (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Trek Beyond) and movies that are not so decent (Batman Vs Superman, Man of Steel). I kind of feel like, more and more, the final act of these movies is becoming like the final boss fight of a Final Fantasy game; it's not enough for the good guys to just show up and beat the bad guy. They have to seemingly beat the bad guy, beat the bad guy in a more powerful form, then fight the person revealed to be the REAL bad guy.
Ultimately, Suicide Squad is just what it needs to be: an entertaining, action-packed, star-studded blockbuster. Nothing more, nothing less. And, really, if you're expecting anything more from a late-summer action pic, you're expecting too much (even if, as Guardians of the Galaxy proved, sometimes you get a little more).
ALMOST SPOILERS: The movie is true to it's premise that these are 'Suicide Missions' that our crew is being sent on and that not all of them will make it out alive. However, figuring out which ones won't is a bit too easy: which characters have you never heard of before? Gee, I wonder why that guy wasn't even given a backstory like everyone else? They could, at least, make it a little less obvious.
