Suicide Squad was one of the most anticipated and eagerly awaited films of this summer. Comic books fans had been waiting for this movie ever since it had been hinted at and the star cast was revealed. But sadly, when the movie came out, it didn’t quite match up to fans’ expectations.
David Ayer Director
Written and directed by David Ayer, who has previously directed the war epic “Fury” and the crime thriller “End of Watch”, is famous for shooting action and giving scenes real impact even when the script is not up to par. But it seems as though this time the script was a little too bad for him to work his directing magic.
Bad guys Working for the Good guys
With big names like Oscar nominee Will Smith (“Ali”, “Seven Pounds”), Oscar winner Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”),Oscar nominee Viola Davis (ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder”), Margot Robbie (“Wolf of Wall Street”), and Joel Kinnaman (Netflix’s “House of Cards”) this movie had everyone’s hopes up. Especially with the twist to the superhero theme with the bad guys working for the good guys. But as another film critic mentioned, “too many crooks spoil the broth”. The movie failed to impress due to significant plot holes. It tried to incorporate the swagger of “Dead pool” and the anarchic whimsy of “Guardians of the Galaxy” but failed to garner box office likes, much like another highly anticipated Summer ’16 movie “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice”.
Story very Promisingly
The characters, who were introduced into the story very promisingly, fizzled out too soon and some critics say that saying the movie had plot holes is inaccurate as it infers that there was a plot to begin with. One of the biggest disappointments about the movie was the character of Harley Quinn. Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn is probably one of the best performances in the movie, but she is seriously underused and her character’s potential and subtle low key love hate relationship with you know who doesn’t get as much screen time as one would like. And speaking of you know who, Jared Leto’s Joker was one of the most hyped about performances of the year, and yet it failed to deliver much like the package it was placed in – the whole movie. He is barely in the movie and even the little Joker bits are not what fans expected they would be.
Maybe it was the pressure of being put on par with actors like James Cagney and Heath Ledger who have given amazing powerhouse performances as Joker, or maybe it was just the weight of so many expectations that Leto didn’t quite turn into the Joker that everyone wanted. On the other hand, Will Smith’s portrayal of Deadshot was a proper movie star performance and he brought his A-game but it didn’t help much because of the lack of a proper story.
All in all, David Ayer’s reverse superhero comic book action noir failed to wow audiences and critics because of a lack of story, non-convincing villains, and the very basic flaw of cramming too many expectations into one movie.
