Chance's Corner: Suicide Squad Review

The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) has slowly been growing over the years, starting with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and now we have Suicide Squad. The squad is actually an elite task force (Task Force X) charged with saving the world from a new surge in "metahumans". The problem is that the task force is comprised of comic book villains AKA the worst heroes ever.

Suicide Squad is an interesting little sidetrack in the DCEU. It's definitely the most radical in terms of style and substance. Stylistically, the editing is really janky. It almost feels like the lens is zipping through a series of comic book panels. As for the substance, it's just action and flair. These characters want to kick butt - not be developed!

The squad's still pretty cool, though. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Deadshot (Will Smith) are the strongest of the group, but the others are memorable in their own little ways - be it Captain Boomerang's (Jai Courtney) humor, Diablo's (Jay Hernandez) hidden talent, or Killer Croc's (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) mere presence. However, the real winner here is actually Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). She's the director of Task Force X, and I'm pretty sure the devil himself wouldn't want to get on her bad side.

The weakest links were The Joker (Jared Leto) and Enchantress (Cara Delevingne). Admittedly, there wasn't a whole lot of footage of Leto's Joker to judge by, so I can't commit to a love him or hate him stance. He was intriguing to say the least. Cara did the best she could do as the sashaying witch/goddess, but she was given pretty much zilch to work with.

Let's face it, DC is a little late to the game when it comes to the idea of building an entire cinematic universe, so they're experimenting with different little ways to distinguish themselves from the other guys. DC wants to break the mold instead of using the same mold repeatedly, and honestly, DC really does know how to make good superhero movies. In fact, it was Superman (1978) and Batman (1989) that breathed life into the genre. Suicide Squad is just one of their experiments, and while it has faults aplenty, and the story's lacking a clear direction, I still had fun watching it. That's what this film is - mindless fun.

Suicide Squad is now available at the Franklin County Library!