Top 10 Reasons Suicide Squad is Hated
#10: A Messy Opening, Sloppy Setup and WAY Too Much Exposition
It’s a simple but important rule of visual storytelling: show, don’t tell. Unfortunately, when a movie needs to be action-heavy and is juggling an ensemble cast, a filmmaker might not have the leisure of letting the plot reveal itself in its own time. While exposition dumps can be a necessary evil, there are better ways to execute them than this. “Suicide Squad” essentially opens with Amanda Waller outlining the premise of the film and its cast of characters. Some of these flashbacks are individually interesting, but strung together like this… it plays like a fan film. An explanation as to how the Squad works should have been saved for the actual teammates, allowing this film to take off in less of a disjointed fashion.
#9: The Squad Not Going on More Missions
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The Suicide Squad isn’t an old gang of criminal getting together for one last big score; they’re supposed to be Amanda Waller’s personal problem solvers. And you can bet that Waller has a LOT of problems that need solving. Part of the fun of the Suicide Squad is that they live up to their name - they’re extremely expendable, with members dying off left, right and center in the comics. Rather than sending Task Force X out to deal with a superhero-worthy world threat, they should have first seen them go out on a number of smaller, more black ops style missions. This would have allowed the teammates to develop a more believable dynamic, and provided an opportunity to see a few members bite the bullet.
#8: Awkward Editing
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Some have argued that “Suicide Squad” was most successful in trailer form, particularly the one set to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. It was stylish, funny, and promised a zany, over-the-top film worthy of its comic book source material. Unfortunately, it turns out the Warner Bros. was so pleased with the marketing that they opted to scrap director David Ayer’s cut of the film and instead have it re-edited by the company that produced the first teaser. The resulting film is one that many cinephiles rank among the worst-edited blockbuster movies of all time. The tone is all over-the-place and the scenes fit together in an incredibly uncomfortable way, particularly the flashbacks.
#7: It Should Have Been Rated R
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As Fox learned with both “Deadpool” and “Logan” an R-rated comic book movie can totally work at the box office; you just need to have faith in the property and the fans. As much as both of the aforementioned characters benefited from being allowed to take the story in a less kid-friendly direction, “Suicide Squad” arguably needed the R-rating even more. This is a story about some of the very worst villains DC comics has to offer. They are supposed to be, with few exceptions, merciless, immoral, utterly self-interested characters with a violent streak a mile wide. To fit them into a PG-13 mold, and worse, the archetype of the antihero, is to rob the team of that which makes them so compelling.
#6: Visually Boring
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As previously stated, the marketing for “Suicide Squad” promised something unique and beautifully chaotic. The trailers oozed with a distinct visual style that suggested that Warner Bros. had really found an aesthetic identity for this property on the big screen. Unfortunately, a lot of that style failed to translate to the big screen. Sure, there’s some contrast between the dark environments and the muted candy colors of Harley Quinn and Joker, but the cinematography feels utterly uninspired and the action sequences were surprisingly forgettable. Perhaps most egregious, however, is the generic character design of Enchantress and her brother and the lackluster CGI that was used to bring the latter to life.
#5: Terrible Dialogue
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Alright, so remember how earlier we were talking about the trailer set to Bohemian Rhapsody and how great it was? Well, for all its style and action-packed promises, there was one MAJOR red flag - the dialogue. That line at the very end of the trailer “we’re bad guys, it’s what we do”, feels so forced that it would have a fan’s stomach bottom out watching it. Unfortunately, rather than just one poorly chosen line of dialogue to include in the trailer, it proved to be very representative of the film’s script as a whole. It’s all cheesy one-liners, jokes that don’t land and generic badass-speak that, quite frankly, makes us think that the screenwriters had no idea who each of these characters were - beyond basic 2-dimensional archetypes.
#4: No Character Development
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Speaking of two-dimensional, let’s take a closer look at these characters. Of the entire squad, only Deadshot, Harley Quinn and El Diablo get much in the way of character development; or rather… an attempt at it. Jay Hernandez is a talented actor, but he simply wasn’t given enough to work with. We get it, he’s penitent for his past mistakes, but there’s nothing else to him in terms of personality. Deadshot’s character motivations make sense, but again, the character feels bland. The dynamic between Joker and Harley could have been the film’s beating heart, but the relationship wasn’t believable -albeit not quite as bad as the one between Rick Flagg and June Moon. As for the rest of the Squad, we never really got to know them.
#3: Enchantress’ Motivations
Apparently, writer and director David Ayer had just six weeks to put together the screenplay for this movie due to a fixed and fast approaching release date. This has been blamed for many of the film’s shortcomings, but nowhere is the time crunch more obvious than in the machinations of its villain. We get it, forces of pure malevolent evil have been central to some of the greatest stories ever told -The Lord of the Rings’ Sauron being just one example- but it takes a great story to carry such a villain. Enchantress sought to conquer earth and wipe out humankind. Why? Because she’s evil! Seriously, this felt like a placeholder from an early script draft that they just never got around to replacing.
#2: The Forgettable Plot
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Enchantress might not have been a villain worthy of the Suicide Squad, but she should by no means be held solely responsible for the yawns that this film induced; the entire plot felt DOA. Amanda Waller brought this team to serve as America’s secret weapon. So why not have the story move forward accordingly by sending them out to deal with the government’s dirty secrets? Instead, we get a supernatural threat from within the team, and a paint-by-numbers end of the world plot that feels far more suitable a problem for Superman and company. Honestly, this violent band of misfits has a lot of potential, but it’s impossible for them to shine in a plot that feels as if was ripped from another film.
#1: Jared Leto’s Portrayal of the Joker
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You know what might have solved the plot and villain problems of this film? Actually allowing the Clown Prince of Crime to claim the spotlight he so rightfully deserves. Alas, such are the pitfalls of trying to build up anticipation for a sequel. And to be quite honest, this reimagined version of the Joker rubbed so many people the wrong way that giving him more screen time may have actually done more harm than good. Leto’s take on the Joker is more swagger than insanity; more image-conscious than imaginative. In short, it didn’t feel like Leto was inhabiting the role of Joker, but rather playing the Joker as a man putting on a persona. Add to that the tattoos and the grills and it just didn’t work.
