Barrett Brief Movie Review – The Suicide Squad Is A Dead IP

Barrett Brief Movie Review – The Suicide Squad Is A Dead IP

Summary: Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker and a collection of nutty cons at Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.

Genre: Action, Adventure,Comedy

James Gunn has always been billed as a little out there. A mainstay on the indie circuit, no one knew who he was when Guardians of the Galaxy came out all the way back in 2014. It seemed the perfect match between zany concept and equally zany director. “But James Gunn!” MCU fanboys screamed when faced with the “MCU is boring” argument. The Guardians 2 came out, and well..it was fine. Then the whole Tweetgate that resulted in him being “fired” from Marvel. Where would he go? Due to his success, every other studio will be throwing money and projects at him! Then we heard that Warner Brothers has signed him to direct a reboot/sequal to 2016’s Suicide Squad. Could James capture lightning in a bottle 2x? Would the promise of an R rating allow him to unleash his full creativity?

Nope.

THE Suicide Squad isn’t bad or great. The actors do fine and the film has Gunn’s visual flare. Ultimately though, THE Suicide Squad commits the ultimate sin: it’s pointless.

Do Guardians, But With A R Rating!

That is what it looks like Gunn was told in the pitch meeting. The original Squad movie suffered from terrible studio interference, resulting in 2 totally different films. Not the problem this time. The is James Gunn’s movie. He wrote it, he directed it, it’s his. The problem is, we have seen this film 3 times. 2x with The Guardians (with another on the way) and once in the imitation 2016 Squad film. The “ragtag outsiders who become a family” trope is not a sure thing if you throw in talented actors and witty banter. You have to care about these characters. Sorry to say, I never did (maybe because there seemed to be 20 different ones). For as simple as the plot is, they managed to make it long, drawn out, and boring. Ensembles are great, as long as they are just that. This film tries to give the best of both. But remember with Guardians he was dealing with 4 main characters with one protagonist. In THE Suicide Squad we don’t have any leads to attach to, so we end up lost in the noise.

 The Cast

Let’s get one thing out of the way. When Will Smith doesn’t want to come back to a franchise, take that as a hint. The suppose lead (or at least the character with the most backstory) Bloodsport (Idris Elba) is bland. He spends the film with one inflection (when he isn’t dropping F bombs). Despite the studio telling us he isn’t a Deadshot knockoff, the character feels like one. 2 returning characters from 2016 (well that make it through the entire film) are Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) who seemed to acquire a really terrible southern accent and cowboy hat and not much else. The other is Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) the one character in movie history who seems to become more annoying and less useful in each subsequent film she is in. That doesn’t change here. Her jokes are flat (Margot doesn’t seem to have comedic timing) & I kept asking myself “what is she doing here?” Speaking of jokes, I actually chuckled once. The rest of the cast list is long and somewhat impressive. Don’t be too impressed, most of them die, quickly. John Cena is getting praise for his role (Peacemaker) and after seeing this film I don’t see why. 

In terms of characters that actually stood out, there were 2. Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) & King Shark (Sylvester Stallone). I actually found out about Stallone while writing this review, and so that makes the performance even better. King Shark is dumb and enjoyable. The only chuckle came from one of his jokes, I wish he was on screen more. Daniela Melchior brings more class and gravitas to a role that it deserved. The relationship between her and King Shark is the only memorable one. 

Plot & Pacing

So some made up country (can’t offend anyone now) suffers a coup and now the squad is sent in to do something. We don’t know what that thing is. Task Force X has to go to Jötunheim, a Nazi-era laboratory that holds a secretive experiment known as “Project Starfish”. Shenanigans ensue. Cue the F bombs, lots of CGI blood and unnecessary sexual situations and innuendos.

Long and boring. We don’t see the inciting incident, but we are told about it, so that is something. The film starts with a big flashy action scene (which is meant to kill most of the cast) then we cut away to (3 days ago). I hate it, why spoil the surprise by going back to before a scene takes place. It isn’t clever. In fact it kills any suspense because now we don’t have to figure anything out. I suspect these devices were employed to take away from the dull plot that saddled this film.

Technical notes

Nothing wrong technically with this film. Although Gunn’s thing with using songs is getting old. The ones picked in the film were not memorable, just there.

Overall

THE Suicide Squad isn’t bad or great. The actors do fine and the film has Gunn’s visual flare. Ultimately though, THE Suicide Squad commits the ultimate sin: it’s pointless.

Score:

1 out of 4