SUICIDE SQUAD (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

suicide squad (2016) movie

Genre               |   Comic Book Action

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   130 minutes

Released         |   3 August 2016

cast

Will Smith ... Deadshot
Margot Robbie ... Harley Quinn
Viola Davis ... Amanda Waller
Jared Leto ... The Joker
Cara Delevingne ... June Moone / Enchantress
Joel Kinnaman ... Rick Flag
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ...
Killer Croc
Jai Courtney ... George Harkness / Captain Boomerang

director

David Ayer

writer

​David Ayer ... (written by)
 
Bob Kane ... (characters: Bruce Wayne/Batman & The Joker) (uncredited)
John Broome ... (character: George Harkness/Captain Boomerang) (uncredited)
John Byrne ... (character: Amanda Blake Waller) (uncredited)
Gene Colan ... (character: Waylon Jones/Killer Croc) (uncredited)
Gerry Conway ... (characters: Waylon Jones/Killer Croc & Christopher Weiss/Slipknot) (uncredited)
Paul Dini ... (character: Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn) (uncredited)
Bill Finger ... (characters: Bruce Wayne/Batman & The Joker) (uncredited)
Carmine Infantino ... (character: George Harkness/Captain Boomerang & Barry Allen/The Flash) (uncredited)
Bruce Timm ... (character: Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn) (uncredited)
Len Wein ... (character: Amanda Blake Waller) (uncredited)
Jerry Robinson ... (character: The Joker) (uncredited)
Mike W. Barr ... (character: Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana) (uncredited)
Robert Kanigher ... (character: Richard "Rick" Flag, Jr. & Barry Allen/The Flash) (uncredited)
John Ostrander ... (character: Amanda Blake Waller) (uncredited)
John Ostrander ... (comic book) (uncredited)
Ross Andru ... (character: Richard "Rick" Flag, Jr.) (uncredited)
Lew Schwartz ... (character: Floyd Lawton/Deadshot) (uncredited)
Bob Haney ... (character: Dr. June Moone/Enchantress) (uncredited)
Curt Swan ... (character: Waylon Jones/Killer Croc) (uncredited)
Jim Aparo ... (character: Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana) (uncredited)
Don Newton ... (character: Waylon Jones/Killer Croc) (uncredited)
Howard Purcell ... (character: Dr. June Moone/Enchantress) (uncredited)

cinematographer

​Roman Vasyanov

music

Steven Price

film editor

John Gilroy ​

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​746,846,894  

Australia                 $​​​​​​​26,126,519

North America        $​​​325,100,054

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the best dialogue

Rick Flag: You disobey me, you die.
[Killer Croc growls]
Rick Flag: You try to escape, you die. You otherwise irritate or vex me... and guess what? You die.
Harley Quinn: I'm known to be quite vexing. I'm just forewarning you.
Rick Flag: Lady, shut up!

Griggs: Ames, if this man shoots me, I want you to kill him... and I want you to go clear my browser history.

Harley Quinn: I'm bored. Play with me.

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SUICIDE SQUAD (2016) IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

SUICIDE SQUAD (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Figuring they're all expendable, a U.S. intelligence officer decides to assemble a team of dangerous, incarcerated supervillains for a top-secret mission. Now armed with government weapons, Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc and other despicable inmates must learn to work together. Dubbed Task Force X, the criminals unite to battle a mysterious and powerful entity, while the diabolical Joker (Jared Leto) launches an evil agenda of his own.

SUICIDE SQUAD (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 3 August 2016
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐

Back in 2000, Big Beat musician Fatboy Slim, AKA Norman Cook, released an album titled ‘Halfway between the Gutter and the Stars’. On this album there was a track called ‘Star 69’. The key lyrics on this track were, “They know what is what, but they don’t know what is WHAT… They just strut! What the fuck?” This is how someone who appreciates a good action movie might interpret David Ayer’s SUICIDE SQUAD. It’s now quite clear that the DC movie universe is a rudderless ship and, until Warner Bros and DC can get their own “Kevin Feige” calling the plays on the direction of the franchise, it will continue to be a directionless. There will, without doubt, be a desire on the part of DC fans to attempt to cover for the problematic endeavour that is SUICIDE SQUAD. Reflecting upon the 130 minutes (which feels way longer than it should) spent watching this film, it’s easy to believe DC fans will feel much like Star Trek fans did back in 1979 when confronted with STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. Both groups were and are looking for a franchise saviour and the cold-sweat inducing realisation that the hopes and dreams of millions will be shattered may be too much to bare. What’s worse is that the dreams won’t be shattered by abject failure, but by the grinding boredom of a story that goes on for far too long and pays-off far too little.

SUICIDE SQUAD opens strong and falls away. Ayer gives his key characters a lot of air time in the opening half hour, but the characterisation stops just at the point in the film when it should be starting. The chief beneficiaries of the Director’s attention are Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and The Joker (Jared Leto). To be brutally honest, there’s a real question mark around whether The Joker should have even been in this film. Despite his off-the-wall antics, The Joker feels very much shoehorned into the story. He serves as a great foil for Robbie’s Harley Quinn, but she’s so damn good, there wasn’t really any need to give her a crazy one-man cavalry.

Therein lies the problem of SUICIDE SQUAD. Of the gang of misfits, only half of them get any decent character development, while the remainder are Circus freak sideshows whose idiosyncrasies are called out as a last-minute necessity; not because they add any real value to the story. Instead of a full-bore SUICIDE SQUAD adventure, the viewer is left to watch some kind of half-realised version of a Special Forces recruiting video, where more emphasis is placed on the cartridge count than the characters. It’s an all-too-familiar feeling sitting in the audience watching this type of film unfold. There are probably those in the audience who will be like the poor bastard who has to sit next to Ted Striker in FLYING HIGH; thinking for God’s sake, give me some gasoline and make it fast. “I’d prefer the after-life to what I’m having to sit through…” Perhaps that’s a bridge too far, but many people came out of the preview screening feeling as though an opportunity had been missed. Suicide Squad is good in much the same way that ‘Seafood Selector’ is good if you’ve never eaten lobster!

A harsh review?

Yep, absolutely.

Why?

Because $200 million films should not be struggling to raise themselves from mediocre to good.

They should already be good; if not great.

SUICIDE SQUAD is not great.

What saves it from being a complete disaster is an extremely strong First Act that serves as a mini-origin story for everyone involved. Perhaps if the film’s story had stayed in this space for a couple of hours, a follow-up could have gone on to tell a more expansive, Universe-in-jeopardy story. But ‘NO’, David Ayer had to give audiences “the whole nine yards”. To top it off, SUICIDE SQUAD also has a mid-credit sequence. Why? Because that’s what Marvel do. It wouldn’t be surprising to learn that Marvel launches legal action for plagarism…

There’s a shameless lack of inventiveness by DC in this film and it highlights the broader challenges Warner Bros has in leveraging the DC intellectual property. Sure, SUICIDE SQUAD has some striking visuals and a couple of cool characters, but it’s not the film it has made itself out to be in the trailers. It flails when it should fly, it meanders when it should dash and it masks a distinct lack of substance with a junior-grade level of style!

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