#KaitReviews: Suicide Squad (more of a rant, though)

Note: #KaitReviews will be a new section on my blog, along with #JustALittleBlog (my fanfiction blogs) and #IntoxikaitingReads (where I rave about books and literature). #KaitReviews will be more on television shows and movies, while #IntoxikaitingReads will be more on the literature end. Disclaimer: All hashtags are used ironically. Because I can't get enough of them.

Disclaimer [2]: Spoiler warning for Suicide Squad. This is not a spoiler-free review. 

Overview: I'm just going to get this out of the way - I will be rating the different aspects of the move. Plot, characters (a.k.a. Cast delivery, as well), delivery, movie as a whole. I will also get this out of the way ahead of time: If I were to rate my own knowledge of the DC Universe, I'd say that I'm 75% fluent in the DC verse? I'm not entirely a noob, but not someone who can rattle off facts at the tip of a hat. Keep this in mind. 

The Plot: The government basically needs a team of people who can deal with metahumans, and the example used specifically is: 'What would happen if Superman just suddenly decided to crash into the White House and kill the President?' The solution, provided by Amanda Waller, is a group of criminals under her control, with the promise of lessened sentences and other 'special requests', who can deal with metahumans and other otherworldly threats... including superheroes who may or may not go rogue. Specific criminals are recruited for the cause - most of whom who are not being very cooperative. One of the first metahumans recruited into the Suicide Squad, Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), turns on them and ends up posing a giant threat to the whole world. Put Joker (Jared Leto) in the midst of the whole mix, and we've got a circus. 

Rating: 8/10 - It's promising. Take the above paragraph and take out the sentence about Enchantress and this is the plot I was aware of before stepping into the movie theater. While I have problems with the movie, it's not necessarily about the plot itself. 

The characters: While I was watching the movie, I couldn't help but judge each character differently. Each cast member, each character, brought something different to the table. There were some I loved, some I liked, and some I just shook my head at. I'll tackle these one at a time.

The 'Oh my god': I commend the following actors/actresses for their portrayal of their specific characters. Will Smith as Deadshot, Jay Hernandez as Diablo, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg. Each character on this list has been portrayed in a way to make the movie so much more interesting to me, and, in my opinion, the cast members did a very, very good job at being their characters. Will Smith deserves a special mention because oh my god, that Deadshot was just amazing. Karen Fukuhara was amazing as Katana and oh my god I love Katana, now. Jay Hernandez made Diablo surprisingly likable to me because oh my god that backstory just made me curl up and go 'Daaaaaamn'. Margot Robbie was a good Harley, I just wish they hadn't teased us with her traditional Harley costume! (Same goes for Joker.) 

The 'Okay': As for the following characters, while I didn't have an extreme problem with them, they didn't exactly hit at me the way the characters in 'The Great' did, and I'll talk about them one by one.

I really wanted to like Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) but I just needed more of him in the movie, and felt like he was mainly used for comic relief, if that makes sense? He makes more quips in the entire movie than the rest of the cast, in my opinion. Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) is okay, and that's all I can say about him. Same goes for June Moone (Cara Delevingne) and I mean June Moon alone, okay. We'll talk about that later. 

The 'Sorry, but No': Before I talk about Cara Delevingne, I'll talk about Slipknot (Adam Beach) first, because he's a 'sorry, but no' for a completely different reason. It's just that he was... I don't know... just there? He has the least lines, least screen time, least everything. It was kind of disappointing - not to mention that among everyone, it was Slipknot especially who I wanted to know more about. Instead, I get a Slipknot who's somewhat forced into the squad like, a day late, and is the first one to get killed... so... sigh. Now, on to Cara Delevingne. 

First of all, my main issue about Cara Delevingne is that her character just really threw me for a loop. From the one or two trailers I'd seen before watching the movie, I guessed that she'd be more of a side character. I based this off the fact that while Cara is, in fact, in the trailers, she doesn't exactly appear in group shots with the rest of the squad. I assumed she'd be a minor character. So imagine my surprise when she suddenly gets catapulted into a starring role as lead villain. Sure, she's gorgeous. Sure, she's an amazing, sweet and funny person. But in my honest opinion, she doesn't yet have the chops to actually have such a huge role. That being said, I liked her as June Moone. The young woman in love with Rick Flagg, the young doctor who was in need of an adventure, that was likeable. That was entirely plausible, and much closer to what I'd imagined for her. I don't deny that Cara's a good actress. She's great! I just had issues, I guess. 

The '???': Ahhh, Jared Leto as the infamous Joker. Why does he have a section all to himself in this? Why? Why didn't I love him, why didn't I put him in the okay pile, why didn't I hate him? The answer is simple - there wasn't enough for me to judge. Honestly. I wanted more Joker. I don't really know who to put at blame, really. On one hand, everyone just super-hyped about Suicide Squad, and based on what I've been reading, the crowd that was hyped for Suicide Squad was split into two: people hyped about Margot Robbie as Harley, and people hyped about Jared Leto as Joker. I was part of the latter, and was excited to see what Jared Leto would do in Suicide Squad! I was expecting, I don't know, so. much. more. And while he performs great in the very little time he's, I wanted more. I was left unfulfilled. I don't want to rave about Jared Leto's Joker, but I don't want to rant horribly about it. I also feel like if I shoved him into the 'okay' pile, it would just undermine his success. Because I will admit that he is a good Joker. Not the best Joker (#TeamHeathLedger) but still, a good Joker. But I'd rather see more movies with Jared Leto's Joker before I really pull out the stops. We'll see. 

Rating for characters as a whole: 7/10. There needs to be more character development. Even though we did get flashbacks, we did get a sense of what they want to achieve in life, but they aren't really fleshed out, and there are some characters that we just don't get much out of. The characters in the 'oh my god' section are probably the most fleshed-out characters, and even then, they're not that fleshed out. 

Delivery Rating: A generous 7.5/10.

I'm not going to lie. It just felt really, really rushed. Suicide Squad felt too fast-paced, and it had me and my friends whispering back and forth about time checks, about how it felt like everything felt squished into a few minutes, when it could have been gradually drawn out. Also, since I'm feeling very nitpicky, I'm going to say that the slow motion clips felt gimmicky. Oh, well. If the Star Trek franchise has lens flares and Michael Bay has a thing for explosions, then the DCU can have a slow motion party. I don't know.

Over-All Rating: 7.5/10 (I literally just did averaging for this, okay?)

My conclusion is this - Suicide Squad certainly did not deserve the horrible reviews it's been getting for the past few days. It's entertaining, and stays true to the comics in most aspects. Despite the issues I had with it, I didn't hate it. And I'd gladly say that Cara Delevingne wasn't that bad. I actually liked the movie. It's a good movie. This is most likely the same thing that happened to Batman v Superman - horrible reviews online, while I (and a lot of fans) personally liked it quite a lot. I'm hoping for a sequel to this, hopefully with more Jared Leto, so I can properly put him in a category.