Suicide Squad
2016
*
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, Cara Delevingne
Following the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, government agent Amanda Waller assembles a sinister task force. Suicide Squad is comprised of dangerous but dispensable criminals, they're The Dirty Dozen of the comic book world, if you will. Even before the team is properly assembled, one of the members goes rogue and threatens to destroy mankind. The third movie in the DC Extended Universe is an unmitigated disaster. The story is stupid, muddled, and formulaic, and the climactic threat to mankind is indistinguishable from Man of Steel, The Avengers, or any other recent Marvel/DC blockbuster. Superhero movies live or die by their characters. The fans of the comic books may be able to appreciate the ones featured here, but I cannot get my head around them at all. I don't understand how an unstable woman with a baseball bat, an Ozzie who throws boomerangs, and a guy who looks like a reptile are effective in fighting threats on a global scale. However, the worst crime is that David Ayer's movie is just so unforgivably boring. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is pretty much the only source of fun in the two hours. James Gunn quickly rebooted this franchise in The Suicide Squad (2021).
