reviewer Dan Entwistle

With superheroes, you expect certain things, right?

To be brave.
To be honourable.

To want to do the right thing.

Well, the Suicide Squad are none of these things and less: super-criminals thrown into the slammer by Batman (Ben Affleck), this motley crew of killers, thieves and mercenaries is recruited by shadowy government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to go into the worst situations imaginable with the lowest chance of survival.  

Before you’ve even thought about dipping into the popcorn, Suicide Squad blasts through the intros for our “Worst Heroes Ever”. They are: Deadshot (Will Smith, ace as always), a master assassin and father; El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) who can conjure fire from thin air; Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), half man half crocodile, as well as many, many more. But perhaps the stand-out is Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, clearly having a great time and looking like every boys teen dream come true): the girlfriend of famous Batman villain, The Joker (Jared Leto). When the movie begins to sag towards the middle, Robbie and Smith keep the momentum going with chemistry and humour, even if it’s at the expense of the other characters.

Oh, and those wondering about Leto’s Joker? He’s pretty good, but anyone wanting a constant presence will be disappointed as it’s more or less a glorified cameo. His character definitely needs more room to strut and I’m hyped a future movie where he could face off against Batman himself.

Where the movie kicks serious A$$ is in its action: each member of the Squad gets to show off his or her (or its) unique set of skills, whether it’s Katana (Karen Fukuhara) slicing her way through enemies with her, er, katana or the hilariously named Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) using his… well, you can probably guess. The action doesn’t get as EPIC as recent superhero movies, but it’s intense and unpredictable with a fight towards the end of the movie that will give you edge of the seat style thrills. 

So, a great cast of characters, fun performances and full throttle action! All good right? Not quite.

The soundtrack is a lot and interrupts the flow of the movie. Despite featuring The White Stripes, Grace, Eminem and Queen, at points it feels like you’re watching MTV (y’know, back in the day when they actually showed music videos). It simply doesn’t work and if I was to give advice for a sequel: less is definitely more.

Also, in a movie entirely about villains, it’s annoying that they couldn’t find one who was interesting enough to be the big bad. A predictable “I must end the world because reasons” plan and character development so thin it’d blow away in the wind, our main villain feels like an afterthought.

Yes, this movie is messy, doesn’t get everything right but it is proper entertaining and gets the job done. So, a little like the Suicide Squad then.

Steal Harley’s vibe…