We all agree that the 2016 Suicide Squad was horrible. So, why is it that so many critics are giving this one a good review? It’s just as bad. And I had such high hopes, because Margot Robbie’s character Harley Quinn, was terrific fun in her stand-alone film Birds of Prey.
Other than Robbie and Viola Davis (playing Amanda Waller, the warden who recruits violent prisoners with a special set of skills), the rest of the cast is all new.
DC has a reputation for producing weak superhero movies. (Their last Wonder Woman movie might be the worst superhero film I’ve ever seen). I can’t even remember their Justice League films.
Director James Gunn was fired from the Guardians of the Galaxy film over old tweets with jokes in bad taste. And it seems he brought those unfunny jokes to this movie. Of the 200 or more attempts at humor thrown at us in the two hour and 15 minute film, I think I laughed a mere five times (and three of those times were because there was something amusing about Sylvester Stallone doing the voice of a dumb shark who tries to convince the humans he’s smart, or that he won’t eat them).
As nice as John Cena was when my wife and I sat behind him at CinemaCon a few years ago, I’ve grown tired of him in all these action movies (I’m also amazed at the amount of critics that liked that horrible F9 film a few months ago).
Idris Elba was great as Bloodsport (what isn’t Elba great in?) and he has a powerful scene in prison when his daughter comes to visit him, and he’s manipulated to join the crew.
Harley Quinn didn’t do a single thing that was interesting in this. We’re supposed to laugh at lines about what she feels like when the rain hits her on the head [it’s not God crying, but something X-rated that I won’t post here]. If you’re over the age of 13, how is that funny? And it’s known that Gunn was really gunning for an R-rating, so he could drop crude jokes and F-bombs in his film. And I have nothing wrong with either of those things, but...they have to actually be funny.
There’s a scene where Quinn hooks up with the dictator of Corto Maltese (Juan Diego Botto), and it tries to be romantic, sexy, and sadistic. It’s just idiotic.
When she’s being electrocuted while hanging from chains, and continues to taunt her tormentors by singing a song (Louis Prima’s “I Ain’t Got Nobody”) after each shock...it would have been better if it didn’t end the same way Mel Gibson was able to get away from this torture in the first Lethal Weapon.
This is empty storytelling, with weak backstories, and unfunny jokes.
It was cool to have an opening scene playing Johnny Cash, with a prisoner showing how deadly he can be with a racquetball (poor bird). It was also kind of cool to hear Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died”. Also nice to hear The Decemberists and Pixies, but...I’m so over giving movies credit for great needledrops.
The best part of this flick is...that Pete Davidson was only in it for 12 minutes before he’s shot and killed.
1 ½ stars out of 5.