I read a bunch of the "New 52" "Suicide Squad" in the two weeks before finally seeing the movie.
And I have to say, they did a pretty decent job with the thing visually. It's kind of neat seeing the comic book characters brought to life by their flesh-and-blood counterparts.
I don't think anyone really did a bad job, acting-wise.
But the plot barely holds together, and the script is kind of a mess. Very predictable, measured, Screenwriting 101 beats, held together with dialogue that's mostly obligatory and charmless. Harley and Deadshot are the only ones who get anything really resembling character development; the rest get a few flashbacks, quirks, and dream sequences that seem less like organically making us care about characters than a screenwriter pointing to them in black and white and telling their studio boss, "This is the part where the audience cares about the characters". People express that they like each other- sometimes more or less literally saying that- but it's like a scorecard; we hardly understand why. Except that Screenwriting 101 demands These Oddballs Come Together as a Team.
And zero points for guessing that the guy who is abruptly introduced at the last minute and has a crap power-set bites it early on.
It's also no small problem that Amanda Waller is essentially responsible for the threat that sends Project X out into the field in the first place. She's always been an intentionally unlikable and morally dubious character in the comics, as far as I can see, but she's also almost always portrayed as competent. By the end of the thing, she's offering the remainder of the SS ten years off their sentences, and I'm going, "Lady, why aren't you being brought up for war crimes?!"
...And, you know, why doesn't someone just shoot her at the end, there? Harley certainly doesn't have any reason to willingly go back to prison, other than, y'know, that whole selectively crazy thing.
I didn't find it boring, I will say. Just- like so much of what DC has produced of late- a lot of regrettable missed opportunities. If even the inter-personal banter was half as good as, say, "Guardians of the Galaxy", that would have made a significant difference.
I don't know if their scriptwriters aren't capable of writing decent banter, or the guiding hand of Snyder is still quietly suppressing banter, or if the extensive cast list and executive meddling just had some poor schmuck basically going: "OKAY! DEADSHOT LOVES HIS DAUGHTER! MOVE ON! HARLEY LOVES JOKER! MOVE ON! DIABLO IS TRYING TO BE A PACIFIST TO MAKE UP FOR A VIOLENT PAST! FLAGG LOVES THE ENCHANTRESS' HOST! KILLER CROC IS... UH... PASS! MOVE ON!"
And I have to say, they did a pretty decent job with the thing visually. It's kind of neat seeing the comic book characters brought to life by their flesh-and-blood counterparts.
I don't think anyone really did a bad job, acting-wise.
But the plot barely holds together, and the script is kind of a mess. Very predictable, measured, Screenwriting 101 beats, held together with dialogue that's mostly obligatory and charmless. Harley and Deadshot are the only ones who get anything really resembling character development; the rest get a few flashbacks, quirks, and dream sequences that seem less like organically making us care about characters than a screenwriter pointing to them in black and white and telling their studio boss, "This is the part where the audience cares about the characters". People express that they like each other- sometimes more or less literally saying that- but it's like a scorecard; we hardly understand why. Except that Screenwriting 101 demands These Oddballs Come Together as a Team.
And zero points for guessing that the guy who is abruptly introduced at the last minute and has a crap power-set bites it early on.
It's also no small problem that Amanda Waller is essentially responsible for the threat that sends Project X out into the field in the first place. She's always been an intentionally unlikable and morally dubious character in the comics, as far as I can see, but she's also almost always portrayed as competent. By the end of the thing, she's offering the remainder of the SS ten years off their sentences, and I'm going, "Lady, why aren't you being brought up for war crimes?!"
...And, you know, why doesn't someone just shoot her at the end, there? Harley certainly doesn't have any reason to willingly go back to prison, other than, y'know, that whole selectively crazy thing.
I didn't find it boring, I will say. Just- like so much of what DC has produced of late- a lot of regrettable missed opportunities. If even the inter-personal banter was half as good as, say, "Guardians of the Galaxy", that would have made a significant difference.
I don't know if their scriptwriters aren't capable of writing decent banter, or the guiding hand of Snyder is still quietly suppressing banter, or if the extensive cast list and executive meddling just had some poor schmuck basically going: "OKAY! DEADSHOT LOVES HIS DAUGHTER! MOVE ON! HARLEY LOVES JOKER! MOVE ON! DIABLO IS TRYING TO BE A PACIFIST TO MAKE UP FOR A VIOLENT PAST! FLAGG LOVES THE ENCHANTRESS' HOST! KILLER CROC IS... UH... PASS! MOVE ON!"