REVIEW: ‘Suicide Squad’ isn’t a good film, but it’s fun

The recent movies based on DC Comics characters have not been stellar. “Man of Steel” was a mopefest built around a conflicted hero who did more damage than good to his community. “Batman v Superman” was a joyless, pretentious bore. And then along comes “Suicide Squad”, a movie centered on a group of supervillains. Would this be a yet another depressing, underwhelming entry in the DC cinematic oeuvre?

Surprisingly, no. “Suicide Squad” might be the most purely fun DC movie since “Batman Begins”.

Now, let’s be clear. “Suicide Squad” is rife with flaws. But it ditches the overly drab and self-reverential tone for entertaining verbal jousting between the characters and some chuckle-inducing dark humor.

The story is your standard “team gets together and goes on a near impossible mission” plot. Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and a number of other powerful “metahumans” are recruited by government heavy Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) as a response to any future threats the regular military can’t handle. They soon find themselves battling their way through wave after wave of faceless foot soldiers on their to face superhuman baddies bent on wiping out humanity.

This movie suffers from some seriously terrible editing. It’s almost as if somebody who didn’t understand what they were doing got a hold of the footage and discarded all the bits that tie one scene to the next. The effect is that the movie is extremely jumpy and doesn’t flow smoothly from one scene to the next. At times, it’s even a bit disorienting as you don’t know for sure how the characters reached this point in the story. I could get specific but I have to keep this spoiler-free.

Another issue is the dialogue. Writer/director David Ayer seems to have approached the script as an attempt to generate as many quotable one-liners of possible, instead of writing believable dialogue. That loses its effectiveness after a while.

There are other flaws. The score is intrusive and distracting. It actually popped me out of the story two or three times. And although I know this will rub DC fanboys the wrong way, I could’ve done with less of The Joker. This is due more to the fact that I don’t like the character than how he’s portrayed. Jared Leto is good in the role. But if there were two or three fewer Joker scenes, it wouldn’t have hurt my feelings.

Fortunately, “Suicide Squad” is entertaining enough and has enough laughs that the flaws don’t ruin it. The acting is one thing that helps the movie. Most of the cast is pretty good in their roles, but Robbie really shines. Her Harley Quinn is funny, crazier than clown car full of lunatics and you can’t take your eyes off her. I really hated Amanda Waller, which means she did a fantastic job. And Smith may just play Will Smith, but his jokes and one-liners are pretty funny.

The joys of a movie like this are watching a bunch of very different characters reacting to each other and coming to an equilibrium, “Suicide Squad” takes this concept and adds a bunch of super-powered jerks. And it works pretty well. I would watch another helping of these characters teaming up to punch even worse villains. Let’s just hope that next time, the editing and writing is better.

”Suicide Squad” has had a lot of pressure on it in the wake of the disappointing performance of “Batman v Superman”. And while it doesn’t turn things around all on its own, it does get said turnaround started. “Suicide Squad” isn’t a great movie, but it’s a pretty fun time.

3 ½ Indy Fedoras out of 5

MPAA Rating: PG-13