Plot spoilers ahead!
Part-way through this film Deadshot
(played by Will Smith) stumbles on one of those top secret folders
(you know the ones), and discovers what's really attacking New York.
Turns out it's the Enchantress, who used her original enlistment into
the Suicide Squad as her chance to go rogue. In other words, the
action of recruiting the Squad generated the enemy they now need to
face. It's a neat irony. A flashback handily confirms all this.
Except the 'flashback' almost entirely
reprises scenes we previously saw in real time. Which kind of
scuppers the surprise element a little.
And things are often like that here.
Expert critics have spotted that this film is thrown together in an
often haphazard way. But then so has everyone else. The rest of the
Squad, bar Deadshot and Harley Quinn, occasionally up and do
something significant-seeming, in the firm belief they're adding to
their backstory. Not in this movie, they're not. (Diablo comes
closest, and luckily his back story is so predictable it doesn't need
much screen time.)
And it bizarrely manages to combine repeat
load-tipping of info dumps with the assumption the cinema viewer will
know their comics lore. Some things we're told twice, others not at
all. Harley jumping into the chemical vat, those not familiar with
the Joker origin story find that a particularly mystifying moment.
(Me, I'd have started the film with the
conference room scene, where the Suicide Squad project is first
announced. The aide to Walker, the Black Ops boss, would then have
manifested as the Enchantress to the audience the same time as the
Generals. Then the rest of the Squad could have been introduced, one
by one. All of whom within their own unique personalised holding
cell. But I digress...)
Critics (and everyone else) rightly point out the way the
soundtrack sounds so slapped on they might as well have stuck an
i-Player on shuffle. And that Cara Delevingne might look the part of
the spooky Enchantress, but acts just like a model. Which becomes a
particular problem in the finale, where instead of commanding
proceedings she gyrates like she's in a really bad music video. And
when your cast is all bad guys, you need to a
pretty good antagonist to up the ante of evil on them.
While Deadshot is projected as the
primary protagonist, getting the nearest there is to
characterisation, it's Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie) who
really dominates. It's hard to find a publicity image where she's not
centred. If he's intended as the heart of the film, she's its face.
She actually gets a back story. Trouble
is, it isn't just bad, it's about as bad as it gets. As if the career
woman who throws it all in for the bad guy wasn't bad enough, the
scene where the Joker tortures her into her new identity is
effectively a euphemistic rape scene, so we even have the 'conversion
through rape' trope.
Much of this has been said already, and ably enough, so let's
make just one further comment. Notably, both Deadshot and Diablo are
conflicted over their bad guy status. Deadshot is shown sniffing
gunpowder like a crackhead with a pipe, yet at the same time he's
motivated by love for his daughter. That's some... not much,
but some indication of an inner life. Whereas both Harley and the
Enchantress are simply split, the well-behaved good girl (Harleen
Quinel and June Moone respectively) alternating with the sexy bad
girl. Not depth but appearance. Times two.
And Harley leads us on to the next
common criticism of the film, the way the Joker is reduced to such a
cameo role. (See for example this YouTube review.) Most likely, this is another thing down to
poor structuring and edit wars. Actor Jared Leto has confirmed he not
only shot a whole lot more scenes, he was less than pleased to find
how few made it to the finished film. (Asked if any of his scenes
were cut, he's responded by asking if any weren't.)
But actually, that's one thing which
works in the film's favour. Had the Joker been onscreen more, Harley
would have once more been relegated to his girlfriend and sidekick –
the Batgirl of the crime world. As it is, his being remote from the
plot but forever trying to force his way back in all but reverses
things. He comes to represent her desire to be out there, driving
recklessly round town rather than being stuck in boring detention. In
short, the essential nature of Harley necessitates that the only way
the Girl Joker can dominate the film is to keep the Boy Joker at
arm's length.
But then again, that's what they
do. It doesn't atone for the egregiousness of her
origin story, of course. But when we complain about superhero films
being so concerned with the heroes, and the heroines always shunted
into supporting roles, isn't this something to cheer? (Me, I'd have
given Harley none of the unnecessary backstory, and almost no scenes
together with the Joker save the brief moment where her rescue seems
to be working. But that's probably another digression.)
The conceit underlying both characters
is that crazy counts as a kind of super-power. It leaves the wielder
so unconstrained by social norms, so ready with the unexpected it
becomes an ability akin to the ability to set light to things or be a
crack shot. (Neither has any particular powers beyond this.) And
then, just to throw you even further, they toss in the notion that
crazy might just be an act after all, there to distract you while
they get on with their scheming.
And this is accentuated with Harley,
who also delights in playing the part of the bimbo stripper. On
release her very first action is to toy with the guards' minds,
leaving them unsure whether she's lunatic or player, goofy simpleton
or corkscrew-minded schemer. Her costume is less the... well, the
harlequin image of the original cartoons and more a cross between the
peeling facepaint feral joker of 'Dark Knight' and the punk kinderwhore look - both of course designed to sew confusion
among those they encounter. And she pretty much keeps up that act
throughout. It's her not Deadshot who dispatches the Enchantress, a
victory she achieves through cunning and deception.
The one time we see her without the
make-up, so to speak, is when she believes the Joker died in trying
to rescue her – and we see her crying in the rain. But only
we see this. By the time the rest of the Squad have walked up, the
act is back on. (Admittedly for this to be true you have to disregard
the risible scene where the Enchantress tempts her with the fantasy
of becoming a stay-at-home mom. But then you have to do a whole lot
of mental re-editing with this film.)
All of which is sold by Robbie's
performance, which could without exaggeration be called
scene-stealing. It's everything Delevingne's isn't. As she repeatedly
sidles up to other characters, they can never be sure whether she'll
screw with them, try to snog them or stab them.
And here we've hit the upside. When it
works, which in fits and spurts it does, the film treats you just in
the same way Harley does. No wonder she's the face for it! You're
never quite sure what it is, what it will do to
you next, what angle it will come from - dark or comic, dramatic or
surreal. The film itself behaves like a lunatic let loose from the
asylum. That may well be because the film doesn't really know itself
what it is. But it can still press that into service.
And there are times where it does seem
to froth with deranged invention. The Joker's henchmen conduct a raid
in ludicrous fancy dress, one machine gunning guards in a panda
costume. And shouldn't it be like this? if superhero films try to up
characterisation, they're still going to be lagging behind in the
Academy awards. They're simply not playing to their strengths.
And the concept of a motley collection
of bad guys is actually a pretty good one. It's often said the
strength of a superhero title is the strength of it's rogues gallery.
So why not have just the rogue's gallery? “Let's
do something fun”, asserts the Enchantress early on. And something
fun does sound a more inviting prospect than another two and a half
hours of sour hero grimdark. This ragbag army follow a very crooked
path indeed, sometimes doubling back on themselves, at others leaping
blocks ahead. A route map they're not. But at least they're moving in
the right direction.