Photo Courtesy of Tribune News Service

‘Suicide Squad’ provides solid addition to DC Extended Universe
‘Suicide Squad’ – Starring: Will Smith and Jared Leto
7 out of 10

By Hayden Welty ’19
THE ROUNDUP

Nearly a decade ago, the comic book provider Marvel expanded its product line into the movie industry, pioneering the idea of a “movie universe” where each separate movie takes place in the same universe, allowing a variety of characters to interact with one another.

So far, they have had tremendous success, grossing an astounding $7.1 billion worldwide with just their first 10 movies alone.

Hoping to imitate Marvel’s achievements, their top competitor DC Comics has also established their own fictional universe dubbed the “DCEU,” or DC Extended Universe, producing a set of movies featuring characters from DC Comics.

Their newest movie, “Suicide Squad,” has been thoroughly bashed by critics, receiving a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score of just 26 percent, leaving many wondering whether DC can effectively create successful movies.

But despite critic’s complete rejection of the film, I still believe that “Suicide Squad” is a solid addition to a new, expanding movie universe.

The film follows the story of a group of captured supervillains who are forced by a secret government agency to execute a suicidal black ops operation, and inevitability, things take a turn for the worse.

“Suicide Squad” boasts an impressive cast: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Cara Delevingne, Viola Davis, Ike Barinholtz, Jai Courtney, Karen Fukuhara, Jay Hernandez, Joel Kinnaman and even Ben Affleck.

And although there were some misnomers in the portrayal of these quirky antiheroes, for the most part, the actors brought the characters to life, blending aspects of both comedy and drama.

Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn is thoughtfully nuanced, criminally perverted, and yet delightful in a way that is hard to describe.

Will Smith thoughtlessly mixes heavy elements of humor and drama into a thoroughly depressing and hilarious character, Deadshot, the sharpshooting leader of the misfits.

And Viola Davis is perfect as Amanda Waller, a government hawk leading the dangerous and illegal operation, who is so detached from the real world it makes you reimagine the idea of a villain.

The entire cast seemed to work together to feature each character of the squad thoroughly.

At the theater where I saw “Suicide Squad,” the audience applauded at the end of the film and seemed to enjoy the story, and apparently, this audience was not the only one who liked it.

CinemaScore, an organization that polls moviegoers, said audiences gave Suicide Squad a B+ rating with people under 18 giving it a promising A rating.

So, why is the movie profoundly condemned by a vast majority of the critics out there?

Well, I think that now, because of Marvel’s success, critics expect all superhero films to be like a Marvel movie because they have been a pillar of success for so long.

And one cannot expect a different film produced by different people with different characters to be similar to a different movie; in fact, I would hope movies in the DCEU would be innovative and original, providing a distinct take on superheroes.

Much of the other criticism I had heard of Suicide Squad before I went into the film was that the entire movie seemed far-fetched, bizarre and implausible.

To that, I would like to point out that there is a character named Katana who wields a literal katana as her weapon, a 6,000-year-old witch demon brought back to life, and a character named Captain Boomerang in the film.

So, what did you expect?

But to be fair, this movie is far from perfect.

Jared Leto missed the mark in his representation of the Joker; his performance is excessive and awkward.

To his credit, I did not doubt for one second that the Joker was a real, unhinged psychopath.

The script is a dislocated mess that was never clearly elucidated and reshoots muddled up the plot even further.

With motives that are unclear, a confusing and convoluted plan, and CGI that looks outdated, the villains are also poorly conceived.

But at the end of the day, “Suicide Squad” is a well-made movie with a few mistakes—like every other movie out there—and although it may be far from perfect, it did not deserve some critic’s unfiltered panning.

So despite the critics, if you wanted to see “Suicide Squad” before, go for it.

It’s funny, entertaining and worth the price of admission.

‘Suicide Squad’ filled with great casting, flawed storyline
‘Suicide Squad’ — starring Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Will Smith, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman
6.5 out of 10

By Sam Romero ’17
THE ROUNDUP

A long-anticipated movie for any comic book fan, “Suicide Squad,” directed by David Ayer, hit theaters Aug. 5 with dismay.

Even with an amazing cast of Will Smith as Deadshot, Jared Leto as Joker and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, critics and fans alike were still not satisfied with the adaptation of the comic book.

Casting was not a problem at all for the movie. Each actor was well casted for his or her character and played it amazingly.

Leto played Ayer’s adaptation of the Joker amazingly, but Ayer’s vision of the Joker was far off from the typical comic book Joker everyone has grown to love.

In the film, the Joker was not a psychotic evil genius that could best Batman with smarts like in the comics, but was instead a psychotic mob leader.

The character development of Will Smith’s character Deadshot was done perfectly. He was shown as a parent and a deadly assassin.

The problem with the movie mostly falls on the sped-up plot in the beginning involving how the team was formed and how they work together.

The characters introductions were done like those of a children’s movie with bright colors and a caption list showing who they are and what they can do.

All of the characters are only put together for one mission and the audience only sees them in one mission.

There needed to be more character development and buildup with smaller missions so people could see them grow as a team.

The movie was tied into the DC Comic movie universe was well, thanks to cameos from Ben Affleck as Batman and Ezra Miller as the Flash.

This gave the movie a purpose in the DC series, distinguishing it from being a random comic book movie.