Suicide Squad, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, Jai Hernandez, Ben Affleck, Ike Barinholtz, Viola Davis, Common, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman, Ezra Miller, Karen Fukuhara.

Take the worst of the worst, the real depths of humanity’s struggle with itself and watch the fur fly, the angst become riddled with pain, glory and sabotage and you have the comic book film of the summer, Suicide Squad. A film that carries on the expanding D.C. universe and which at the back of its mind arguably sees it wanting to desperately take on Marvel at its own game.

The film can be seen as frustrating in some respects, as bordering on superb with some performances and dangerously unsympathetic with others. It is in keeping with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which was slated by some, admired by others, that the second film of the new D.C. world should just as much on the brink as the first. Margot Robbie for example excels beyond belief as Harley Quinn, charismatic, off the charts crazy and the epitome of what the character means to the D.C. universe, Margot Robbie is sensational and really gets to grips with the dangerous mind that wants to play.

The other side of the coin, the flip side, one that should be one of the great anti-heroes of all time, one that Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson brought so much prestige to the part with, The Joker played by Jared Leto, is reduced to something almost alien, unworldly and whilst it may work slightly in the graphic novels, the gangster holding onto his own rotten turf, in cinema, The Joker is meant to be larger than life, over the top and distressing, the great evil that lays under the surface of all men, is nothing more than a petty criminal with stylish dress sense.

It is from that the dichotomy of the film rests and if it was not for the likes of Margot Robbie, Viola Davis and even Will Smith who plays Deadshot with great heart, the film might have descended into an anarchy that would have been unforgivable and against all that the likes of Geoff Johns at D.C. had worked for over the last decade.

Suicide Squad is an enjoyable film but one that could so easily have tipped the other way, one that really gets into the psyche of the blurred line that stands between good and evil, textbook sociopath and leader, a film with a great soundtrack, very cool effects and well worth watching but with an eye firmly fixed on the idea of just how close a film can go before it is spoilt beyond repair.

Ian D. Hall