Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Suicide Squad 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

The Dirty Almost-Dozen: Pop-Up Version

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 9, 2016

Warner Bros. and DC Comics have achieved something remarkable in 2016. They have released two big-budget films that racked up enviable box office numbers but are nevertheless considered disappointments, because they didn't do even better. The critical response was savage (to the extent anyone cares anymore), but more threatening to the companies' franchise hopes was the mixed response from comic fans. Following the disappointment that greeted 2013's Superman reboot, Man of Steel, Warner and DC have been seeking a "killer app" that would reset the DC Universe and launch it into the stratosphere. After Batman v Superman failed to achieve the desired lift, anticipation for Suicide Squad was extreme, fueled by a clever marketing campaign promising a lighter, more comedic tone and a bevy of characters new to the screen. The film that arrived in theaters last August was . . . something else. Just how to define that "something else" is a challenge, because Suicide Squad plays less like a movie than a corporate branding project assembled by committee. The only thing they left out was a decent story—and unlike Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad hasn't been patched by the added scenes in the newly released "extended cut". (Note that only the theatrical cut is provided in 3D.)

After the cataclysmic events that concluded Batman v Superman, a steely-eyed covert operative named Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) dusts off a plan to organize a band of imprisoned supervillains as a counter-terrorist strike force. Waller's "Task Force X" is such a dubious notion that the U.S. military has previously rejected it, and it takes not one, but two meetings with top brass to sell it anew, thereby introducing a motif of repetitious exposition that is Suicide Squad's proxy for a plot. Waller finally seals the deal by having her captive witch, Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), steal Iran's atomic secrets—at which point you have to wonder why the generals don't grab Waller's resources to gather more intelligence in exchange for authorizing her program, but never mind.

Waller is as ruthless in exploiting her charges as Kevin Bacon's Nazi scientist in X-Men: First Class. She controls the Enchantress by keeping her heart in a box wired with explosives (or at least I think that's it; it's never fully explained). She controls the Special Forces commander she puts in charge of the squad, Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), by manipulating him into a love affair with archaeologist June Moone (also Delevingne), who is the piteous human host inhabited by Enchantress. And she has explosive charges planted in the necks of the remaining squad members, so that they can be executed by her or Flag the minute they step out of line. Besides the Enchantress, the squad includes two so-called "meta-humans"— Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and El Diablo (Jay Hernandez)—while the rest are regular humans with special talents: Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) and Slipknot (Adam Beach).

The film's nominal villain, against whom Waller sends her task force, is Incubus, the brother of Enchantress (Alain Chanoine, enhanced by CG), but the real villain is Waller herself, whose machinations are responsible for unleashing Incubus on the world. After selling Task Force X as a defense against the speculative threat of a malevolent version of Superman, she unwittingly (or is it?) allows Enchantress and her brother to invade Midway City. When the apparently invulnerable siblings begin raining down destruction, Waller seems less concerned with stopping them than with studying the crystalline super-soldiers into which they have transformed the helpless populace. Despite her claim to be protecting America, Waller doesn't seem to care about actual Americans; she casually executes them when it suits her purpose. Indeed, the job she initially assigns to Task Force X isn't stopping the attack by Incubus and Enchantress; it's extracting a Very Important Person from the midst of the carnage.

Effective fictional heroes are defined by the villains who oppose them, but in Suicide Squad the villains themselves remain ill-defined, because Suicide Squad routinely shortchanges its plot in favor of the task force's back stories. Ayer keeps looping back and restarting the narrative as he expands the squad and delves into its past. Deadshot and Harley Quinn are the star attractions; they're first introduced in their prison cells, followed by an account of their criminal history during Waller's initial presentation to the military. Periodic flashbacks add to both their biographies and, in Deadshot's case, his flickering desire for redemption. (Harley suffers from no such pangs of conscience, and her cheerfully unhinged behavior gives the film what little fizz it has.) Diablo's tragic history is reserved until late in the game, when Ayer stops the action for a tearful confession at a point where he should be picking up the pace. Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang receive little attention beyond Waller's initial rundown, but their treatment is positively generous compared to that of Slipknot, who is thrown into the group at the last minute with a one-sentence introduction. And then, just when you think you've gotten to know the players, Ayer tosses in another new face: an avenging samurai warrior, Katana (Karen Fukuhara), whose enchanted sword traps the souls of her victims—and who is utterly extraneous to the plot.

Then there's Jared Leto's Joker, a one-note performance that is a pale imitation of the character previously embodied by Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger. All of those actors brought a sense of menace to Batman's most famous adversary, whereas Leto brings only weirdness. While it makes sense to feature Joker in the back story of Harley Quinn, because she's his girlfriend, Ayer isn't content to leave him in the past. Instead, he sidetracks the squad's quest so that he can dwell on Joker's efforts to free Harley, even though the logic of the story requires those efforts to fail so that Harley can remain with her teammates for the final showdown with Incubus and Enchantress. Joker is one of the chief beneficiaries of the scenes added to the extended cut, but drawing out his role merely confirms what a drag he is on the narrative. It would have made more sense (and had greater impact) to have Joker emerge only at the very end, after the battle is won and Harley has been returned to her prison cell. If you're going to build a movie around lesser known DC characters, you should leave the famous ones on the periphery, as Ayer does with the Flash (Ezra Miller) and another familiar figure whose appearance is uncredited.

Suicide Squad concludes with the requisite orgy of special effects, and when the dust clears, Midway City has been as thoroughly wrecked as Metropolis in Man of Steel and Gotham in Batman v Superman, along with significant portions of America's defense capability. No wonder Waller is told to shut down her project, in the obligatory post-credit sequence providing a link to the next big DCU film. To borrow a phrase from the Vietnam era, she destroyed the country in order to save it. But at least Deadshot gets to visit with his daughter, which, in the world of Suicide Squad, amounts to a happy ending.

Suicide Squad 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For Suicide Squad, Ayer reunited with cinematographer Roman Vasyanov, who photographed the director's previous features, Fury and End of Watch. The production was shot on film, then finished on a digital intermediate, on which most of the visible film grain was eliminated (as is typical with DIs). Much of Suicide Squad is set at night or in dark interiors, and both the 1080p, MVC-encoded 3D Blu-ray (the theatrical cut) and the 1080p, AVC-encoded 2D Blu-ray (the extended cut) feature accurate black levels necessary to render those environments with depth and fine detail. Against the often monochromatic backgrounds, certain elements routinely "pop" with flashes of intense, saturated color, e.g., Harley Quinn's red- and blue-stained tresses, red lipstick and outfits to match; Deadshot's yellow prison uniform and red-and-black costume; and, of course, Joker's green hair and silver teeth. Densities are excellent, and the image is free of interference, distortion or artifacts.

Suicide Squad's 3D presentation is a product of post-conversion, and although the process was capably performed, Ayer and Vasyanov do not appear to have designed their shots for the additional dimension. Certain elements stand out. The snowflakes falling on Deadshot and his daughter just before he is captured appear to float in mid-air. The fiery tentacles that are Incubus' primary weapon project outward from the screen. A vertiginous downward view from a flight of stairs prompts Harley Quinn's memories of her chemical baptism by Joker, which also involved a fall from a great height. A crashing helicopter rolls ominously toward the viewer, until it comes to an abrupt stop.

Some of the most creative 3D moments have been supplied by graphic artists. During Waller's introduction of the squad members, animated three-dimensional text spells out their names, backgrounds, weapons of choice and vulnerabilities (see screenshot 10). During the closing credits, the name of each principal cast member is surrounded by a dense collection of objects specific to his or her character, and they fly out of the screen (see screenshot 20). These 3D grace notes aren't integral to the film, but they're a welcome visual diversion.

All screenshots with this review are taken from the 2D presentation of the theatrical cut. Additional screenshots can be found accompanying the standard-edition review.

Suicide Squad 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Suicide Squad arrives with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack that provides all the sound and fury that fans have come to expect from a comic book epic. Gunfire, vehicular mayhem on the ground and in the air, explosions and the thunder of massive rubble and debris are all delivered with wide dynamic range, numerous rear-channel effects and a sense of total immersion. Compared to other Atmos soundtracks I have reviewed, however, Suicide Squad's seems to take less advantage of the format's ability to place specific sounds in the environment, including overhead. Much of the reason, I suspect, relates to Ayer's preference for accompanying almost every big sequence with a song from an extensive jukebox of mostly familiar tunes, usually as an ironic commentary on the scene (e.g., "Sympathy for the Devil" when Waller first appears or "You Don't Own Me" to introduce Harley Quinn). It's an effective stylistic device, but the songs tend to drown out sonic subtleties in the mix. The dialogue is clearly rendered and properly localized and prioritized. Steven Price, an Oscar winner for Gravity, provided the heroic score.

Suicide Squad 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 3D disc contains no extras. The accompanying 2D disc of the extended cut contains the extras discussed here.

Suicide Squad 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As with Batman v Superman, I am under no illusion that yet another review of Suicide Squad will in any way alter the opinions of either fans or detractors. Both should be forewarned that the ten minutes of added scenes in the extended cut do not significantly alter the plot or fill in any gaps. For those who enjoyed the movie, the additional character beats will probably be entertaining; for those who didn't, they'll just slow it down. Warner's presentation is technically proficient, and fans should enjoy it. The 3D presentation provides some frills, but it doesn't materially change the experience of the movie.