By: Joe Lomán

DC comics has had it rough in the last decade with trying to release movies that can be on par with its Marvel counterpart. This year, DC aimed big with two movies that promised to be blockbusters: Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad, with even Justice League, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Flash scheduled for the next years, so they get points for trying. Problem is, they still don’t seem to make it quite right. So far, both movies have ended being messy in many parts, although it’s true that Suicide Squad arises a bit of more hope of what to expect from the next movies. It seems like DC is finding its way, but at a very slow pace.

Suicide Squad is a movie that continues the DC (sometimes unintentional) formula. It has a darker tone than Marvel movies, and it also tries to have a plot, unlike most of Marvel movies, which rely more on the action sequences. But sometimes it seems that part of the formula is to make the plots very messy and senseless. Suicide Squad tries too much to have a developed script, and it works for moments, especially at the beginning when all the bad guys are teaming up, but at different points everything becomes even confusing that it doesn’t really matter anymore.

But it’s not so bad because the performances of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith as Deadshot are a real pleasure to look at. The chemistry between both is outstanding. Past half of the movie you end up caring more about these characters than the plot itself. “What about the rest of the characters?” I hear you asking. The truth is, that after some minutes of the movie, you get the impression that there are no more characters but these two, which is one of the biggest disappointments of the movie. The beginning of the film is really promising and it makes the job of making you stay to watch the rest, with all the characters having a great background story with their profiles on screen with the same art style as the promotional works for the movie. But that’s about it.

The truth is, that Harley Quinn and Deadshot steal the show, specially Joker’s girlfriend, but not in a healthy way. It’s clear that they were the favorites of the director David Ayser, who has actually made good jobs before at giving different characters their own importance, such is the case of his last movie, Fury (2014), but in this case, it’s just a disappointment to have so many promising characters and not seeing their real abilities to the fullest. This is something Marvel does outstandingly, no matter how many characters appear on screen, and DC still has much to learn from that.

Regardless, just like I said, Harley Quinn seems to be the favorite of the producers, and that is good in some way, because she’s in great part what keeps the movie going at an entertaining pace. Margot Robbie admitted she had to practice a lot to make a good role of her, and I can say the result is more than satisfactory.

To finish with, the atmosphere of the whole film is nice. The dark tone that characterizes DC is something I have always looked forward to. It is a nice change of airs from Marvel, making them having a unique characteristic. One of the biggest differences between Suicide Squad and the previous movie in the DC universe, Batman vs Superman, is that Suicide Squad tries to have a wicked sense of humor similar to Deadpool, and Harley Quinn is the main responsible for that. It works at times, it doesn’t during the rest of it.

So all in all, Suicide Squad is a step forward from what we saw in Batman vs Superman, but in no way it’s a total revolution. If you don’t get strict, you’ll get a good time. The action is good, the humor is good most of the times, some of the characters steal the show and make you love them, and it makes us wonder expectantly about the upcoming movies in the DC universe. However, if you are a loyal comic book lover, you may get a bit disappointed by the fact that the movie is not loyal to what it promises in the beginning.