Roundtable: Suicide Squad Review

Hello everyone, welcome to our first ever Mango Strike roundtable. About a week ago, the highly advertised movie “Suicide Squad” hit the theaters. So far there have been mixed reviews on the film, so myself, and a few of my fellow Mango Strike writers decided to give our thoughts on the movie. Here are the roundtable participants:

• Matthew Monaco
• Edward Joseph
• Albert Donor
• Harrison Quail
• Alfonso De Falco
• Nick Richards

1. Rotten tomato is a pretty reliable movie review site. Did you agree/disagree with their rating?

• Monaco: I disagree with the rotten tomato rating, I felt the movie was more around the 40-50% range. The audience rating of 72% is mostly accurate. The film should have been way better than it was.

• Joseph: I disagree with rotten tomatoes rating. Don’t get me wrong, the movie wasn’t good, but it wasn’t absolutely terrible. This movie did not in any way live up to my expectations, the trailer, or the hype. Overall, I think the movie is somewhere around a 5 or 6 out of 10 range. Part of me wants to cut them some slack because I do realize it is difficult to build up a story with so many different characters in such a limited time frame, but part of me is still pissed because at times the movie does indeed feel like it was made half-assed.

• Donor: I disagree with the Rotten Tomatoes review for Suicide Squad. My reason I disagree is because ultimately I dont give a damn about what the rest of the world thinks, what matters is my thoughts about the movie after seeing it.

• Quail: I agreed with the Tomatometer rating of ~26% , but also the fan rating of ~70%. Something I noticed from the very start was that the scenes transitioned awkwardly, and the writing was thin and hammy – which is really saying something for a superhero movie when I already had those expectations.

• De Falco: This is one of the few times I have to disagree with the Rotten Tomatoes review. 26% seems a little too low and I think it should be much higher.

• Richards: Uh, no I do not agree. Rotten Tomatoes, along with the general public, seem to be expecting one thing from the DC Universe and are upset when they get something else.

2. Who was your favorite actor/actress in the movie?

• Monaco: My favorite actress in the film was Margot Robbie. The Wolf of Wall Street star did an excellent job portraying Harley Quinn, truly capturing the sexual appeal and madness the Tara Strong voiced character from Batman: The Animated Series is known for. As a result, the writers of the film gave her a ton of screen time. Felt her and Jared Leto’s Joker had good chemistry in the limited scenes they were in together.

• Joesph: Will Smith hands down held the movie together for me. Obviously him and Margot Robbie are two of the biggest stars in the movie, so they’d be the most interesting characters, but many of the other characters really didn’t get enough screen time to be all that interesting.

• Donor: My favorite actor in the movie was Will Smith as Deadshot. While it is expected because he is one of the main characters focused on, his wit and demeanor gave a new light into the portrayal of Deadshot.

• Quail: Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Now I know she’s one of the lead actresses in this so it’s expected for her to be a favorite. I felt that she really captured the quirky Harley Quinn quite nicely. 

• De Falco: I’m going with Will Smith as Deadshot. At first I was not sure how he would play out, but he ended up playing the role of the main character very well. I also have to say Margot Robbie and Jared Leto’s roles as Harley Quinn and The Joker respectively did well with their roles.

• Richards: Unpopular opinion, but Viola Davis was an excellent Amanda Waller. Everything about her was exactly how it’s portrayed in the source material. Her unsettling actions and questionable motives were a perfect fit.

3. If you had the choice to replace and actor/actress in the movie, who would it be and why?

• Monaco: The cast in the film as a whole all did a solid job despite the weak script and overall plot line. I would not change any cast members, a good blend of well knowns and up in coming actors/actresses.

• Joesph: I’d replace Margot Robbie just because of the accent. I know many people might want to replace Leto as the Joker but I think I haven’t seen enough of him in the movie to make a judgement on that. Margot Robbie started out strong as Harley Quinn but throughout the movie she speaks in like 3 different accents including her Australian one. Her lack of consistency reflects poorly on how much she gave a shit about the film. That was highly disappointing to see and almost ruined her character for me.

• Donor: Personally I thought the cast was perfectly picked, but if I had to choose someone it’d be Adam Beach. Beach plays Slipknot, who dies not 10 minutes after he is introduced. They could have saved some money if they got a lesser known actor.

• Quail: I think the cast was fine as is. There was a mix of big and small names which sometimes makes the lesser actors look weaker, but because of the many cuts and strange pacing of the movie that became irrelevant, for better or worse.

• De Falco: The cast I felt was a good combination of big names and up-in-coming actors. To save some money they could of went with a lesser known actor to play the quick role of Slipknot. I also read a while back that Tom Hardy was suppose to play the role of Flag, which would of interesting to see.

• Richards: The only person I would change is Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag. I felt this character was kind of bland, when it needed to be a strong presence throughout the movie.

4. Did you feel anything was missing in the movie?

• Monaco: I felt that THE JOKER, who was hyped beyond belief in the trailers and marketing campaign for the film, was missing. The Joker had about 8 minutes of screen time, not nearly what audiences expected, and discovered later that many of The Joker’s scenes were cut from the film. Jared Leto has discussed a stand alone Batman and Joker film, which is exciting given Jared Leto’s solid follow up to the late Heath Ledger’s Brilliant Joker portrayal. I also felt the writing for Suicide Squad was weak, with certain lines being forced, awkward, and flat out corny. The writers wanted more comic relief in the film after Batman vs Superman, but poor deliveries hurt the film.

• Joesph: There are many things that are missing from this movie.  They made it look like The Joker would be the main villain of the film, and then they gave him very limited screen time so he was essentially just a short add on in the movie. The plot was kinda thin, and things weren’t really explained well. The action and badassery were kind of tame. I’d have preferred an R rated action packed mayhem of a movie but we got a PG-13 movie were not much really happened. There is so much that’s missing from this movie.

• Donor: Yeah, I felt a lot was missing. To address the elephant in the room, Warner Bros, took a lot of Joker’s scenes out. It seemed that the main focus was on Flag, Deadshot and Harley. The rest of the characters were kinda just there, so they could have added some more in-depth look into the other characters.

• Quail: I felt that maybe thirty minutes to an hour was missing from the movie. It was painfully obvious that cuts had been made en masse. Take the joker for example, he had a whopping twenty minutes of screen time but was supposed to be a lead character. And on the topic of missing things, the plot wasn’t quite there. If a little more time was spent building on the individual characters lives outside of just being bad, the events of the movie would’ve had a greater impact.

• De Falco: The main thing I felt was missing were the action/fighting scenes. When there were action scenes, they were short and nothing crazy.  I was left confused during small parts of the movie, and The Joker did not get as much screen time as I expected.

• Richards: It’s the same thing as Batman v. Superman. Scenes were left out of the movie that will be released in the extended cut. These missing scenes will tie things together better and will make this movie incredible.

5. Did you overall like/dislike suicide squad?

• Monaco: Overall I felt Suicide Squad was an ok film, not as bad as the critics claimed it was, but still disappointing none the less. Given the crazy amount of hype that surrounded the film, the final version should have exceeded my expectations. Strong performances by Margot Robbie and Will Smith, along with killer artwork, costumes right out of the comics, and soundtrack were all redeeming factors in the film.

• Joesph: Overall I disliked suicide squad but not to the point that the critics disliked it.

• Donor: Overall, I enjoyed Suicide Squad. even after WB screwed it up, the actors really cared about their roles and from start to finish it had my attention. The soundtrack was on point as well.

• Quail: Overall I disliked suicide squad. I did however enjoy watching Will Smith and Margot Robbie rough people up for 2 hours. On a more positive note, the music choices and costumes & makeup were excellent, in my opinion.

• De Falco: Suicide Squad was an okay movie. I can see some peoples’ perspectives on how it was overhyped, but I did enjoy watching it because of the dynamic cast. Outside of the movie itself, I felt the artwork and soundtrack were positives in the movie.

• Richards:  I liked it but that’s probably due to the fact that I enjoy everything about DC.

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