Task Force X (2016) - Movie Review (Minor Spoilers)

Cast: Will Smith as Floyd Lawton / Deadshot, Jared Leto as Joker, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Adam Beach as Slipknot. Directed by David Ayer.

Here it is folks, we have ourselves a great but, not perfect comic book movie from the DCEU. Rotten Tomatoes you are WRONG!!!

Suicide Squad is the third installment to the DC Extended Universe, set after the events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and there's was a lot of hype behind this film and from my opinion it delivered it. Is it a better than Dawn of Justice, I would say YES but, it does have flaws which are noticeable. But what movie doesn't have flaws? Anyway let's crack on, shall we?

So the story goes as follows, Amanda Waller played by Viola Davis, a government official for the United States Government is putting together a Task Force to prevent any casualties if another Superman were to appear on Earth. So she goes to a prison where notorious/infamous villains are being kept and she recruits Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, El Diablo, Slipknot, Rick Flag and Captain Boomerang to form Task Force X. And their mission is save the world from a powerful threat and in exchange, their prison sentence time is cut off. And we have ourselves a pretty great movie, I really enjoyed it. The plot is a straight-foward sure. Gather a group of villains, have a humour here and there in the movie, have a couple of action scenes, take out the bad guy and save the day. But, what it makes up for is the characters.

I really hope we get a sequel to this because all of the characters that we were in the movie, the villains mind you, all had chemistry to them. The main characters who are the centrepiece of this movie are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, a little bit of the Joker and Rick Flag/Amanda Waller. From the beginning of the movie, you get to know each of those four characters backstory and the way they presented it to the audience was really cool. Like a quick character profile. You had their full name, villain name, their strengths (weapons and personality). Deadshot's character profile was really long because you know  or may not know, he is the best marksman in the DC Universe so he's speciality is guns and the list goes on and on. Will Smith was awesome as him, he knew when to be funny and when it came down to the serious moment to the film, he showed it. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, OMG was perfect, right off the bat when I heard that she was cast as her, undeniable I was like great choice DC/WB. She's beautiful, great with a baseball bat, scary, crazy and almost sympathetic at one point in the movie but, she tries to cover it up with her funny personality.

Task Force X

Margot Robbie was perfect as Harley. Crazy and Funny all in one bag

Captain Boomerang had a lot of comic relief to the movie, for all those who are not a Jai Courtney fan, I can say without a doubt that you will walk out of the movie saying Jai Courtney was pretty good. Jared Leto played Joker really well. The Joker is one of the most beloved DC villains of all time, so there was a lot riding on how he would portray as him, even though there was sometimes I couldn't understand what he would be saying at certain points. 

Jai Courtney was great and funny as Captain Boomerang

But, if you are going into this movie thinking that the Joker is the villain in this movie, I'm afraid that you will be disappointed because he is not in the movie that much, he is a wild card who shows up to cause the squad trouble. We are used to seeing the relationship Batman and the Joker on screen but, with this movie, it's Harley Quinn who takes Batman's place and I really liked that. I hope we get to see more of Joker in the solo Batman film in which Ben Affleck will direct and speaking of Batman makes a cameo appearance in the movie. 

Not in it for very long, left a good impression for me. Hope to see him in the standalone Batman movie

The CGI was pretty weird in the movie when Enchantress is trying to build her army. At certain points it looks like she is dancing with her hands/body and her head is either standing still or wiggling alongside her body and it just looks awkward and funny. I was like, what on earth is she doing. The humour in the movie was great but, some of the jokes didn't really land it for me. Perhaps it's because I've seen the trailers but, nonetheless, if you haven't seen it, I think you will find it funny. The other gripe for this movie is Slipknot. He wasn't in the movie that long if you were to cut the movie and have only his screen time, I don't think it would come up to three minutes. He was really only a plot device for the movie because all of the members have a special detonator within their necks, so if they disobey or try to run from Rick Flag they will blow up. And sadly, that's what happen to Slipknot. Captain Boomerang persuades him to make a run for it because they think that the neck detonator is all a hoax. There were some pacing issues at the beginning and, sometimes, in the middle of the movie, but that is understandable because DC needs to let people know who these characters are and the backstories come in the form of flashbacks. Some of these villains are pretty big in DC Universe so there can't be a standalone movie for all them.

Now let's talk about the action because that was pretty sweet. Nearly everybody has a chance to shine. When the group are fighting off a bunch of Enchantress army, Deadshot is able to hold the line and just wastes everybody with his weapons. So many bullet shells were on the floor at the end, it just goes to show how great of a marksman he is. I mean Deadshot can get perfect shots without missing. Margot Robbie does a great job at using her gymnastic skills to evade and take down the enemies. But, the person who stole the show for me in terms of action was El Diablo, he really showed why he doesn't want to use his powers. He's one of the most dangerous villains they have on the team if you make him angry, he can literally burn everything around him. The action scenes are not so overwhelming in the fact that there's so much destruction but, it gives you enough time for the movie to slow down to get to know the characters because that's where Suicide Squad shines.

My favourite scene would have to be the bar scene and it really won me because it shows you the 'heart' of the movie. All of them are reflecting on what they have done in their lives and what has the world ever done to them because everybody hates them. And Margot Robbie just lays it straight to El Diablo to own up to what he did, which is the fact that he's family were murderd over the results that he lost control of his powers during a fit of rage.

One of my favourite scenes in the movie

A sympathetic Harley Quinn

In the end, the Suicide Squad is a great comic book movie. It's the best DC movie since the start of the DC Extended Universe. There are some downsides within the movie sure but, I can guarantee you will a fun time. Did it deserve the rating that Rotten Tomatoes gave it, absolutely not. I would bump it up between 50% to 70%. The cast played a terrific job and for me, Margot Robbie was just perfect. Make sure to stay behind after the post-credit scene, there is a little scene between two characters. I was a little bit worried but, it definitely gave me what I wanted. TO HAVE A FUN TIME. The soundtrack alone was really awesome, I loved it.

A group of villains saving the world, what could happen?

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the DCEU evolves with the upcoming movies. I want DC to succeed, I REALLY DO. I'm more of a DC fan than a Marvel fan. But, I can go to these superheroes movies and see the flaws that they have. For example, I personally don't like the Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 3 and The Avengers (2012) all that much. Granted, the Avengers is a great movie but, I like Age of Ultron more than it's predecessor. Again it's my opinion if you like those movies great.

I will definitely be picking up Suicide Squad on Blu-Ray. Mind you if I buy a movie on Blu-ray, it means it is a great movie. If you are still unsure about this movie, go to Jeremy Jahns review, here's the LINK to the video. I'm thinking my rating should be similar to Jeremy Jahns.

So Task Force X, have you seen it, what did you think about? Who is your favourite member? Comment below, spread this article, tell your friends about this movie, it is a great movie guys. Remember to follow me on Twitter (@dmyxxxx) and I'll see you next time. Later tater.