Suicide Squad Review: 3 Ups And 7 Downs

2. It Changes Tone Halfway Through (For No Reason)

Suicide Squad starts off interestingly. I'm not going to say good or strongly, because that'd be way too much praise, but the first twenty minutes or so is certainly unique; I've talked about the intriguing introduction Amanda Waller gives the team, but there's also a plethora of jokes and barbs coupled with stark visuals that lay the building blocks for a heightened, almost zany feel.

Contrast this to the finale, which is the same old "bright light in the sky" (only this time it's purple) with the heroes gallantly taking on insurmountable odds in a showdown filled with slow-motion and forced emotion. That's a little different, isn't it?

The tone of the movie flip-flops a bit throughout (which, as I said earlier, could have been intriguingly bonkers), but by the time we're at the finale things are dry and generic. There's no clearly defined point for when this siwtch happens, and sometimes the film does still dip back into the more off-kilter side of things, but when it does those moments of style I talked about earlier become laughable for all the wrong reasons.

The fact that the story is so basic only highlights this more. When you have so much style and so little substance, shifts in that style are so much more jarring.