Suicide Squad Review: 3 Ups And 7 Downs

Ups:

3. It Plays Neatly Into The Wider Universe

In an unexpected surprise, it turns out that Suicide Squad is actually motivated by the events of Batman V Superman; following the death of Superman, Amanda Waller became incensed to form her own team of supers to protect the world from threats. It sounds like she's tried to get Task Force X off the ground in the past, but with the rise of the metahumans finally manages to twist the government's hand and get shaky approval.

Now as you may know I'm not a big fan Dawn Of Justice, but having the movies link into this larger continuity in an unobtrusive way (something BvS certainly failed at) is a really nice touch and contextualises a lot of what comes later. I also really appreciated the nods to the various DC Universe locations, as well as a neat (if already spoiled) brief cameo.

The only place it doesn't work as well as it should is with the minor Batman appearances. He's there to primarily stalk and capture the Squad, but the movie is confused with how to present him. He's shot distant and mysteriously, yet because we know the character there's no real purpose. It's not like he's being presented from the villain's perspective either; you do get close-ups, so it seems the film's having to cut around him to avoid revealing they only had limited access to Ben Affleck.