Suicide Squad: Extended Cut Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Lynn Barker on Dec 12, 2016

Rating:

Kidzworld checked out Suicide Squad now out on home video. Are the extras killer/cool? Is this action spectacular a good giver for the holidays? Read our Extended Cut Blu-ray review.

By: Lynn Barker

A wild, very diverse group of over-the-top prison inmates are let out, under threat, to take down a mystical, dark magic goddess threatening our world. Will they even get along? Can this squad of misfits bond? Who lives, who dies and who will kick the most butt along the way?

The Squad is ready to rumbleCourtesy of Warner Bros.

Team of Misfits

Tough Black Ops Agency head Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is worried that, after superman’s death (in the Batman v Superman film), superheroes, also called meta-humans, might use their powers for evil. She convinces the government to let her form a combat team with criminals locked up in a New Orleans high security prison. There is Deadshot (Will Smith) a crack shot killer for hire, psycho, and former shrink Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) who is also the boo of the evil Joker (Jared Leto), Boomerang (Jai Courtney), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Also along are swordswoman Katana (Karen Fukuhara), team leader Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and others.

Boomerang, Enchantress, Flag and HarleyCourtesy of Warner Bros.

The Enchantress

Mission Commander Rick Flag’s girlfriend is a former anthropologist named June Moone who opened an ancient container to release the witch Enchantress (Cara Delevigne) who then took over her body. For now, Waller actually has her beating heart (haven’t we seen this in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie?) in a locked box and thus controls her. She also controls the newly dubbed Suicide Squad by implanting explosives in their necks which she can detonate at will.

Enchantress wants Flag to be silentCourtesy of Warner Bros.

The Witch’s Plan

Enchantress is tired of taking orders and living inside Moone so after releasing her powerful Brother from yet another ancient jar, she decides to create a machine that can somehow slice through things as big as battle ships and knock a space station out of the sky hoping to regain dominion over the Earth.

You don't mess with the JokerCourtesy of Warner Bros.

Joker on the Side

Joker is out to reclaim girlfriend Harley for his own and… something else.. Who knows? He runs around making life miserable when he can for the Squad while Enchantress builds her killer machine.

Harley and Joker, underworld It coupleCourtesy of Warner Bros.

A Squad Victory?

After several action encounters with Enchantress’s army made up of former humans she has turned into what look like black lava men with a lot of eyeballs, the Squad finds the machine and hope to destroy it, the Fire-centric Enchantress brother and knock her out of poor Junie Moone’s body so Flag can have his girlfriend back.

Some of the Squad after a battleCourtesy of Warner Bros.

Special Extra Features

There are a lot of excellent ones on this Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo set including the Theatrical version with an extended cut of the film on the Blu-ray.

Task Force X: One Team, One Mission gives us the history of the Suicide Squad in the comics, the legacy of the movie’s “bad” guys doing good and the evolution of each character, the director on adapting the comic book characters to film and many of the actors talk about their characters and how they all bonded in real life. We also get cool concept art. Very nice.
In Chasing the Real, we see the process of creating the world of the film, locations and the decision to make the world more real than comic book surreal; production design, costumes and the many tattoos and creature designs are shown. Very visually interesting.

Harley in action on setCourtesy of Warner Bros.

Joker and Harley: “It” Couple of the Underworld features Jared Leto on how he re-invented the character (after Heath Ledger’s amazing version) and we see that he was all “method” on set, staying and speaking in character between scenes; his make-up and costume are discussed. Margot talks about Harley and doing her research on the character, her costumes and make-up. Their wacky romance is examined. Very cool extra.
Squad Strength and Speed shows the actors working out and whipping themselves into shape for the many fight scenes. Director David Ayer talks about making sure his actors were strong enough to do many of their own stunts (and they did). We have Will Smith, Cara Delevigne and many others talking about their specific training which we see. Very good action extra.
Armed to the Teeth is, of course an extra featuring all the weaponry and props used in the film. Care was used to make sure each character had appropriate, detailed weaponry that matched both the comic books and the character’s fighting needs and skills. Will Smith says “It adds a whole level of authenticity when you don’t have to just run around and say “bang bang”. Hilarious.

Will as Deadshot does his thingCourtesy of Warner Bros.

This is Gonna Get Loud: The Epic Battles of Suicide Squad covers both Special Visual Effects and the choreography of the many battles in the movie. We see actors and stunt people working on the battles and final product and also step-by-step CGI work on the more “magical” effects. I always love this stuff. Well done.
The Squad Declassified examines details on each character.
Gag Reel – Yay! I love these. Not long enough but we see line flubs, tripping, Will sneezes loudly and really scares Margot and she can barely hear him when he’s wearing the Deadshot mask. Funny.

Margot as Harley says she can't hear Will in maskCourtesy of Warner Bros.

Wrapping Up

The Extended Cut is about 10 extra minutes of footage. It just fills in a few character things but doesn’t make the plot work better. There is no Director’s Commentary but with these thorough extras, everything is covered. Because, as an origin film, there were too many characters to fully introduce and other flaws, we went 3 stars in our movie review. The extras on this home entertainment version are so complete and enjoyable that we go 4 stars for this set and yes, for fans of the characters, comics and/or action we say a great gift or keeper this holiday season.