Suicide Squad: Special Edition

Now, I was never a huge hater of the original version of the Suicide Squad (2016). I recognized all the movie's problems, but watched it and had my fair share of fun with it. However, that one time at the movie theater was pretty much the only time I watched the movie. Never had a huge desire to rewatch it. This edit and the good reviews made my reconsider. Plus, the Ayer cut is still in the unreleased form, so... why not?

In short? It is the better version of what people got in 2016. Does it make it a good movie? No. It's still and average popcorn flick. The edit tries its damnest to smooth the rough corners of the inconsistent mess that was. It succeeds 100%. However, the movie has fundamental issues, which can not be edited around. So, in short, that is the go-to version if you ever decide to rewatch the movie, or if you decide to watch it for the first time even, but do not expect it to be some brand new experience, that will drastically change your opinion

Techincally wise it's great. The cuts are seamless, the sound is solid. There were a few moments where you feel the cut, but for 95% of the movie you don't. As someone else said, I would prefer all the pop songs to be cut as well and changed to some more neutral soundtrack. It would fit the whole narrative better

Joker is almost completely gone, and, unsurprisingly, his scenes don't add anything to the movie and that edit shows that he could've been easily scrapped altogether. Then again, I am one of those who think that Harley Quinn goes with the Joker, so you got to have him, even in that little capacity that he was in the edit. That said, Joker scenes in the original added some wildcard element to the original story, which made the whole thing more engaging. Here, being as brief as they are. they feel out of place. Like, we need to set up Joker's attempt at rescuing Harley, so we have to leave some scenes in

I highly recommend this edit, but expect the similar movie from 2016. Don't get your hopes up, that it is the unofficial Ayer cut that turns the theatrical cut on its head. It's not. But it's good on its own and does the best it can with the content it had to work with. I love that it's called 'Special Edition'. Simple, effective and truthful. Instead of some pompous naming, it went with the straight one. So, temper your expectations accordingly

Though it may sound like damning with faint praise to call this edit of Suicide Squad "astonishly coherent," anyone who has seen the original cut will know that Wakeupkeo has worked a bonafide miracle by forcing this movie into somehow ACTUALLY MAKING SENSE. The editing on the original film is some of the worst I've ever seen, introducing over a dozen characters while ping-ponging around in time and space, and asking the audience to buy into all the magic, super-science and political paranoia of a half-baked grim-and-gritty superhero cinematic universe. The beloved Suicide Squad comic worked and was subversive because it was built on the foundation of nearly 50 years of superhero tropes and back story and continuity. The film adaptation was working from a couple of bleak Superman movies that established a tiny corner of what is apparently a world filled-to-overflowing with superpowered beings, most of whom are psychotic (and not just the bad guys).

Original sins of the concept aside, Keo has worked a great deal of magic with the flow of the movie, and while certain aspects of the Flagg/Enchantress storyline are unavoidably tied to jerky time-jumps, so much of the movie has been streamlined that it is possible to discover anew the virtues of the film, from inventive villain effects, to clever sequences, to some surprisingly deft and fun characterization. Thanks to some very canny subtitle-tweaking, the film even manages to fulfill an important plot function within the larger DCEU.

My only real complaint about the edit itself (and one I'm surprised to be making) is the lack of Jared Leto's Joker. While I'm glad that his annoying and derivative characterization of "Mr. J" has been shortened and largely relegated to Harley's mercifully brief flashbacks, his quest to track down Harley seems interspersed with the main narrative in a slightly haphazard way and felt like it needed a bit more massaging to pay off properly when Joker tracks her down. As it stands, I don't recall it being completely clear what Joker's goal even is until Harley starts getting texts from him.

In all though, one of the worst superhero films of the century has been rescued to a form that is remarkably enjoyable, occasionally moving and certainly sits well alongside one's DCEU fanedits of choice, not to mention the excellent James Gunn follow-up.

This is a good fanedit of what is on all accounts a pretty bad film, but this fanedit makes it a lot better.

The film in this form is coherent and has a pretty nice flow narratively compared to the absolute minefield of the theatrical cut.

One thing this edit does highlight is how much the original relied on style over substance. The plot in this streamlined version is as basic as they come, and this maybe highlights that the material isn't there to warrant these characters being "friends" by the end of the film. Which is more a comment on the original than this fan edit.

The editing is never noticeable which is obviously the main aim with a project like this, but some segments do seem a little rushed. The Joker is in this even less than the theatrical (not a bad thing necessarily) but it does almost feel strange to have such a big hitter of the DC world have such limited screen time, but again I feel this is more a comment of the film than this edit. The Joker didn't really have a role in the film outside of flashbacks and they were distracting to the plot. So overall I get the decision to trim him out as much as possible.

So hats off to the editor. They definitely achieve their goal of making a bad film better. I actually felt like I liked the leads by the end of this edit, which is more than can be said for the original. So yeah, the editor has successfully made the film focus on Deadshot, Harley and Flag and this is the main improvement. There is actually some focus to this movie, compared to the jumbled mess that was released.

First of all, I want to clarify that the "enjoyment" factor has nothing to do with the editor. His work is fantastic, but the source is not. I just rate my actual enjoyment watching the film for what it is. For the original it was like 4-5.
I watched the theatrical release in cinemas, then the extended edition when it came out and then I gave up on this film. Thankfully we got a great second one, so no big deal, but still, if we could save this one, why not! So I gave it a (Dead)shot.

Visual and audio editing was excellent, I couldn't find a single moment betraying that something was tampered with, so well done!
Quality was also on par with the editing, so nothing to add here as well.

Now for the juicy part, the narrative. In general I really liked the editor's take on how things should unfold, with presenting the characters at the beggining, reducing the Enchantress' and Joker's screentime, and I also found extremely smart the detail he added on the subtitles of the Enchantress, connecting the movie, through that beacon bs at the end, with the DCEU. Granted it's just a mind trick for the viewer, but ingenious in its simplicity!

That said, the presentation of the characters at the beggining felt kind of off because of exactly that, it was a simple, dry presentation. It wasn't accompanied with an upbeat, "rock n' roll" cinematography (as we have in later moments) to make it feel at home! But obviously, that is not the editor's fault, he worked with what he had.
Also, the scene where we see the Joker's hands at the dirty cop and it cuts off, I found it a little quick. I'm not sure if it was the right call to cut Joker's dialogue completely.
Lastly, although we see at the beggining Flag hand picking the Suicide Squad, we have a scene soon after where he confronts Waller about using a group of criminals and I found it really out of place, since I also don't think they say something crucial to the plot, so it could be edited out completely.

Overall great edit, but it felt like two hours although it was only a little more the one and a half, which again is an upgrade from the original version! Still I could see myself watching this in a DCEU marathon and I surely recommend for everyone to check it out! If you found the original ok, which I didn't, then you will love this!

Thank you Wakeupkeo!

While it doesn’t completely fix Studio Squad, it’s probably the closest thing to a consistent, cohesive version of the film. I love this edit and personally watch this as my preferred cut of the film. If anyone wants to watch Suicide Squad, they should just watch this edit^^