I had high expectations before watching this movie. I was bored 50% of the time. The other half was enjoyable. Oh and honestly there was a bit of a twist and it made me rethink the whole logic of the movie after ward. One of the weakest crime syndicate movies I've ever seen. I know most crime films like fast and furious aren't really that believable, but they do a good job with "suspension of disbelief" so you don't sit there questioning the events that you are watching. This movie for some reason never did that for me, I kept seeing things and thinking they were too far fetched.
When seasoned con man Nicky (Will Smith) encounters amateur pickpocket Jess (Margot Robbie), he's immediately intrigued by her charm and enthusiasm. Agreeing to take her on as something of a protégé, Nicky teaches Jess to hone her prowess at deception and thievery so that the duo can transition from simple wallet snatches to complex scams involving an entire team of swindlers. But as Nicky steadily falls for Jess, and the two find themselves on opposite sides of a dangerous scheme to defraud a billionaire racecar owner (Rodrigo Santoro), they must learn to trust each other in order to pull off the biggest con of their careers.
As it is shown in the trailers, Nicky claims that Jess may be one of the best he has ever seen, great, but in the second half, she only uses her talent during her conversational scenes with Nicky and nothing else. Was the writer-director duo lazy or just had no idea that they could've done so much more cool stuff with this premise? Apparently neither, they were just more focused (no pun intended) on making it ultimately a romantic story where the protagonist has to choose between his work or love, or what the Nicky calls it, "a girl".
The romance between Nicky and Jess is so underdeveloped, it feels as though they're "in love" with each other only because of money (for Jess) and sex (for Nicky). As clichéd as it may sound, wouldn't the film be more fun if they were actually going against each other scamming the same target, and then in the process, fall in love for real? The ending gives the impression that the film wasn't completed as it should've been as it feels as though the show ends halfway without an exciting climax, a bigger reveal or even an earned moral victory. A lousy cheesy speech and a happily-ever-after walk to the hospital as the credits roll, that's it.
The tone of the film is mostly dry or intense, with a rushed pacing. The humour is flat (Will Smith really can't deliver jokes with a more serious character), the funniest moments are all delivered by Farhad (Adrian Martinez), the typical fat friend character who only has lines in like 4 scenes. Smith and Robbie gave a faultless performance for their poorly written roles while all other characters are sidelined. What the film fails most is to make the premise and the characters more convincing and engaging. The sleight-of-hand skills aren't taught or shown in detailed, instead these pickpocketing "action" mostly choreographed nicely to impress only through teamwork misdirection and item-passing.
The chemistry between Margot Robbie and Will Smith was stale and bland, Which makes me a worried about Suicide Squad even more. This film really did not impress me, but I will say this, the general story line minus the BS stats, the poor performances, and the chemistry between Robbie and Smith kept me wanting to stay and find out if it was as predictable as I thought it was, which it is with one twist at the end that I didn't see coming.
7/10 - IMDB
55% - Rotten Tomatoes
56% - Metacritics
6/10 - verdict
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