SUICIDE SQUAD: Doomed Legion

NOTE: I am vengeance. I am the night. I am SPOILERS!

“‘You irritate or vex me, you die.’

‘I'm known for being quite vexing. I'm just forewarning you.’

‘Shut up, woman.’”

- Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Suicide Squad

Superhero cinema has come a long way from “biff, bam and pow!” We have sat through the lows of the Schumacher Batman films and the highs of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. DC Comics, taking its name from the comic book that gave birth to Batman (“Detective Comics”), has not had the best of luck adapting material that does not include Batman or Superman. Sure there have been a few outliers like the dismal Supergirl, the forgettable Steel and the less said about Jonah Hex and Green Lantern the better, but there is a larger universe in their vast literary history that has not been tapped into. On the other side of the proverbial fence, Marvel has hit practically nothing but home runs with their meticulously crafted Marvel Cinematic Universe. Gazing from the cheap seats, Warner Bros. quickly crafted a plan. A plan so idiotic their brains would explode if they even began to know what they were thinking about.

If Marvel could put a lot of time, money and effort into crafting individual movies, casting the best possible actors, and bringing in filmmakers with a deep respect for the source material, surely Warner Bros. could take the fast pass to cash by doing practically the exact opposite? And Batman v. Superman became one of the biggest laughingstocks of 2016, with its incoherent plot structure, shoehorning characters and being filled with ill-made promises of better things to come. A R-rated Ultimate Edition was released to Blu-Ray with the assurances from Zack Snyder and WB that it would be clearer and more concise with what fans wanted was barely acknowledged as an improvement on the theatrical cut. If Warner Bros. was going to fix their self-proclaimed DC Extended Universe, they needed to work fast. They already had another movie on the way within months.

In the months following the death of Superman, a government agent named Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has been quietly detaining low-rent super criminals in order to build a secret team that can be deployed when meta-humans (the DCEU name for “superheroes”, despite DC actually owning the trademark to the word “superhero”) attack. One of her valuable resources, an archeologist named June Moone with the spirit of an ancient goddess inside of her (both played by Cara Delevingne) is unleashed upon an unsuspecting metropolis (but not Metropolis). Thus, to go in and save the day, Task Force X is initiated – the master hitman Deadshot (Will Smith), low-rent Australian thief Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), the monstrous Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Asian swords-woman Katana (Karen Fukuhara), a fiery gang member El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and the murderously mischievous Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). None of them want to be there, naturally, but they are all told there is an explosive device implanted in their necks and if they manage to survive, time will be taken off of their sentences. With no other options, no way out and nobody to trust, will the Suicide Squad manage to turn over a new leaf or will they end up dead on the streets?

So is this the movie that will save Warner Bros.’ desperately needed DCEU? Nope. Is it at least better than Batman v. Superman? Yeah, but not by much. For all the Warner Bros. brouhaha that apparently went on behind the scenes, this movie was cut to an inch of its life. WITH NO LESS THAN 7 EDITORS. I am not talking about 7 people in the editing department. 7 separate editors. This is not Koyaanisqatsi, for crying out loud. The film moves at a breakneck pace and it is massively disorienting. I knew the backstories of most of these characters to begin with, but if I was like every other Regular Joe that had never heard of these characters, I would massively lost. Ayer has claimed that this is his final cut and if that is true (and it apparently is not), that is massively disappointing. Just something more coherent would be preferable.

One of the major points that the marketing has been selling heavily was Jared Leto’s The Joker, his first acting gig after winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club. And I hate to break it to you, but you have already seen 95% of his performance in just the trailers. He has the shortest runtime of any Joker ever on-screen. Granted, following in the footsteps of both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger's signature performances would have to be challenging to any actor. But it feels like this movie is not willing to give him a chance. I do not much care for his design, but at least it is different. Leto only gets one brief scene that I felt he completely owned with Margot Robbie as Harleen Quinzel. It is a bit of a blend of both of her origins (from "Mad Love" and the New 52) so she willingly chooses to jump into the same vat of chemicals that turned the Joker. I guess that was put in there to ward off angry people. Oh wait! 

Another well discussed movie of summer 2016 was the new Ghostbusters film. It is bad. Very bad. Not Vacation (2015) bad, but pretty bad. So what connection does this movie have to Suicide Squad? Well, the climax of the movie is basically more Ghostbusters (1984) than Ghostbusters (2016). The Squad has to face off against the evil Enchantress. From the way Cara Delevingne is dressed, I was halfway expecting Dan Aykroyd to step out from behind a pillar and say,

"Gozer the Gozerian? Good evening. As a duly designated representative of the City, County and State of New York, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension."

It continues even when she is defeated; because she was possessing the body of the well-intentioned Dr. June Moone, Rick Flag (her boyfriend) assumes from her petrified body that she is dead. Then, like in Ghostbusters when they break apart Dana Barrett from her Terror Dog stone statue form, Moone peels herself away. Again, all that was missing was the uplifting Elmer Bernstein score. I was taken aback from the shameless rip-off that was not even the actual shameless rip-off.

But that is not to say the movie is totally without merit. There is just not a lot of it. The needle-drop soundtrack was better than expected but pales to the superior Guardians of the Galaxy. The cast does well with their roles, but they do not have a lot of screen-time as individuals and sharing the screen often strikes too similar to The Avengers. Margot Robbie stands out as Harley Quinn, correctly capturing the playfulness and the tragic nature of her character. Will Smith clearly made the right decision to join this movie and snub Independence Day: Resurgence. This is probably the best thing I have seen Joel Kinnaman in, except the only other thing I have seen in him was that RoboCop remake. 

David Ayer has repeatedly denounced Marvel since being hired to direct Suicide Squad. Which is not only a majorly dumb move as well as massively hypocritical; this is a Marvel movie in DC clothing. It is not an unwatchable movie by any means, but it had so much potential squandered that it is really disappointing. For a similar movie with better storytelling, I recommend Batman: Assault on Arkham. It has a few of the characters represented in this movie, but it is a standalone story and not beholden to the whims of a studio gone mad.