Dave Gray
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« on: August 08, 2016, 02:59:49 pm » |
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Suicide Squad (2016)
Premise: A group of super-powered criminals is assembled against their will, to engage threats too dangerous and unconventional for traditional military.
Rating: A mess...but I still had fun with it.
Suicide Squad is a broken narrative. The basic premise of the film doesn't make sense and it's never something the film recovers from. Half of the film's characters leave you wanting more and the other half make you question why they were included at all. And tonally, the film is all over the map -- it tries to be this tough "bro" comedy, but also saves time for heartfelt moments that make you question how you're supposed to root for these characters. It tries to balance these characters being villains with you wanting them rewarded for their success. The film doesn't achieve this. The character designs are pretty poor, in my opinion, and I wish that some of these ideas were just dialed back a bit. If you come into this accepting some weird vignettes about superheros, there's fun to be had. But if you're trying to dissect the plot of the film that gets you from A to B, you're going to have a tough go of it.
The best thing about this movie is Harley Quinn. She's quirky and crazy and unpredictable and interesting. And she allows for a lot of nostalgia moments from the old Batman Animated Series and some comics, with alternate outfits, sayings, weapons, and even her actions. That said, she really has no reason to be there. She's a crazy chick with a bat. That's her ability. So, the idea that you have to let this psycho out of jail to fight super-powered demons (rather than the military) just doesn't make sense. At all.
Deadshot also gets a lot of screen-time, and while I don't know this to be true, it feels like that character's story was expanded because Will Smith was signed on and they wanted to take advantage of his star power. He's given a daughter and I believe we're supposed to root for his success, but that never really works, because he's a genuinely terrible person that you wouldn't want around kids and his interactions with his daughter seem to have the opposite of the intended effect. So, those attempts to ground him don't really work. Deadshot the character is funny and has some quippy lines, but when it slows down to dig deeper into motivations, there's not much there to like.
The only other character with any real backstory is Diablo, but he's way over-designed. He's a caricature of a 90s Mexican gang-banger, with terrible facial tattoos and a wife-beater. It's like something designed by Insane Clown Posse. He just looks dumb and he's supposed to want to change his ways, but the entire backstory is cringe-worthy. There are scenes where he's either fantasizing about a different life or having flashbacks and he still has the tattoos. It's just weird and I hate the character. His arc doesn't make sense and doesn't even really happen and he has a line in the film where I thought...this moment isn't earned and doesn't make sense.
And then there's Captain Boomerang. He has stupid skills, no backstory that matches the rest of the movie, and he doesn't do anything interesting or important. He's kind of funny sounding, when he rants, but the character doesn't need to exist.
The rest of the crowd is just there for exposition.
The villain sucks and seems like it's out of the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider movies. The plan sucks, and the way to defeat the villain is dumb and doesn't make sense either.
All of that said, and as messy as all this is:
There are fun little, strange vignettes about the characters that are entertaining. And as stupid as a lot of the actual A --> B plot is, the movie doesn't get bogged down in it or really even concern itself with explaining what the characters are doing or why any of it matters. Jared Leto's performance as Joker is a mix between Nicholson and Ledger with a little bit of Hot Topic thrown in. I don't care for the design, but appreciate the direction that they went. His relationship with Quinn is pretty abusive and nuts....sometimes the way they choose to show that abusiveness is odd and not how I'd handle it, but it certainly isn't boring.
Amanda Waller, the one in charge of putting together the squad, is another interesting character with some crazy moments. She brings some gravitas to the film, believe it or not.
It's a hard movie to recommend, because it's so broken and parts of it are disturbing, while others seem to shrug it off. In a vacuum, it's kind of a disaster, but knowing what came before and what could follow with these characters actually makes it kinda fun and something I ultimately am glad I saw. If you can let go of trying to go see a good movie, you will laugh and have some dumb, "fist-bump with your meathead bro" moments.
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