Suicide Squad (2016)

Suicide Squad (2016)

Cast: Will Smith, Ben Affleck, Jared Leto, Viola Davis

Directed by David Ayer

Review by Zulfiqar (1.5/5)

            Warner Brothers is under a lot of pressure at the failing franchises of its superheroes. While BvS was a clear miss earlier this year from the Box Office mark, Suicide Squad is a nail in the coffin. It suffers from many points. The game certainly changed after ‘Dark Knight’ came, but look how ‘Avengers’ slipped past the rules of that game. While ‘Dark Knight’ was a precise infusion of daily life with modern norms into the superhero genre, Avengers too gave that element but while adding the fantasy elements. It embraced the stupidity of it with quips and puns and was completely comfortable with it. ‘Suicide Squad’ along with ‘BvS’ hangs somewhere between them and thereby axes its own toe.

            The story, I won’t go into it, not for good reasons but because it isn’t something easy to explain to. For example, why would enchantress be contained by a human called Amanda Waller? She (enchantress) has telepathic, telekinetic powers and yet, she becomes a puppet for a manipulator cum FBI agent for a ridiculous cause, which is that the latter has her heart. There is certainly some inquisitiveness of how a human could manipulate a superlative being. Amanda Waller is considered one of the best villains of the comic world. It is because of her control over the strengths of the others with her intellect like Lex Luther. But I don’t think it looks so probable here. The group called suicide squad are barely etched in detail. I would empathize with the general explanation that time constraint is a huge entity to sabotage the attempt. But then we have seen Avengers and captain America, where the characters have a lot more spirit and character though they are oodles in number.

The group is herded by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who has no superpowers but has intelligence and knowledge regarding her members. She uses this to box them into a team, pulling them from their prisons and sending them on a mission with a promise to try reduce their sentences. But a criminal is always a criminal. The members of this antihero group are Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) – a psychotic criminal with killer instincts, el Diablo (Jay Hernandez) – pyro-based energies, Boomerang (Jai Courtney) – thief with good hand at handling his weapon, Deadshot (Will smith) –obsessive marksmen, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje)- cannibalistic skin hardened rumplestintskin-isque savage, and some others. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnamon) leads this group under the orders of Waller. And oh, by the way he is the lover of June Moone (Cara Delevingne), who acts as body base for the spirit of enchantress. To rid June of this nasty 5000 year old witch with devastating powers, Flag agrees to take up the mission. But Waller being a great strategist, who takes all elements into the equation, appoints Katana (Karen Fukuhara) to watch over the a** of Flag. Each one in the group is shot a powerful explosive into the neck, which will be detonated if any of them turns rogue. All this happens within an hour. Batman springs in occasionally at the start to fill in the backgrounds of some characters, but mostly for the whims of the producers to get the extra fans of our gotham’s hero into the theatres. Through all this mayhem, the characters backbite, guffaw and fight with each other, which doesn’t make much sense.

Suicide Squad are a bevy of supervillains, or antiheroes, as it later explains, but deadshot (Will Smith) looks to have more heart. He, for me, looks a hero. Killer Croc is something I clearly miss in figuring out. How is he taking orders when his very psychology is different? The story jumps from point A to point B, before we understand what is point A and B. there is no underlying deep psychology for the characters and their means to take the mission are personal and trivial, which reduces the enthusiasm for watching the flick. But what is most embarrassing is the chemistry between Joker (Jared Leto) and Harley Quinn. Their romance is devious, perverted and queasy, which doesn’t want to be included in the genre of movies, where kids are drawn towards.

Much hue and cry had been made regarding the role of Joker and how Jared Leto prepared for it. Whatever method acting routine he had taken, it doesn’t seem to come to fruition with the way joker is emphasized in the movie. He is more caricature-ish than mentally evolving. His acting is more like an exhibition for his psychological nature rather than something to do with the story. In fact he has very less to do with it. He is in here for the same purposes as Batman. Heath Ledger’s character is a mental dynamite with his plots and schemes as dangerous and sudden as they are witty and thought provoking. But Jared Leto showcases his metal dentures and the smile on his hand rather than anything. The only positive thing about him is his laugh. I have read on the net that the hair on the head is the only thing that he hasn’t shaved off. If this is the sort of advertising you are going to do for a film or a character, then all one can say is that it is a symbol of desperation devoid of the real stuff.

Even then Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is hilarious and psychotic in equal amounts. She incites humour and dread while at the same time defining Harley Quinn’s nature. Will smith’s Deadshot is credible among all the mayhem. He has his old charm about him which knocks some sense into the picture. The thing which hurts the movie most is the selection of its villain. After BvS’s climactic episode which has a bobble-ing giant for the bad guy, enchantress’s minions aren’t such a step-up. They don’t work with the childish motivations and guileless schemes of enchantress. Mercy to us as Batman later wants his hands on something called ‘metahumans’. My God! Will Wonder-Woman deliver the producers from this perdition?