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Review: Suicide Squad

David Dizon, ABS-CBN News

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="350" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m0Xb9BhfVjY?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" width="510"></iframe></figure><p>Here&#x27;s the dealio with Suicide Squad, the new DCU movie from writer-director David Ayer (Fury, End of Watch). Is it better than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? Yes. Does it expand the DC Cinematic Universe? Yes, indeedy. Can you bring your kids to watch? It&#x27;s PG-13 so that&#x27;s a no. Is it the Pieta, the Rachmaninoff 3rd of the DCU movies? Not a chance, not with Justice League coming up. But it does serve a purpose. </p><p>Colorful, funny and a wee bit messy, Suicide Squad may be the antidote to the DC Universe&#x27;s grim and gritty comic book movies. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/lifestyle/8/3/suicide-squad-poster.jpg"/></figure></div><p>A Day-Glo nightmare with a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe, Suicide Squad detonates the dark tone of Zack Snyder&#x27;s two previous movies and injects the story with an extra helping of fun. Add to that four of the more interesting characters in the DC movies and you&#x27;ve got yourself a movie that could entice you back for seconds.</p><p>It wasn&#x27;t always like this. Zack Snyder, he of Watchmen and 300 fame, was supposed to provide the template for the future DC comicbook movie-verse, until Rotten Tomatoes and a 27% rotten rating brought this universe into early crisis. It was time for a course correction. </p><p>Suicide Squad is that correction. Gone are the washed out colors, the dour dialogue, the sonic overkill, the brutality. Here, we&#x27;ve got a surfeit of needle drops - one for each of the major characters; neon and blacklight color schemes, one-liners and (gasp) characters who actually smile! Suicide borrows at least one song (Spirit In the Sky) and one line from Guardians but it is its own beast. It&#x27;s got a messy third act and a B plot that&#x27;s total nonsense but story-wise, it&#x27;s not suicidal. </p><p>Suicide Squad gathers a murderer&#x27;s row of B and C-list villains - Deadshot (Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) - and puts them together, Mission Impossible-style, on an adventure that&#x27;s akin to signing their death warrants. It&#x27;s a concept straight from the 80s comic book by John Ostrander: force the bad guys to do black ops work in exchange for shortened prison sentences. With Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) as the leader and extra help from assassin-bodyguard Katana, the squad takes on an otherworldly threat that should be the problem of a certain Amazon, Kryptonian, Speedster, etc except that group of superfriends isn&#x27;t due till next year. </p><p>The movie examines the motivations on why these characters agree to work together against their better (worse?) judgments, and brings out a mixed bag.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/lifestyle/8/3/suicide-squad-deadshot.jpg"/></figure></div><p>Will Smith as Deadshot, the world&#x27;s greatest assassin, is the real deal here. In a universe where Superman is a mopey murderer and Batman brands his victims, it&#x27;s interesting to see that a guy like Deadshot would be the anti-hero that actually works, motivations and all, and deserves a follow-up movie. Deadshot&#x27;s first intro - a complicated kill using ricochets - shows his superpower but it is his relationship with his daughter that shows his humanity. It&#x27;s easy to dismiss Smith as a has-been after his recent films gave him less showy roles but here, he proves he&#x27;s still got superstar wattage. </p><p>Marketing may have centered on Margot Robbie&#x27;s Harley Quinn but it is Will Smith&#x27;s perfectly-timed wit that freshens up the dank and dour DCU. When he mows down an army of CGI blob people and everybody just stands and watches, you know - he&#x27;s the real MVP of this squad. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/lifestyle/8/3/ss-mrobbie_03.jpg"/></figure></div><p>The second big name in the movie, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, does not fare as well as Smith. Quinn, a creation from the Batman Animated Series, is supposed to come off as sassy and fun but several flashbacks show she&#x27;s got the darkest side of the group. She&#x27;s a psychologist with an obsession for the Joker (played by a surprisingly bland Jared Leto) and she is robbed of agency when the Clown Prince of Crime is in the picture. Suicide Squad earns its PG-13 rating on the Joker-Quinn sequences and flashbacks, which imply torture, sexual overtones and even a near-suicide. Director Ayer pushes the envelope here but still fails to show why we should care for Quinn or the Joker. There&#x27;s a whole B-plot where Joker works to save Quinn but you can excise that whole side story and not affect the main plot. </p><p>Ironically, the biggest baddie of all is the one whose only power is sheer ruthlessness. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is the head of ARGUS and it is her idea to gather a task force of meta-humans from Belle Reve prison to do America&#x27;s dirty work after the death of (spoiler!) Superman in the last movie. Waller is merciless to a degree that may even shock her cadre of bad guys. As Waller, Davis very rarely shows fear or uncertainty even when she&#x27;s recruiting superhumans who may be more interested in destroying the world than saving it. </p><p>Also worthy of note: Jay Hernandez as the pyrokinetic Diablo. This should have been a throwaway role in a movie that spends more time setting up the main characters while setting the stage for possible sequels. Diablo&#x27;s reticence to use his powers because of a tragic backstory actually sets him apart from the other Suiciders: he&#x27;s an unwilling participant that only cuts loose when the situation finally requires it. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/news-special1/lifestyle/8/3/suicide-squad-group.jpg"/></figure></div><p>The other squad members don&#x27;t fare as well: Boomerang, he with the Aussie accent and fetish for pink unicorns, never actually uses his razor sharp boomerangs in a way that counts as a superpower. Ditto with Harley Quinn and her baseball bat and giant hammer, or Flag with his guns. Croc gets one funny line and professes a love for BET but is otherwise unremarkable as the squad&#x27;s amphibious muscleman. Delevingne&#x27;s Enchantress is a scary character more fit for a horror movie; her turn as Flag&#x27;s love interest actually feels like a tacked-on studio note. And Katana? She talks to her sword while crying. In the rain. </p><p>Suicide Squad&#x27;s first half plays excellently; it&#x27;s the ending that Ayer fails to stick. Bottomline though, keep the moving parts, put a real story in the engine and this thing is good to go for another ride. Suicide Squad may be the &quot;worst heroes ever&quot; but their adventure may be the best thing that&#x27;s happened for the flagging DC Universe. </p>

Colorful, funny and a wee bit messy, Suicide Squad may be the antidote to the DC Universe's grim and gritty comic book movies.

Review: Suicide Squad

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Review: Suicide Squad

David Dizon,

ABS-CBN News

Published August 04, 2016 12:00 AM PHT

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Updated August 04, 2016 12:17 AM PHT

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Suicide squad

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