As the follow-up to “Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice,”
“Fury” director David Ayer’s DC Comics extravaganza “The Suicide Squad” (***
OUT OF ****) qualifies as a gritty, slam-bang, straight-faced, but formulaic action
thriller with some surprises. Although
far from realistic in an any conventional sense, Ayer’s ensemble epic casts a
dark shadow over everything that it depicts, and its unsavory psychotic felons
tangle with powerful mystical entities from an ancient era. Indeed, the chief villain is almost seven
thousand years old and she relies on magical incantations. Clearly, the ostensible difference between DC
Comics movies and Disney’s Marvel movies is night and day, with DC preferring
the dark, while Marvel basks in the daylight.
Unlike The House of Mouse’s Marvel costume-clad, crime fighters, “Squad”
doesn’t sugarcoat either its costume-clad convicts or their sinister shenanigans.
Interestingly enough, Twentieth Century Fox’s three Marvel franchises (“X-Men,”
“Fantastic Four,” and “Deadpool”) land somewhere between DC and Disney. Whereas the “Captain America: Civil War” characters
survived miraculously to fight another day, some “Suicide Squad” characters die. Meanwhile, the guys and gal that constitute
“The Suicide Six”—even by PG-13 standards—are not role models. Most of the “Suicide Squad” characters are as
repugnant as they are formidable, and I don’t mean just the heinous criminals
that the Government has recruited for Task Force X to perform their unscrupulous
chores. The trigger-happy dame, Amanda
Waller, who assembles these dastards, ranks as pretty despicable herself. In one scene, she murders in cold blood
several subordinates because they weren’t cleared to handle the information
that they were ordered to handle. Unless
you’re a literate DC Comics bibliophile, you may not be familiar with the
Suicide Squad; they bear some resemblance to Marvel Comics’ Avengers, but altogether
lack their charisma. At the same time,
Amanda Waller emerges as a version of Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. because she is
far less honorable than Fury when it comes to dealing with her underlings. Historically, the first “Suicide Squad” bore
little resemblance to the cinematic “Suicide Squad.” Captain Rick Flag and his girlfriend Karin
Grace, Dr. Hugh Evans, and Jess Bright battled monsters back in 1959 in DC
Comics’ “The Brave and The Bold.” They
were all humans and flew jet-bombers. In
1987, DC Comics’ Legends Crossover graphic series introduced the new “Suicide
Squad” that consisted of an assemblage of super-convicts, such as Captain
Boomerang, Deadshot, and Enchantress, similar to those in Ayer’s film.
As “Suicide Squad” unfolds, Superman is still dead and gone. Street vendors sell ‘Remember’ T-shirts commemorating
the last son of Krypton. Although Clark
Kent’s alter-ego doesn’t show up for this clash of the titans, anybody with
half-a-brain should know that Superman will eventually make an encore
appearance. Indeed, Warner Brothers and
DC Comics have plans in the pipeline for a “Man of Steel” sequel. Nevertheless, Superman is nowhere to be seen
here, and an unscrupulous, top-level government official, Amanda Waller (Viola
Davis of “The Help”), fears that the next extraterrestrials may not be as benevolent
as the Man of Steel. Consequently, she mobilizes
a gang of costume-clad, super-convicts that she classifies as “the worst of the
worst.” When she presents Task Force X,
the National Security Council initially wants nothing to do with it. The Pentagon thinks that Waller’s idea is foolhardy. In short order, Waller changes their minds. She dispatches one of her motley crew, the
witch-goddess Enchantress, aka June Moon (Cara Delevingne of “Paper Towns”), and
Enchantress swipes a top-secret document from the Weapons Ministry Vault in
Tehran that the Pentagon has been desperately trying to obtain by any means
possible. An ex-Arkham Asylum psychiatrist Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie of “Focus”);
a cream of the crop, crack-shot assassin Deadshot (Will Smith of “Concussion”);
a guilt-stricken pyromaniac gang-banger El Diablo (Jay Hernandez of “Hostel”); a
sociopathic Australian bank robber Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney of “Terminator
Genysis”); a mutant half-man, half-crocodile cannibal Killer Croc (Adewale
Akinnuoye-Agbaje of “Pompeii”); and a specialized assassin Slipknot (Adam Beach
of “Cowboys & Aliens”) comprise Waller’s group. Rounding out this diversified outfit of
unsavory savages is an implacable female ninja, Katana (Karen Fukuhara), armed
with a bizarre samurai sword which traps the souls of all who die by its blade. Actually, she serves to protect the group’s
commander, Special Forces Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman of “Robocop”), who
has a genius for strategic planning. Oddly
enough, Flag is involved romantically with June Moon, an archeologist who
blundered into the wrong cave and encountered the spirit of the Enchantress. Unlike the other members of the Suicide Squad
who bide their time in a miserable Louisiana dungeon isolated in a swamp, June
and the creepy Enchantress share the same body.
Think of the Enchantress and June Moon split-personality as a variation
on Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Whenever
Waller requires June to summon the Enchantress, this treacherous 7,000-year old
sorceress exerts control over June’s body.
Meantime, an elite team of Seals, led by Captain G.Q. Edwards (Scott
Eastwood of “Fury”), are around to mop up what the Suicide Squad doesn’t wipe
out. Most of G.Q.’s soldiers turn out to
be expendables as “The Suicide Squad” boasts a high body count.
“The Suicide Squad’’ differs from “Batman Vs Superman.” Although Batman appears momentarily in two scenes
while Bruce Wayne puts in a cameo appearance, the costume-clad convicts dominate
events in “The Suicide Squad.” They carry
or conceal standard-issue weapons, and their outfits aren’t as colorful as
either Batman or Superman. Basically, they are like an infantry squad that
infiltrates enemy territory. Ayers uses short but exciting scenes with
appropriate golden oldies hits to introduce the eponymous convicts. Deadshot lives up to his name. In one scene, he demonstrates his extremely
accurate marksmanship by pouring scores of bullets into the same holes that he
made with his first bullets. Colonel
Flag is visibly impressed. El Diablo
comes the closest to being a superhero because he can transform himself into an
incendiary human torch on impulse. Harley
Quinn is a total fruit loop but she is about as dangerous a lady as you can
imagine and uses her beauty to beguile men.
The one man that she beguiles the most is the Joker and he struggles to
keep a tight rein on her. Enchantress starts
out as a team player but she defects and makes a strong adversary. She can conjure up things out of thin air and
she can vanish in the blink of an eye and reappear where you least expect her. At one point, she summons the spirit of her
long-lost brother to help her subjugate mankind. Second, “The Suicide Squad” resembles a zombie
combat movie. Our anti-heroic team marches
through the apocalyptic wreckage of Midway City as if they were soldiers entering
a recently bombed city. The Witch-Goddess Enchantress possesses the power to
turn Flag’s own men against him. She kills
Flag’s soldiers and reconstitutes them as her hooligans. In this sense, Enchantress’ army behaves like
the zombies from “The Walking Dead,” and they whittle down our heroes. If a witch-goddess with an army of zombies
weren’t enough with which to contend, our heroes clash with the Joker (Jared
Leto of “The Dallas Buyers Club”) who pops up as a largely peripheral villain
to rescue his sweetheart Harley Quinn.
Essentially, “The Suicide Squad” pays tribute to two
cult films. First, director Robert Aldrich’s
World War II classic “The Dirty Dozen” (1967) concerned the U.S. Army
recruiting commandos from a death row military prison for a mission behind enemy
lines. No, Aldrich’s film was the first
one to use the idea that a government would give felons a chance to redeem
themselves. Movies like this go back as
far as the Errol Flynn pirate caper “The Sea Hawk” (1940). “Second, John
Carpenter’s “Escape From New York” (1981) clearly inspired director David
Ayers. In “Escape from New York,” the
authorities, led by Haulk (Lee Van Cleef of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”),
cut a deal with the deadliest man alive, Snake Plissken (Kirk Russell), to
rescue the President of the United States from evil criminals after Air Force
One crashed on an island prison, in exchange for commuting his death sentence. Just to make sure that Snake didn’t renege on
the deal, Haulk injected an explosive pellet into his neck designed to blow
Snake’s head off if he didn’t accomplish his mission. As you can see, “The Suicide Squad” borrowed
from the best. Actually, there isn’t a
bad performance in this offbeat film.
Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jay Hernandez, Viola Davis, and Jared Leto
take top acting honors. Clocking in at two hours and three minutes, “The
Suicide Squad” doesn’t provide enough detail about some characters, like Katana,
but director David Ayes doesn’t squander a second as he parades the convicts to
the brink of extinction.
