Suicide Squad (2016) - Theatrical Review

Director: David Ayer

Cast: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis

Country: United States

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 127 min

Before 2016, Warner Bros. had only one film, 2013's Man of Steel, in their DC Cinematic Universe franchise. While the studio had been producing DC comic book adaptations for many years, it wasn't until after they completed Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy that they decided to throw standalone adaptations to the curb and commit to building their cinematic universe a-la Marvel Studios. After all, during the time that Warner produced Nolan's Batman films, while making just about no other successful comic book films (i.e. Superman Returns, Jonah Hex, Green Lantern), Marvel Studios came in out of nowhere and laid the ground work for what has now become an industry standard, separate films that all feature characters and stories within the same universe.

However, the studio kicked their universe expansion into high gear this year with the release of two massive event films, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (BvS) and Suicide Squad. While BvS made some money, it was a critically lambasted attempt at trying to copy Marvel's formula all within one film instead of building strong character relationships over multiple films. It was also an extraordinarily incoherent, overcrowded, and inexcusable comic book adaptation that squandered two of media's greatest heroes in a disappointing showdown, but that's besides the point. After DC put all of their eggs into one basket with BvS, and than instantly regretted it, the story changed: Suicide Squad was now the real start to the DC universe. Unlike the dour and remorse BvS, Suicide Squad was touted as a fun, energetic, humorous, and action packed thrill ride in comparison to that "oh so serious" tale of vigilantism. Now that it has finally come out, and the hype train has died once and for all, I can confirm that Suicide Squad is an improvement over BvS, but not by much. Director David Ayer's ensemble anti-hero picture may be an infectious and manic celebration of inanity and the psychopathic, but it's also an inept, overstuffed, and woefully paced summer blockbuster that ends the summer mostly on a whimper, and proves my strong willed opinion that the Summer of 2016 will go down as one of the worst summers in blockbuster history.

After two unnecessary introductions to both Harley Quinn and Deadshot, the film kicks into exposition gear as the rest of the Suicide Squad is laid out by Amanda Waller. Waller, a representative of the United States government, has assembled a team of criminals, evil-doers, and villains to accomplish tasks that few others would attempt. If the team survives and succeeds their mission, than they will receive time off of their prison sentences. If not, than they die. It's as simple as that. Unfortunately, Ayer over complicates matters with a plethora of characters and moving parts that turns a simple Dirty Dozen-esque action film into a poorly structured and plot focused mess that thankfully makes up for its mistakes in great strides, ultimately proving the film to be a missed opportunity, but a worthwhile one nonetheless.

The gang's all here, for disappointment.

The most obvious flaw of the picture is its inept structure, editing, and plotting, mostly due to the controversial reshoots that occurred earlier this year in the wake of BvS's critical lambasting. The first thirty minutes of the film are dreadfully weak, as Ayer forces the viewers through an exposition dump in which we are told everything that we need to know about a group of characters through narration and flashbacks instead of being naturally presented with the characters. After this painfully swift first act, the film finally moves into its groove as the main plot takes over and the group assembles in order to go after a supernatural villain who also does the movie no favors. This portion of the film is the strongest, but it's still a shame that Ayer has to keep the focus on the plight at hand instead of on the truly strong characters and their relationships and backstories. Whenever the squad went up against an army of avacado looking monsters, I mostly tuned out. However, whenever a flashback was offered up that explained a key component of a character's...well, character, I felt glued to the screen and simply wanted to soak in the conflict. There are some great characters and performances at work here, as well as a simple plot line somewhere amidst the desperate universe building moments (i.e. the Joker's unnecessary appearance throughout the film, Batman and The Flash's embarrassing cameos), but unfortunately, Ayer allows his men on a mission picture to crumble underneath a veil of incoherency and weak pacing.

Ayer is worth discussing, as he has always been one of cinema's more underrated, or at least rarely discussed filmmakers and artists, as his works typically don't aim to be more than character driven B-pictures. Before tackling big budget films like 2014's Fury and now Suicide Squad, Ayer mostly focused his work on small scaled, gritty, and urban cop and gangster pictures, such as The Fast and the Furious, Training Day, S.W.A.T., Harsh Times, Street Kings, End of Watch, and Sabotage. While his career is far from illustrious, although still highly admirable, Ayer has always been a reliable source of character driven and gun centric entertainment, whether he only penned a film's script or directed it as well. While Ayer does a fine job jumping from small to mega budget, it's a shame that his latest suffers from clashing tones, as well as obvious studio meddling. For example, the David Ayer-ness of the film, the street level story, gun centric action, and character driven nature, is the strongest. Unfortunately, this clashes with the more generic mainstream elements of the picture, such as the focus on plot and the bland special effects fueled villain. Whenever the Squad picks up a gun and goes head to head with a human or human sized opponent, it's solid stuff. But when the mystical villain of the picture takes center stage, I could not have cared less. In short, characters with guns, swords, hammers, and boomerangs should be the last people taking on ultra powerful supernatural beings, as it produces a mish mash of tones that don't blend well into one cohesive or distinguishable genre.

"Do you like my grills?"

Although I've mostly bashed on this film, and I still have more to criticize, I have a confession to make. Even though everything about this movie tells me that I should dislike it, there are elements of it that I unabashedly love, which thereby makes the whole movie that much more of a frustrating and missed opportunity. There are flat out excellent performances, engaging character relationships, and entrancing scenes within this overcrowded mess that reminded me why comic books are such great sources for character driven storytelling. After all, people turn out for comic books because of the characters who headline them, not the plot that they advertise.

Will Smith gives an excellent performance as Deadshot, an assassin who does what he does for his family and acts as the moral center of the film (this is a compliment you will read in just about every review of the film). It's nice to see Smith, who used to headline all kinds of blockbuster, simply act as a supporting player within a blockbuster, and honestly earn my respect and admiration more than ever before. Margot Robbie is probably the biggest and most popular takeaway from the film, especially for fans of the Batman character, Harley Quinn. It's a shame that her scenes and relationship with Jared Leto's The Joker aren't given more focus and attention, as they tend to be some of the film's strongest character moments. Jay Hernandez, whom is mostly recognizable from the Hostel movies, is nearly unrecognizable as Diablo, a tatted up ghetto Latino who generates immense pathos throughout the film and honestly steals the entire show out from everyone else. And Viola Davis, whose character is fairly cruel and to blame for the entire plight of the film, is strong and fierce as always. Just about every other character and performance is sidelined or fairly weak, and there is just so much real estate within a two hour film for ten or so characters to occupy. Don't even get me started on Slipknot.

Earlier I mentioned how studio meddling overly complicated the film and honestly ruined whatever vision Ayer had been building. The main reason for this studio meddling was due to the critical and commercial backlash that BvS received after its release. While the problem with the film was not that it was overly serious, as Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy was already tonally serious and extremely successful at the same time, Warner Bros. seemed to give in to peer pressure and try to make their latest film slightly more fun and energetic a-la the Marvel Studios brand, most notably Guardians of the Galaxy. Instead of crafting a film from the ground up, the studio went for what was popular and rejiggered their own film after making it with the help of a trailer company who compiled the film's trailer that dropped after BvS came out in order to sell that DC films could also be fun. YouTube Channel Red Letter Media's recent review of the film described it best, "It's as if Hot Topic threw up all over Guardians of the Galaxy."

Harley may have been brought to life, but she's hard to find in an overstuffed film.

Now that Warner is three films in with their DCU, I think it's worth mentioning that I've noticed a strong similarity amongst all of their films. They tend to have great moments, typically comprised of strong performance, strong direction, strong shot selection, and strong filmic score. For example, take the birth of Kal-El in the opening of Man of Steel. Regardless of what you think of that film, there is no way that you can watch that scene and not think that the mis-en-scene, including the score by Hans Zimmer, doesn't make it a memorable and emotional moment. Or even take the montage of Superman's heroics in BvS, which is quite beautiful and powerful. However, the problem with these moments is that they don't have a cohesive narrative to attach too. The consistent problem with all three of the DCU films is that they feature incoherent plots, over crowded casts, and special effects driven action that hampers the strong and memorable humane moments. Although their may be a memorable image here, or an emotional scene there, the DCU films are nothing more than that: moments, and moments aren't enough to string together an entire film, especially ones lacking narrative through lines altogether. Their films are tailor made for trailers, based solely on their imagery, which generates hype, and than produces big opening weekends no matter what. Overall, DCU films may be successfully grandiose, operatic, and bombastic in parts, but not from start to finish. Go back to filmmaking 101, Warner, it's as simple as that.

On a final note, I have to stress how this is one of the hardest edged PG-13's I have ever seen, especially for a "comic book superhero" film that is heavily attended by younger kids whose parents bring them to see the movie. While most PG-13 superhero films typically never go as far as one "shit," Suicide Squad drops the expletive, along with "pussy," several times throughout the film and never holds back. In fact, the song "Gangsta," that plays over Harley and The Joker's bath in a vat of chemicals drops even harsher language. Besides this, the film also tackles confronts rather adult issues, especially in the form of The Joker's abusive relationship with Harley that has been tamed down due to studio meddling. There's also a scene in the film where The Joker offers up Harley as a sex slave to a gangster played by Common. Yikes. And finally, there's also an extremely disturbing scene in the film where the male witch counterpart of The Enchantress grabs onto several innocent bystanders with his tentacles and morphs with their bodies in a gruesome sequence of body horror that seems lifted out of the same nightmares as John Carpenter's The Thing or David Cronenberg's The Fly. That horrific moment, along with the adult language and themes, proves that the MPAA rating system truly needs a new rating in between PG-13 and R, just as there was a paradigm shift in the 80s with the introduction of PG-13.

Who would have thought that Will Smith would be the film's saving grace?

Although Suicide Squad may have its moments, and believe me it does, the cons strongly outweigh the pros of this anti-hero mash up. A gleeful sense of energy, strong performances, and occasionally engaging character moments aren't enough to save this incoherent and over stuffed anti-hero ensemble that has been ruined by obvious post-production studio meddling. The initial cut of the film that was probably assembled before the reshoots and trailers were dropped could have made for a cohesive film, but just like Josh Trank's initial cut of Fantastic Four, we may never see it. Better luck next time DC. At least Wonder Woman looks focused and singular.

Rating: 3.5/10 - Better luck next time DC. Although, if I were to apply the age old statement, "three strikes and you're out," DC is officially out.

Man of Steel (2013) - Review

If only the film were as good as this Mondo poster.

Director: Zack Snyder

Cast: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne

Country: United States / United Kingdom

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 143 min

In honor of the highly anticipated pseudo sequel/blatant cash grab, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I decided to revisit Warner Bros' first film in their DC extended universe, Man of Steel. Directed by Hack Zack Snyder of 300 and Watchmen fame, Man of Steel immediately became one of the most divisive superhero films ever made upon its initial release. Unsurprisingly, the film is still divisive years later, with some claiming the film to be a masterpiece and others despising the film to its core for its alterations of the character. While I was one of the people who disliked the film upon its release and have yet to see it since, I decided to give the film a second watch a solid three years later in order to reevaluate my opinion in the wake of Batman v Superman. 

Unfortunately, my opinion still stands. Man of Steel is just as exhaustive, manipulative, and overlong as I remember it to be. Snyder, much like the equally maligned and divisive Michael Bay, knows neither restraint nor subtlety when it comes to his film's thematic implications and action sequences. Not only does the man fail to understand pace, but he also can't grasp that a climax should only last a finite amount of a time, not a whopping 45 minutes in length! Still, even with Man of Steel's immense flaws, the superhero epic is occasionally a shining ray of hope, especially in the form of an incredible score by Hans Zimmer and solid performances by Kevin Costner (The Untouchables), Russell Crowe (Gladiator), and Michael Shannon (99 Homes). Otherwise, Man of Steel has done nothing but remind me of the pains I felt when I saw it the first time.

I honestly forgot all about this amazing prologue by the film's end.

Before I get into the review, I thought that I would explain my history with the Superman character in order to explain my reading and opinion of the film. After all, Superman is widely considered to be the most iconic comic book superhero of all time. In all honesty, I have never been a big fan of the character, although I have never disliked him either. Growing up, I was always a Spider-Man or a Batman kind of guy because I found their characters more relatable, as well as more grounded in the type of realism that I gravitate towards. Therefore, Superman and his invincible powers have always left me distant from him. 

As far as Superman media comes, I was a big fan of the Richard Fleischer Superman cartoons as a child and still am; not because they feature Superman, but because I adore their animation style and old fashioned tales of heroism. As far as live action Superman tales go, I have seen no Superman television series, and only two of the previous theatrical adaptations, Richard Donner's widely beloved, Superman: The Movie, and Bryan Singer's hugely divisive but cute, Superman Returns. Therefore, understand that I myself have a brief understanding of the character, although I am no authority in any way, shape, or form. And now, for the review...

Man of Steel opens up with an immensely memorable and powerful prologue that depicts the fall of Krypton and sets up Superman's origin as an alien on planet Earth. I personally believe that the rest of the film does not stack up to the amount of tragedy, emotion, and excitement on display in the opening 20 minutes. It's truly a Shakespearian tragedy, and proof that Superman's origin is one of, if not the, greatest superhero origin of all time. The opening prologue is unabashedly hardcore science fiction thanks to its fantastical creatures and technologically advanced gizmos, something that I always admire in a studio picture (i.e. see Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim for more unabashed hard core science fiction). For all of the complaints that I am going to lay out against Snyder, I can whole heartedly admit that he knocks this prologue out of the park. 

BTW: big black penises shoot into outer space in this movie.

It's important to note that Man of Steel was produced by Christopher Nolan, the writer and director of Warner Bros' massively acclaimed and successful Dark Knight Trilogy (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises). It was also written by David S. Goyer, the co-screenwriter of Nolan's Batman films. Therefore, it comes as no surprise once Man of Steel starts incorporating numerous Batman Begins-styled flashbacks that bounce back and forth between the present and the past in order to explain Superman's upbringing. It is within these flashbacks that we get the bulk of Superman's adoptive parenting from his Earth dad, Jonathan (Kevin Costner), and Earth mom, Martha (Diane Lane). In all honesty, Man of Steel feels more like a Nolan film than it does a Snyder film with its dark color palette, usage of flashbacks, and brooding characters. There's no denying that Nolan's fingerprints are all over this movie, especially because it operates as a movie long origin story, something that comic book fans have grown immensely tired of.

After the amazing opening prologue and several Nolan-esque flashbacks, the plot kicks into gear once Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman (Henry Cavil), all grown up and handsome, goes in search of his origins. When he discovers an old Kryptonian ship in the Arctic, he accidentally triggers the reappearance of General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his soldiers. They come to Earth searching for Kal in order to extract the codex, the Kryptonian genome and history of their planet, that Jor-El (Russell Crowe), embedded into his cells upon saving him from Krypton's destruction. What follows is a massive alien invasion in which Superman and the United States Military fight against Zod and his soldiers in order to preserve Earth, or at least what is left of it after Metropolis suffers a nearly post-apocalyptic level of destruction.

The casting of the film is quite excellent, with mostly everyone perfectly embodying their roles despite the lackluster direction or script they had to work with from Snyder and Goyer. Cavil, more or less a newcomer at the time of the film's release, is very good as Superman, although he portrays a far more foreboding and dark Superman than any to come before him. Gone are the days of color and joy, as seen through Donner's heartwarming Superman adaptations and Christopher Reeve's iconic performance. Nowadays, everything tends to be dark and foreboding, which is a shame as it has been quite a while since 9/11 struck and sucked all of the fun and violence out of blockbuster cinema. Regardless, Cavil makes for a solid leading man, and I for one fully support him as Superman. Although, he is never exactly referred to as Superman in the film, just saying.

Supporting performances by Costner as Superman's Earth dad and Crowe as his Kryptonian dad are without a doubt the biggest take aways of the film. Each embodies a different type of parenting style and sacrifices themselves for Superman's well being. Lane is fine as his mom, Amy Adams is decent as Lois Lane, and Shannon is solid as Zod, a surprisingly well defined and highly motivated villain. The only characters who barely make an impact on the film are the employees of the Daily Planet, as few of them get any screen time and easily could have been left out of the picture altogether. I still laugh every time at the scene where Metropolis has already been under attack for over ten minutes, and Perry Mason declares, "Okay everyone, we are leaving," as if they all had to wait for his instruction. Trust me, I would have been out of there at the sign of the first attack. Unfortunately, Man of Steel is nothing but down hill from there.

This was me towards the end of the film, nearly asleep.

Man of Steel features oodles of flaws that make me grind my teeth. Here is a list of everything in the film that rubs me the wrong way: the overly digital action is shot in a particularly shaky manner, the color scheme of the entire film is drained to pure desaturation, the attempts at humor are lame and unnecessary, the entire film is overly manipulative and thinks it is important, the thematic implications are overtly obvious (i.e. the Christ stuff), the product placement is horrendous, and a majority of the film's action scenes, almost all found within the final hour, are boring.

Once Man of Steel moves into its final hour, the entire picture crumbles a part and turns into what I like to call a "third act build up film" of the worst kind. A "third act build up film" is a film that saves all of its action, energy, and special effects for the very end in order to send off everyone on a high note, almost as a way of thanking the viewer for sitting through the awfully slow and dull first half of the film. The worst offenders of this kind include all of Michael Bay's Transformers films as well as Mission: Impossible II (note: successful films of this style; The Matrix, District 9, Hard Target). If you were mistaken, you might think that Man of Steel is a Bay film in and of itself with its immensely long finale, extensive alien invasion, and strong military presence, albeit more mature and deadly serious in comparison to Bay's canon. 

In all honesty, the final hour of destruction and sci-fi violence featured in Man of Steel is one of the most exhausting and grueling experiences in cinematic history. While one may find themselves invested in the initial attack in which Superman fights two of Zod's soldiers in Smallville, all investment and dedication to the picture goes out the window once Zod unleashes the world building machine upon Metropolis and partakes in one of the most devastating depictions of disaster movie destruction ever to grace the screen. Man of Steel might be the only superhero film to turn into a full blown disaster film by its end, which is not exactly what I go to superhero cinema for, to be honest. 

However, just when you thought the film's onslaught of action was over, Snyder saves Superman's penultimate showdown with Zod for the very end of the picture, thereby stacking three massive computer generated set pieces back to back with no breaks in between them. I have to confess that viewing Man of Steel a second time honestly felt like a homework assignment. By the time Superman and Zod started to fight, I got up and started to do things around the house as the film played in the background. You couldn't pay me to be invested in that overlong fight of super powered heroics and villainy. The film had already exhausted all of its energy by the conclusion of the alien invasion. That another fight scene is saved for the end of the picture truly baffles me. Without a doubt, Man of Steel's finale is a complete and honest to goodness endurance test if there ever was one.

Me = On the Left / Snyder = On the Right

It's a shame that Snyder's Man of Steel is such a lopsided picture undeserved of Hans Zimmer's honest to goodness masterpiece of filmic music and heroic motifs. Say what you will about Zimmer as a person and a composer, but the ensemble of music compiled for this picture almost makes up for the plentiful story problems. There are a few moments of cinematic greatness in the film, such as Kal's birth, his discovery of his origin, as well as his first time flying, that benefit from the sheer emotion of Zimmer's excellent score. But alas, that is only a few scenes, and scenes aren't enough to save an entire picture, let alone one that is half dominated by a single epic action sequence.

At the end of the day, Man of Steel is one quarter Shakespearian tragedy (the fall of Krypton), one quarter superhero origin story (Supes growing up on Earth), and two quarters alien invasion movie (Zod's attack on Earth). To be honest, I only find one half of this film, the first half, to be tolerable and engaging. The second half is nothing but torture for me. While I respect other people's opinions about the film, there is simply no way that I will ever come to believe that Man of Steel is a masterpiece, let alone in my life time. As for the haters and detractors, I'm all ears. Unless 9/11 inspired death and devastation is your cup of tea, stay away from Snyder's Man of Steel.

Rating: 4/10 - One of the most exhausting and overlong superhero films to date. Moments of raw emotion from several great performers and Zimmer's score shine through the mess though.

Franchise
Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016)