This Squad is Toast

Suicide Squad

Just the perfect piece for my little rant about how reviewers operate now-a-days.  Can there ever be a better Rorschach test for film critics and their petty political grievances and politically correct kowtowing than this movie?  First of all there are those on the left who are in an uproar because they don’t understand how we can glamorize the bizarre relationship that the Joker has with his minion Harley Quinn.  They get in an uproar that she does not seem to fit their modern notions of what role a woman should play.  She should be kicking butt and taking names and screw the Joker for all they care.  She should be the embodiment of female empowerment made manifest.  Let alone all of the machismo of all of the other males that are in the film that they hate and say is overstated or down-right chauvinistic.  They believe movies should be downplaying them and their antiquated attitudes.

And then there is the response from the critics on the right.  They say here is the perfect example of what a film should be.  It should be showing a woman in her fully empowered form with more traditional roles for males and females.  They say we should show a  different side of female empowerment.  Male and female should be complimentary forms and we as a society need to stop being so politically correct that we can’t enjoy a film anymore because it has to follow whatever the modern view of society people believe we should hold or else the film is a failure. 

And all I can say to both sides, whether they have legitimate viewpoints or not is: “what a load of crap?!?!?”  Seriously . . .  How can we take either side seriously in this argument?  Source material is what it is.  If you do not like the source material then I would suggest that you not watch the movie and leave it to enjoy or not enjoy for the rest of those who appreciate it.  I want to attack both sides in this flame war for forgetting about the film itself in favor of their own petty grievances.  We should be looking into the films greatness, or lack thereof in the context of the movie itself.  Is there anything great or redeeming about the movie?  What message does it carry . . . if any?  Or is it just for pure pleasure and enjoyment?

Now that I have gotten that diatribe out of the way, I will move on to the film itself.  Superman himself has died (or so the world is lead to believe).  And Amanda Walker, portrayed by a tough as nails(yes that’s incredibly cliché) Viola Davis, has the bright idea to use a group of super-villains with their own set of super human powers to stop any other evil alien forces who may make their way into the world.  She is not sure that the next “Superman” may be as benevolent as the last one.  And of course if you have any background in the plot of Superman, knowing that crazy Kryptonians like Zod may be running around, it’s not necessarily as bad of a plan as one may think.  And of course she adds her own little contingency plan to this measure, implanting a device in the neck of all of her “team” (think unwilling victims) that will explode with the force of a grenade should any of them survive and try to escape, or step out of line at any time.  And of course we get the obligatory super villain trying to escape, just to prove ensure we know how serious Walker really is.

Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and a late addition of Katana (Karen Fukuhara) are tasked by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Walker to destroy this evil witch (Enchantress played by Cara Delevingne) who has taken over the city with her gigantic robot like brother.  Of course all hell is about to break loose, and that says nothing about the “bad guys” who are tasked to destroy the real dangers of the post Superman world.  What could possibly go wrong?

Now if I am going to get into the weeds with this movie and try to analyze every little thing then I might not be able to sit back and enjoy the entertaining fluff for what it is.  Because to be honest, that is all that it is.  It’s entertainment.  Super bad guys tasked to destroy an even more powerful “super bad guy” or in this case super bad girl, have to fight themselves and the minions before going after the real evil in the city.  We could hyper-analyze the relationship between Harley Quinn and her Mr. J (Jared Leto).  And we could talk about the abusive or Stockholm like nature of the relationship.  From my perspective this actually adds to our connection with the characters because we can connect with Deadshot (love of family), Harley (romantic love), El Diablo (love of community and love of others), and see in them little tidbits of ourselves.  They are the most authentically humans around, more-so than Batman, and definitely more-so than Superman. But I don’t need to go there.  As with any fun movie there is introduction, action, conflict, action, conflict, more action, climax and resolution, or in this instance warped love conquers all.  You go Mr. J!  And we get to discover some new characters in some new settings and realize them for the complex souls that they are.  So that when they appear in the next Justice League, Batman, Superman, the Flash movie, we know that they are not the static characters that they so often are.  We get the depth that we want and need.

As for the acting itself, Will Smith is basically Will Smith, with great eyes and cool gadgets.  If you expect anything more or less, then you may not like it.  Margot Robbie and Jared Leto are a lot of fun in their role as star crossed (insane), lovers who cannot seem to keep away from each other.  And Viola Davis take no prisoners version of Walker certainly handles her own up against all of the firepower and repartee of the villains.  It’s good clean, albeit warped, fun.  And to try to read into it anything deeper tries to input your own biases onto the film and not reading the film for what it is.  Although if you want to pick apart one character I would say that Ben Affleck as Batman does leave something to be desired.  He doesn’t seem to add anything of substance to the role and you could have had anyone don the Batman costume and recite the lines and it would have been just as good.

While there might be some room for improvement with this "superhero" movie (nothing beats the Dark Knight in tone and intensity to me for superhero movies), you could do a heck of a lot worse than to enjoy a couple hours at the cinema watching Suicide Squad.  Enjoy it for what it is, not for what it is not.

This film is slightly toasty.

Three stars