3.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for violence, dramatic intensity, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and brief profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 8.5.16
E.M. Nathanson deserves the
credit, and nobody has the faintest idea who he is.
He wrote the best-selling 1965
WWII thriller, The Dirty Dozen, which
director Robert Aldrich turned into a crackling action film two years later.
With the template firmly established — that of disgraced convict soldiers sent
on a suicide mission, with the promise of commuted sentences for any survivors
— numerous books and films have “borrowed” the premise, often to crowd-pleasing
results.
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| Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, center top) has his hands full, trying to control the behavior of his misfit squad: clockwise from upper right, Deadshot (Will Smith), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Katana (Karen Fukuhara), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) |
Those crowds include comic book
readers, particularly with the 2007 re-boot of this concept in DC’s Superman
universe.
And why not? Bad guys always get
the best lines, and there’s no questioning the vicarious thrill of watching
villains allowed to behave
reprehensibly.
As one of this new film’s
characters impertinently explains, following a minor transgression: “We’re bad
guys. It’s what we do.”
The audaciously irreverent
big-screen adaptation of Suicide Squad
has plenty of snarky allure, in great part thanks to Margot Robbie’s
captivating star turn as the sexy, salacious and gleefully homicidal Harley
Quinn. As any longtime comic book fan will attest, Robbie nails the character, with all of her cherubic, psychopathic
charisma. Harley revels in her over-the-top awfulness, and Robbie embraces the
role with lustful fury.
Comic book movies very rarely get
remembered by Academy voters, but this one should; Robbie’s performance here
makes the movie.
She gets a strong assist from
Will Smith, doing an equally fine job with the more difficult role of Floyd
Lawton, better known as ace assassin Deadshot. Most of the time, Lawton has no
problem with killing at the behest of the highest bidder, but he hates being
viewed in a negative light by his estranged but still devoted adolescent
daughter, Zoe (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon, touching in a brief performance).
Smith, as a result, must navigate
the more delicate waters of a conflicted soul: a bad guy who might possess a shred of nobility.
But we’re getting ahead of
things. To the plot:
As the next installment in DC
movie continuity, Suicide Squad —
directed and scripted by David Ayer — takes place in the aftermath of early
spring’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which concluded as Big Blue was dealt a mortal blow by a Kryptonite
spear. The U.S. government, in something of a panic, worries how a world
without Superman could defeat the next hyper-powered adversary.
