Bat Noir

“The World’s Greatest Detective.” 

It’s one of the many nicknames associated with Batman, yet it’s the one that Hollywood has cared the least about. “The Caped Crusader” has been the starting point for any Batman script, always the story of a lonely warrior on a quest for justice all while wearing a thin curtain on his back. “The Dark Knight” is so omnipresent, it’s the one thing that keeps Batman in the realm of movies made for grown-ups. But few (if any) of the winged freak’s numerous live action movies have shown or developed Bruce Wayne’s skills that aren’t intimidation or violence. Not that those aren’t fun things to see (who wouldn’t want to see a guy in a makeshift fighter jet dropping missiles on a crazy clown?), but lately it’s been showing the signs of how little you can do with Batman on the big screen. It makes you wonder what would happen if Batman was dropped into another kind of movie like, say, a noir detective mystery? Or a hardened crime thriller?

For better or worse, you can wonder no more. The Batman sees its titular hero (Robert Battin-sorry, Pattinson) two years into his tenure as the Big Black Bat. He’s not a widely-known name in Gotham City, but popular enough to strike fear in the hearts of every streetwalking criminal that sees a dark corner. The only ally he has in the streets is Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright), who brings Batman onto the scene of a brutal murder of a local politician with mysterious clues, one even addressed to the Bat himself. Though his faithful butler Alfred (Andy Serkis) wants him to focus on his family’s fortune, Bruce Wayne starts to untangle the web of haunting clues left by the so-called Riddler (Paul Dano) and how his alter ego factors into it. One who also supposedly factors into it is Oz Cobblepot (Colin Farrell), a mid-level Gotham gangster who oversees the lewd nightlife of the city’s cops, attorneys and other high-ranking officials. But Batman’s not the only one on the case, as the alluring Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) is trying to infiltrate Cobblepot’s organization to help a friend and maybe score some money on the side.

Commendations should be given to co-writer/director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, War of the Planet of the Apes), who fully commits to putting Batman in the world of a classic noir detective thriller. The influences are very obvious, from Pattinson’s droll narration reminiscent of Harrison Ford in Blade Runner to coded clues that harken back to Zodiac. Hell, Reeves owes a lot of royalties to David Fincher as Zodiac and especially Seven are the most blatant inspirations on display. From the near-constant rainfall flooding Gotham city to Riddler’s hideout looking exactly like John Doe’s manic apartment setup, you’re almost waiting for Batman to scream “WHAT’S IN THE BOX” when he finally comes face-to-face with the spectacled supervillain. While it borders on plagiarism, the world of The Batman is fully-realized and does a good job setting the mood (and the rules) of this particular movie’s universe. There’s an endless sea of corruption at the top of Gotham that feeds the scum roaming the alleyways, but Reeves doesn’t wink at the audience to let them know the fun of Batman’s crime fighting is on the way. Even the moments of brightness are harsh on the characters’ faces, like they’d rather scurry back into shadows with the rest of Gotham’s rats. You just sit in Gotham’s stew of decaying buildings and low-lit sidewalks fully accepting that even an avenging hero has to get blood on his hands to see justice done.

Speaking of said hero, sadly, the biggest problem with The Batman is Batman himself. Almost everything in The Batman works, from the fully-realized setting to the practical-looking action scenes (especially in the finale) to the well-timed use of lighting and especially one of the best scores a Batman movie has ever had courtesy of Michael Giacchino (Up, Star Trek Beyond, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). And yet all of that is thrown off whenever the guy in the hulking batsuit shows up. It’s nice when Batman has the methods or even just the aura of a cool private investigator, but there’s something truly odd about a man dressed as a bat literally knocking on the front door of a nightclub and trying to look imposing. As cute as it is to see Batman and Gordon having great chemistry while examining evidence, seeing Battinson’s plastic ears huddled between the grumpiest of Gotham’s cops borders on farcical. Reeves’s commitment to the noir detective thriller style has robbed this Batman a lot of his mystique. If this was just Pattinson in a trench coat smoking cigarettes in the moonlight and trying to take down a corrupt Mayor of some sort, say a modern day Chinatown, it would be a wickedly enjoyable stylized thriller. So while the movie’s structure is solid, Batman’s presence throws things for a loop. 

Balance has always been a problem in Batman movies, specifically when their directors lose focus on the Caped Crusader and let his surrounding elements overtake the story. Tim Burton cared more about how his grotesque kinky freaks ran wild in Batman Returns, Joel Schumacher let gaudiness be the guiding force during his Batman tenure and even Christopher Nolan could barely find a spot for Bats in the bloat of The Dark Knight Rises. The problem with The Batman script by Reeves and Peter Craig (The Town, Bad Boys for Life) is that they have two really good, but underdeveloped stories mushed into each other without ever really gelling. There’s Batman the mob hunter, working with Selina Kyle to take on Gotham’s criminal empire (complete with an excellent supporting turn by John Turturro as mob boss Carmine Falcone) as his first big challenge in the batsuit. Then there’s Batman the gumshoe, following the breadcrumbs laid out by the Riddler and trying to discover if his violent nightlife is helping or hurting Gotham. It gives the movie’s pace a one step forward, two steps back dynamic, where every time we get some enticing development to the mob story, we have to stop and give some time to the Riddler story and vice versa. Either one of those stories could make for their own solo Batman movie, not to mention more time to develop this new version of Bruce Wayne, but making the audience stop one to go back to the other makes what could’ve been a tight and fleshed-out two hour adventure an overlong 174-minute mystery that is both bold and underwhelming. You end up admiring specific parts of The Batman rather than how the movie flows as a whole. 

That’s nothing to do with the performances here. Pattinson in the batsuit may look awkward at first, but he develops a presence that is equal parts patient and intimidating. He glides through scenes with a cool, assured attitude that is unique to his own take while also fitting the mood of Batman’s character. He says very little behind the cape and cowl because his eyes pierce through everything he looks at and his bits of aggression break through in very tense ways. It’s a shame that the near three-hour running time doesn’t give him more time to give his take on Bruce Wayne more than just clothed brooding and shirtless brooding. If that’s not enough sex appeal for your comic book movie, Kravitz carries that load with ease. Her Selina Kyle could lead her own spy thriller as she walks into every scene with an immediate alluring aura. Kravitz has had off-the-charts screen charisma in movies for years and the sleazy scuzz all throughout The Batman gives her the chance to toy and then topple over her co-stars. Wright is great as Jim Gordon, fulfilling the role of being the grounded, more-human foil to Batman’s intensity. You get the sense that this early version of Gordon and Batman’s relationship is more like a buddy cop dynamic rather than Batman just using Gordon as a means to an end. Farrell is having the time of his life as Cobblepot, breaking through the confines of his makeup (and lack of smoking) to thrive as a Joe Mantegna understudy. Dano’s approach to the Riddler as some sort of faux intellectual turned unhinged Internet terrorist has moments of terrifying intensity. His first appearance in the movie is a scarier Michael Meyers homage than anything in the recent Halloween soft reboots. He takes his time to truly relish in how hopelessly unprepared Batman is when they come face-to-face, though there are a few moments where he plays things a bit too crazy, like a Warner Bros. producer is telling him off-camera to just do Heath Ledger’s Joker. 

There is a lot to like in The Batman and given how desperate Warner Bros. has been in the past to catch-up to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s good to know they’re still willing to let a filmmaker craft a DC movie that’s so singular. It actually harkens back to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, also a radical reimagining of a timeless superhero that had plenty of problems, but dared to be something different. While its influences are obvious and once again thinks an overload of story makes for an engrossing movie, The Batman has elements to it that are exciting enough to follow-up on in a sequel. In terms of Batman movies, it actually has more in common with Batman Begins as a starting point for a new era of the Caped Crusader. He’s intense but caring and truly earns the title of hero by the movie’s finale, and that’s enough to be satisfied, if not entirely thrilled, by the exhaustive journey into Gotham’s heart of darkness. It’s nice that we’ve seen the entire complex canvas that Reeves has painted, but getting us to keep coming back to it means he (or whoever else takes the reins of the franchise) has to know what to focus on. And it’s hard to miss a winged freak flying on rooftops.

3/4

Injustice For All

Ever since Man of Steel came out four years ago to mixed reviews, fans of the DC Extended Universe have been steadfast in defending the films of the Superfriends. A common defense used by these devotees, especially when comparing them to the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has been that the big-screen adaptations of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and co. are “dark,” “gritty,” “mature” and the most commonly used of all, “real.” They see the MCU movies made for little kids to sell toys at the Disney Store (which they’re not wrong on that part) while the DCEU is for grown-ups with smart, deep and complex storylines about what would happen if superheroes lived in the real world.

 

Now with Justice League, the grand superhero team-up of DC Comics that finally hits theaters this weekend, I hope to see those same DCEU fans out in droves to see it. And I hope to see them on social media defying the “biased” critics who’ve called their movies “poorly-made” or “convoluted” or “depressing” or just plain “awful.” Those fans who’ve insulted or talked-down to those who even have a moderate distaste for the DCEU, protested negative reviews or who’ve straight-up bullied those that have seemingly missed the point of these complex masterpieces of filmmaking. I can’t wait to see how do a complete 180-turn and vehemently defend one of the most saccharine, safe, glossy and goofy pieces of schlock trash I’ve ever seen. Sorry boys and girls, holding your capes close and your comic books closer, but Justice League sucks……hard.

 

After the traumatic events of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, specifically the death of Superman (Henry Cavill), the world hangs it head in gloom. But Batman (Ben Affleck) still fears a greater danger on the horizon, so he and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) trek the world looking for more superheroes to recruit. They find the skittish introvert Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller), the cocky dude-bro Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and the sullen Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher). This team’s assemblance is perfect timing, as the ancient intergalactic conqueror Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) arrives on Earth to collect three Mother Boxes that, if combined, could destroy the Earth.

It really is stunning how terrified Warner Bros. and DC are of Disney and Marvel Studios. They set such high expectations for Man of Steel and Dawn of Justice and when those became two of the most divisive blockbusters of the new millennium and not meeting the financial hopes the studios had in mind, they had no problem showing how desperate they were to be liked. The studio was deeply committed to the grim visual aesthetic of director Zack Snyder but after his takes on Superman and Batman didn’t rake in a billion dollars each, it had no problem putting Snyder on a leash. Justice League shows that WB and DC are so terrified of losing money and merchandise to the Marvel mega conglomerate that they gave up on the “dark gritty realism” of Snyder’s vision and told him to shut up and make a movie with the intelligence and imagination of a G.I. Joe cartoon.

 

Like Dawn of Justice, Justice League doesn’t look or feel like a Zack Snyder movie at all. Say what you will about his style, but it’s significant and unique: he builds dramatic heft through his eye for visuals, loves him some slow-motion effects, and shoots his leads with the bravado of the Greek Gods. Here, he doesn’t give his movie any room to breathe between scenes or build any sense of dramatic weight. Characters just show up in scenes without any grand form of reveal or presentation, no thanks to the choppy and disorienting editing. It’s as if the movie thinks that The Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman already had their own solo movies before Justice League so there’s no need to give them any kind of heroic debut despite it being the ACTUAL CINEMATIC DEBUT of all three characters. It’s quite clear this movie was edited down from a longer runtime, seemingly out of fear of losing the audience’s attention or the fact that the movie wants to get itself over with as soon as possible. The visual style transition, compared to the previous DCEU films, is also jarring. Whereas the previous films had the characters blend in with the muted colors and grey backdrop, here the color tones on the characters are amplified to a bright glow, making them stick out from the mostly green-screened backgrounds all the more.

 

It’s a sudden and forced whiplash in both filmmaking and story structure. Oscar-winner Chris Terrio (Argo) is once again stuck with trying to juggle the introductions of multiple new characters, their interactions with each other, establishing them as individuals, creating a cohesive plot and making our lead superheros likable. While in Dawn of Justice he was stuck with David S. Goyer’s grim and convoluted structure, the studio mandate for a lighter tone and brisker pace needed for Justice League scored rewrites by none other than Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Firefly). While Whedon subbed in behind the director’s chair for reshoots after Snyder stepped down for a family emergency, the former Marvel man’s fingerprints are all over the script. There are more quips and jokes this time around and spread to all characters, making this feel much more like an action comedy than a hefty action epic. Though much like recent Marvel films Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok, the movie’s desperate need to get belly laughs from the audience undercut many dramatic moments. And fun is in higher demand this time around, as the movie’s story is horribly paced without any smooth flow or transition. While I understand most of today’s iPhone generation have the attention span of gnats and can rarely stand a movie longer than two hours, Justice League needs two-and-a-half hours to set all of its dominoes up properly. Instead, the movie’s plot twists, character development, action and emotion whiz by without any time to hit home.

If it feels like there’s more to talk about on the technical side of things than on the performance side, that’s the right feeling to have when it comes to the cast. Ben Affleck, arguably the leader of the pack, is moseying along to pick up the rest of the cast and give little speeches here and there about the importance of hope and impending doom and such. He was the lone bright spot in Dawn of Justice as the older, war-torn Batman, but there’s just not enough here for him to sink his teeth into. Gal Gadot, who fully blossomed into her shield and sword earlier this year, is a much stronger presence as Wonder Woman and the only one who has a complete and important character. Ezra Miller is borderline annoying as The Flash, a petulant wimp who gets the occasional funny line and a rather-rushed “zero to hero” character arc. While spazzy comedy is something entwined with The Flash’s character, Miller has less charisma and more childish energy that doesn’t build a strong screen presence. Newcomer Ray Fisher is still very green as he doesn’t bring much charisma or screen presence either, despite being a partially-crucial part of the plot. Steppenwolf is by far one of the weakest villains in superhero movie history with bored motivation, unspecified abilities and bland fight scenes with the heroes. Surprisingly, the ace of the bunch is the once-Dothraki lord Jason Momoa as the macho King of Atlantis. While it’s questionable as to how faithful his portrayal of Aquaman is to the comics, he oozes the charisma of a classic adventure hero in his ambivalence to the doom around him. While the other heroes are trying to be loose and funny, his quips and coolness is the most believable.

 
But through all the quips, the impressive hero costumes and the chaos of the climactic final battle, Justice League is desperate to be liked with nothing tangible to grab onto. It’s boring, bland, rushed, stupid and devoid of any sense of great cinematic skill or fun. While it doesn’t induce as much anger as Dawn of Justice or annoyance as Suicide Squad, Justice League is one of the most disposable action blockbusters ever made. And that might be its biggest sin: this is the first-ever live-action movie team-up of the DC Comics superheroes. This should be a sweeping epic with dramatic weight and inspiring moments instead of a cold and calculated exercise in Marvel-envy. It feels like WB and DC see movie fans as whiny children they need to pacify instead of sticking with their own formula. They’d rather try to make a Marvel movie than follow through with what makes their movies unique and just make efforts to improve. So after four years of championing some of the most divisive and hated comic book movies in some of the worst ways, I have to ask: don’t you want more?

0/4

Acceptable Wonder

Warner Bros. and DC finally have a good movie on their hands, but that doesn’t mean the movie (or their cinematic universe) is fixed.

Alright, I’ll admit it: Warner Bros. and DC are brilliant.

 

The partnering studio/comic-book company took on the nearly-impossible task of trying to keep up with Disney and Marvel Studios by creating their own superhero cinematic universe. Since its inception in 2013, they’ve had three false starts with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad. Taking out any discussion of being faithful comic book adaptations and whatnot, those three films stand out as unique failures for being bad on basic filmmaking levels, from unnecessary zoom-ins and collateral damage (Man of Steel), to constant shaky-cam and confused character development (Dawn of Justice), and then terrible editing with unfocused tone (Suicide Squad). Ignoring the childish war for validation between Marvel and DC fans, the bottom line was that these were poorly-made movies that lowered the expectations of fans with every new installment. So now the bar has been set so low, not worst case scenario but low enough, where an action-adventure movie made with the most basic expectations of filmmaking is practically a godsend.

 

Yes, Wonder Woman is a fine movie, occasionally even a damn good one, but the concern is that it’s because on top of its flaws (which are obvious and gaping), the movie has very basic technical elements to it. Basically, we should’ve been getting this quality of filmmaking for the past four years. Director Patty Jenkins (Monster) gets everything off on the right foot with the gorgeous island of Themyscira inhabited by the fearless female warriors, the Amazons. The spunky oddball of the Amazons is Princess Diana (Gal Gadot), sheltered by her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), but secretly trained by her aunt, Antiope (Robin Wright). Diana wants to explore the outside world, which fortunately comes right to her shores when U.S. Army spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crash lands on Themyscira after evading German forces as the real world faces World War I. When Steve tells the Amazons about the horrors of the Great War and they turn him away, Diana grabs a sword, a shield, and a powerful lasso to sail away from her home and join Steve on the frontlines saving the world.

Most of the credit for Wonder Woman goes to Jenkins and her production team for crafting the best looking film of the DC Extended Universe. Everything from the lost paradise of Themyscira to the barren war zone of Belgium looks gorgeous, thanks to Jenkins’s smooth flow of directing scenes and cinematographer Matthew Jensen’s (Chronicle, Game of Thrones) fluid combination of colors that don’t flood the scenes. Jenkins’s is also an impressive director of action, staging a great beach-front fight between the Amazons and German troops with a much more appropriate use of slow-motion and imagery worth of freeze-frames (see Antiope shooting three arrows at the same time…in mid-air). Same can be said for when Wonder Woman makes her grand debut in costume on the German frontlines, where Diana disrobes into the iconic costume and charges into battle blocking bullets. Unlike the previous DCEU films, Jenkins understands that action scenes should build upon themselves with elevating threats and seeing Wonder Woman go from blocking a barrage of bullets to hip-checking a German tank like she’s Malcolm Butler are well-earned displays of heroism. It’s a shame that action goes completely off the rails with the film’s overblown climax that harkens back to the Doomsday fight in Dawn of Justice too much.

 

Like the previous DCEU films, Wonder Woman’s major problem is its story. Written by Jason Fuchs, Allan Heinberg (who went on to write the screenplay), and WB/DC stalwart Zack Snyder, the origins of Wonder Woman is solid with her crafted by her mother and brought to life by Zeus. It’s a typical outcast-to-the-rescue story that’s slightly similar to that of Marvel’s Thor. In fact, Wonder Woman’s main story is an obvious mesh of two of Marvel’s earlier cinematic universe installments: the “mythical being adjusts to humans” elements of Thor and the “superhero faces the realism of human war” elements of Captain America: The First Avenger. Wonder Woman owes a lot of its plot elements to Steve Rogers, whether it be the shadow influence of an evil force on the war or the fate of certain characters at the film’s climax. It all seems a bit too familiar without adding anything new. For all the complaints people have that Marvel movies all looking and playing out the same, Wonder Woman feels an awful lot like a real solid Marvel movie.

Even the title character has a thing or two in common with Marvel’s Asgardian god of thunder. But where Chris Hemsworth brought a sense of classic Hollywood charm to Thor, Gal Gadot brings a beating heart and emotional weight to the Amazonian princess. She starts off precocious and innocent as she enters the human world, but Gadot really shows how the horrors of war can impact those seeing it for the first time. Gadot really captures the moment where Wonder Woman goes from wholesome untouched metahuman to a true warrior who understands the gravity of war. It’s exactly what the DCEU needs: levity with a strong sense of what a hero sacrifices, and Gadot brings it. She’s got a great partner in Chris Pine, bringing his own classic-style Hollywood charm to Steve Trevor. Pine has always felt like a 50s-era actor that wound up getting big in the new millennium (sans his excellent performance in last year’s Hell or High Water), so he’s right at home being the charming American spy with his his coiffed hair and silver tongue.

 

The thing about all of the positive elements of Wonder Woman, i.e. developed characters, good action scenes, and structured filmmaking should’ve been in the DCEU films for the past four years. If anything, Wonder Woman deadlifts the bar for what the DCEU movies need to be. Patty Jenkins has come in to practically right the ship of the DCEU and her filmmaking standards should be seriously noted. Wonder Woman is not only a reminder of how superhero movies should be made but a platform to build new ideas for superhero movies in the future. Wonder Woman is wholly unoriginally and has big flaws, but its spirit and skill is something that should be (pardon the phrase) marveled.

3/4 stars

No Squad Goals

I feel bad for DC fans, I really do. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to know that all of their beloved superheroes and supervillains are owned by Warner Bros. studios, who’ve have promised to give them a cavalcade of cinematic blockbusters about their childhood icons yet clearly don’t care about them beyond their marketability. Earlier this year, they showed that they can take the infinite potential of putting their two biggest superheroes on the same screen together and destroy it in a way as shocking and horrifying as the Hindenburg crash. Now, a mere five months later, they’ve tried to take some of DC’s most menacing bad guys and throw them together for a one-off romp of dastardly fun…and they couldn’t even do that right.
Suicide Squad picks up right where Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice left off (SPOILER ALERT: Superman is dead..maybe..kinda..who cares?) and the US government has immediately gone from mourning the Man of Steel to fearing for the next metahuman attack. Stone cold government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has a plan: assemble a team of imprisoned psychos with special abilities to take on mission too tough for standard soldiers. Said team includes hitman Deadshot (Will Smith), mentally-unstable crime queen Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), sewer-dwelling monster Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), fire-wielding street gangster Diablo (Jay Hernandez), violent goofball Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), vengeful assassin Katana (Karen Fukuhara), and the master of…um..ropes Slipknot (Adam Beach). Led by Col. Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), they must infiltrate Midway City after one of Waller’s original recruits, the witch Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), goes rogue. But there might be more trouble as Harley’s heartbreaker, The Joker (Jared Leto), is in town looking to reunite with his love.
Whereas Batman v Superman was terrible for having stakes as high as Mt. Everest and blowing it all in the grimmest of fashions, Suicide Squad is bad (not terrible, but bad) because it wastes its own endless possibilities. There are ten characters here ripe for development, and the movie does nearly nothing with them. Sure, Deadshot gets a little daughter for emotional ties, Harley’s got here relationship goals, and Flagg and Enchantress are in a romance (for some reason), but they feel more like motivators for the plot to keep going instead of outlining these characters. Everyone else is nothing but background filler that’s easily expendable. Want proof? Slipknot dies after being in the movie for two scenes…..TWO! The only one who gets the most out of it is Diablo, who gets a tragic backstory of his powers being a gift and curse which is why he’s so reluctant to use them, which doesn’t sound familiar at all (*cough*). On top of poor character and story integration, Suicide Squad also has the misfortune of being a modern WB/DC movie, shot in ugly colors and terrible lighting that make all of these eccentric baddies fade into the muck. It takes a lot of balls to take two of the most colorful villains in comic history and make them underwhelming stencils of their source material, but Suicide Squad pulls it off. There’s also the usual problems: terrible editing, poorly shot action scenes, and a pace so rushed that it’s clear the movie wants to get this all over with as fast as possible.

Now for those DC fanboys who say that this wasn’t made for the average moviegoer and for “fans only,” is this really the story you’re excited for the Suicide Squad to be in: A magical whatever shoots a laser in the sky to unleash something to enslave the world because reasons? Is it a fair trade off for these villains with long history and deep backstory in comics to be completely ignored for the equivalent of a Power Rangers episode? Granted, the comic geek in me is tickled pink to see Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang walk into a bar (not a joke) to talk shop, but is that worth two hours and $175 million of Warner Bros. waining movie budget? 
And that’s a shame, because everyone involved seems to be having a ball playing bad guy dress up. Smith is back in standard action hero form, Courtney is the most likable he’s ever been in his film career, Hernandez is peaceful moral center of the madness, and Akinnuoye-Agbaje is the tough guy comic relief. I’m sure it’ll delight focus groups and WB’s PR to know that the best performance in the movie are from the ladies. Davis is the baddest of the bunch and she owns every scene she struts into. Fukuhara is deserved of her own movie as she shows brief vulnerability while being the silent killer of the group. And Robbie..holy lord, is this woman a bonafide movie star. She’s the best part of the movie and may be worth the price of admission alone, sinking her lipstick-smeared teeth into the role and punctuating nearly every scene. There’s a genuine glee radiating from her performance, like she’s playing Marilyn Monroe on speed. Hollywood know owes Robbie an IOU for being the lone spark in this dead battery of an action movie. Oh and about Leto’s Joker, how does it feel to know that nearly a year and a half of media hype was all for a minuscule 10-15 minutes of screen time and an even smaller screen presence? Leto feels like an outline of who the Joker is, only the most easily accessible layer of he rabbit’s hole of madness that is the Clown Prince of Crime.

Everyone and everything in Suicide Squad is another victim of WB’s mad dash to play keep up with Marvel studios and the war of the superhero movies. The victim who got it the worst (besides the fans of course) is writer/director David Ayer (Training Day, Fury), who clearly had a vision for this and wanted to make this the twisted middle finger to bright shiny superhero movies it could’ve been. It’s clear his vision was cut and hacked to death because WB is starting to see how deep into their own grave they’ve dug themselves. Now that people are starting to catch on that superhero movies are starting to be more of the same, the genre needs to take a risk in order to survive. A space western with a giant tree and a talking raccoon? Yes. A foul mouthed douchebag in a red suit and a horrible facial complexion? Sure. A group of costumed weirdos saving the world? Been there, done that, whatever.
Final Verdict: 1.5 out of 4 stars