The Suicide Squad. (15.)
Directed by James Gunn.
Starring Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, Viola Davis, Peter Capaldi and Sylvester Stallone. Out on Premium Video on Demand. 4K UHD Blu-ray and DVD November 8th.
I think by now we've all come to the realisation that Build Back Better just means the Same Old Shit. Oh, the joy to be double jabbed and back dealing with the familiar runaround from PR people and film companies. The Brothers Warners have been particularly hard work barely screening anything in time for my print deadline and there was no invite to see a Suicide Squad screening prior to its August release. Of course, after it underperformed in cinemas it was Oh Please come and see our Home Premiere Event. The most annoying aspect is, it's really good.
The cunning addition of a definite article to the title is there to leave audiences unsure as to if this is a sequel or a reboot. The removal of "The" for the fourth instalment of Fast & Furious indicated that, although it was really just a sequel, it was to be a re-energised go-again proposition. Not the same old shit but something that had been built back better. Here the addition of a "The" is there to muddy the waters, indicate that this is some kind of exotic reboot/ sequel hybrid to the terrible 2016 Suicide Squad. But in actual fact, it is nothing more than a direct sequel Will Smith's Deadshot has been Idris elbowed by Bloodsport, who is exactly the same character with a different name. Other than that the cast is a mix of recurring faces alongside new recruits. It's actually a much more straightforward proposition than Judi Dench returning as M for Craig's beginagain Bond, Casino Royale.
So it's the same Suicide Squad, but completely different. Gunn's take is almost a complete inversion of David Ayer's studio stymied original. It's fast, fun, loose, inventive, violent, silly, but not throwaway. And it is a Suicide Squad: some of them are expendable and don't make it back. It's also a glorious celebration of the rubbishness of superhero comics, an acceptance that beneath the plateau of gripping characters that warrant ceaselessly reinterpretation, most superhero villains have a mayfly level of creative appeal. There's a character here called Polka Dot Man (Dastmalchian) So, of course, there's no Joker in this.
This time the suicide mission is an invasion of the South American island of Corto Maltese to sabotage a weaponised non-terrestrial being that has fallen into anti-American hands. The villain is Capaldi, sticking with the Scottish accent, a former Doctor Who whose head has been made up to look like Davros.
There's a nice randomness to its mismatch of characters and cast. Even the briefest turns make an impression, leave something to remember them by. I'd also say this is the most impressive of Robbie's three performances of Harley Quinn.
Compared to the spirit level creativity of Disney's Marvel films – where the tone and quality never waver more than a degree or two under or above the baseline – the Warner's DC films spray all over the dartboard. While last year's wretched Wonder Woman 1984 missed the board completely, this and the majestic Synder cut of Justice League are double top finishes. And they are great in totally different ways. Justice League made Mount Rushmore seemed frivolous, took its mythmaking as serious as a John Ford western. This is instinctively but lovingly irreverent.
Gunn got this job after Disney kicked him off Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 after the Twitterstasi found a few historical tweets that were deemed to fall below the elevated level of discourse demanded of the 140 character world. Eventually, Disney backed down and he got rehired, though it shouldn't be ignored that the humour in the tweets revealed him to have something of a dark side. For Suicide Squad he gave Warners exactly what they wanted – that Guardians of The Galaxy feel. But he delivers it with a pervading nihilism that you would never get in the rigidly 12A Disney universe. It's not that this is extremely violent (though it is) but it comes with an air of jaunty cynicism. If I'd seen it in the cinema I'd have said it was one of the year's most fun big-screen experiences. And it is, but bloody hell it doesn't leave you with much for the journey home other than a numbing sense of despair and pointlessness.
Directed by James Gunn.
Starring Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Daniela Melchior, David Dastmalchian, Viola Davis, Peter Capaldi and Sylvester Stallone. Out on Premium Video on Demand. 4K UHD Blu-ray and DVD November 8th.
I think by now we've all come to the realisation that Build Back Better just means the Same Old Shit. Oh, the joy to be double jabbed and back dealing with the familiar runaround from PR people and film companies. The Brothers Warners have been particularly hard work barely screening anything in time for my print deadline and there was no invite to see a Suicide Squad screening prior to its August release. Of course, after it underperformed in cinemas it was Oh Please come and see our Home Premiere Event. The most annoying aspect is, it's really good.
The cunning addition of a definite article to the title is there to leave audiences unsure as to if this is a sequel or a reboot. The removal of "The" for the fourth instalment of Fast & Furious indicated that, although it was really just a sequel, it was to be a re-energised go-again proposition. Not the same old shit but something that had been built back better. Here the addition of a "The" is there to muddy the waters, indicate that this is some kind of exotic reboot/ sequel hybrid to the terrible 2016 Suicide Squad. But in actual fact, it is nothing more than a direct sequel Will Smith's Deadshot has been Idris elbowed by Bloodsport, who is exactly the same character with a different name. Other than that the cast is a mix of recurring faces alongside new recruits. It's actually a much more straightforward proposition than Judi Dench returning as M for Craig's beginagain Bond, Casino Royale.
So it's the same Suicide Squad, but completely different. Gunn's take is almost a complete inversion of David Ayer's studio stymied original. It's fast, fun, loose, inventive, violent, silly, but not throwaway. And it is a Suicide Squad: some of them are expendable and don't make it back. It's also a glorious celebration of the rubbishness of superhero comics, an acceptance that beneath the plateau of gripping characters that warrant ceaselessly reinterpretation, most superhero villains have a mayfly level of creative appeal. There's a character here called Polka Dot Man (Dastmalchian) So, of course, there's no Joker in this.
This time the suicide mission is an invasion of the South American island of Corto Maltese to sabotage a weaponised non-terrestrial being that has fallen into anti-American hands. The villain is Capaldi, sticking with the Scottish accent, a former Doctor Who whose head has been made up to look like Davros.
There's a nice randomness to its mismatch of characters and cast. Even the briefest turns make an impression, leave something to remember them by. I'd also say this is the most impressive of Robbie's three performances of Harley Quinn.
Compared to the spirit level creativity of Disney's Marvel films – where the tone and quality never waver more than a degree or two under or above the baseline – the Warner's DC films spray all over the dartboard. While last year's wretched Wonder Woman 1984 missed the board completely, this and the majestic Synder cut of Justice League are double top finishes. And they are great in totally different ways. Justice League made Mount Rushmore seemed frivolous, took its mythmaking as serious as a John Ford western. This is instinctively but lovingly irreverent.
Gunn got this job after Disney kicked him off Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 after the Twitterstasi found a few historical tweets that were deemed to fall below the elevated level of discourse demanded of the 140 character world. Eventually, Disney backed down and he got rehired, though it shouldn't be ignored that the humour in the tweets revealed him to have something of a dark side. For Suicide Squad he gave Warners exactly what they wanted – that Guardians of The Galaxy feel. But he delivers it with a pervading nihilism that you would never get in the rigidly 12A Disney universe. It's not that this is extremely violent (though it is) but it comes with an air of jaunty cynicism. If I'd seen it in the cinema I'd have said it was one of the year's most fun big-screen experiences. And it is, but bloody hell it doesn't leave you with much for the journey home other than a numbing sense of despair and pointlessness.
