Its
easy to see DC's Suicide Squad as the last full-throated gasp of an
idiotic attempt to be Marvel. A terrible plot, near-atrocious acting
from most of the cast and an almost insane commitment to being “dark
and edgy” not only drove away fans from this half-hearted (and
Oscar-winning) attempt at yet another franchise but also served as a
stark realization that Warner Brothers had lost its way long ago.
Sure, we could always argue that this stain on cinema led to the
realization that light-hearted characters (Aquaman, Shazam) and the
concept of fun (the ending of Justice League) could be the way to
cinematic gold but, at that very moment in history, gritty was the
selling point because Batman was still most customer friendly (and
lucrative) thing they had to offer. Now, with all that stupidity
behind them and with the realization that you CAN make a good movie
about individual superheroes without the obligatory team-up, how does
DC attempt to rejuvenate their image? Why, by taking the only truly
good thing about that particular eyesore (Margot Robbie's Harley),
adding a few awesome comic book characters with matchbook-thin
character development for people who don't know who they are and
dumping it all into the lap of a director who is far outside her
comfort zone to make anything outside of disjointed “Girl Power”
movie. Man, just when you think they drank away the stupid, they fill
another glass...
Okay,
okay, I'll be nice for the sake of all those Harley Quinn fans out
there: Margot Robbie is still awesome as this character and she
remains perhaps the best thing about those previously mentioned bad
ideas known as the DCEU (except maybe Wonder Woman). She still nails
the character perfectly, her comic timing lands more than it misses
and there's enough here to make it feel like a genuine Harley movie.
Toss in a few choice characters from DC's rogues gallery (Black Mask!
Victor Zsasz! Huntress!) and you even have the bones for something
that might be a little fun if you read a couple of comics and
actually knew who these people were outside of an Arrow binge-watch.
What went wrong?
Well,
for the most part, Birds fails because it decides to focus on its
most successful character and unceremoniously pushes anything else
interesting out the window. Sure, its fun to watch Harley go through
the Break-up Blues with all the grace of a psychopath, but we can't
get more than two minutes of backstory on interesting characters like
Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) or Black Canary (Jurnee
Smollet-Bell)? Also, who choreographed these fight scenes? Better
question: who picked the earworm “Girl Power” music for this?
I've seen some bad fight choreography in my lifetime, but nothing
compares to watching a bunch of fully-capable actresses being reduced
to what can best be described as River Dance fighting to whatever bad
breakup music pops into my head while watching these things. I'm not
saying they CAN'T fight, just that it would be nice to see a fight
scene end with something a little more substantial than “she kicked
him in the groin”.
As
for watching it, what did you think of Suicide Squad? Did you hate it
but thought Robbie was fun and secretly wished she'd had a better
script to work with? Cool. You probably won't find too much to
complain about since she's the main character in a movie about a
superhero team she's not even part of. Did you hate Suicide Squad,
Robbie warts and all? Go watch Aquaman again to remind yourself that
DC knows how to have fun. You know its a bad day when all your
options are built around how high on the scale your hatred of Suicide
Squad is.
Cathy
Yan (Dead Pigs) dips her head into big budget filmmaking before
fleeing back to the safety of art house until the next diversity hire
with Birds of Prey (I'm not writing out the entire title). After
permanently cutting herself out of Joker's life in a break-up, Harley
Quinn (Robbie) must learn to fend for herself in the dog-eat-dog
world of the Gotham City Underworld. Complicating this matter is the
fact that half the city wants her dead out of revenge from her
with-Joker days and the other half are searching for a poorly
explained MacGuffin in the form of a diamond with a bunch of bank
accounts inscribed on it. Huntress (Winstead) shows up for vengeance
and is freaking awesome as an awkward assassin in her whopping five
minutes of screentime, Black Canary (Smollet-Ball) calls “present”
when her name is read in front of the class and Rosie Perez just kind
of plays herself with a toy badge. I thought we'd already had this
discussion, DC. Make your movies FUN!
My
score: 4/10. They put Victor Zsasz in this movie and he's a mob
henchman. They took one of the most nihilistic (not to mention one of
the creepiest) supervillains in the DC Rogues Gallery and they made
him a one-dimensional mob henchman. Use the character right or don't
use him at all.
