But it hasn’t gone well so far. Forget Batman v Superman – at least it tried. Those in charge have simply been unable to capture the majesty of Nolan’s movie.
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This DC effort hasn’t quite captured the sense of fun that has been the hallmark of the Marvel entries.
Having survived that disaster, I can’t say I was exactly excited to see Suicide Squad.
But that’s not enough.
Will Smith’s sharpshooter Deadshot nails “Suicide Squad” early on when he sarcastically asks his military minder about the need to audition: “What is this?”
Miller first appeared as The Flash in Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, during which his out-of-costume Barry Allen character stopped a robbery in a convenient store and in a Bruce Wayne dream sequence. It’s all antihero, and written and directed by David Ayers, who is known for gritty R-rated movies like “End of Watch” and “Fury”. It chases after the nihilistic swagger of Deadpool and the anarchic whimsy of Guardians of the Galaxy but trips over its own feet.
It’s unclear when Miller’s scenes were shot for Suicide Squad. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Unfortunately, Suicide Squad tries too hard to be better than the violent, amusing romp that Deadpool was. “Guardians of the Galaxy” was amusing and entertaining and sported terrific production values. Seeing Deadshot and Rick Flagg time and time again quickly became one of my favorite parts of Suicide Squad.
The gist is this. As superman is dead, the world has no hero to save it. By trying to hold themselves to the PG-13 rating, they lost a bit of the magic that could have made Suicide Squad true entertainment.
If you only take one thing away from this movie, it’s that Will Smith has definitely still got it.
Nuts!: Director Penny Lanes sort-of-true story about a Kansas doctor who claimed to find a cure of impotence in 1917 screens at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, at the Detroit Film Theatre.
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David Ayer: “I made the movie for real people who live in the real world”. The film was knocked for its dark tone and rehash of DC storylines that we’ve seen many times before, like the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents. USA intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. Third, when these film roles do exist, they nearly uniformly go to straight-identifying actors. I think that the Joker… we did a lot of experimentation on the set, we explored a lot. And despite having Will Smith as one of its central characters, it isn’t all that amusing. It’s a perfectly standard superhero – or antihero, as the case may be – movie, but it isn’t anything more than that.
