Suicide Squad

This may have been the most difficult review I've written to date. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, almost everyone would have by now seen the initial reviews of Suicide Squad, most of which seem to be taking the Worst Heroes Ever tagline into the Worst Film Ever territory. With all the negative chatter going on around this film, I wanted to add a more comprehensive and maybe slightly lighter review to the pile as someone who has been looking forward to this film since its inception. Unpopular opinions may appear below.

Suicide Squad, headed by an A-List cast including Will Smith, Jared Leto, Cara Delevingne and Viola Davis (also including Aussie talents Margot Robbie and Jai Courtney), brings together the wacky and weird in the continuation of the slow-to-get-on-its-feet DC Film Universe.  After the events of Batman V Superman, Amanda Waller (Davis) presents the US Government with an important and frightening conundrum: What if a being such as Superman, a being with unlimited power and superiority, decided to destroy the world without warning? Who on our planet could possibly be strong enough to stop them? Enter Task Force X, otherwise known as the Suicide Squad, a ragtag group of criminals each with their own unique and terrifying abilities, thrown together with the promise of time off their sentences if they cooperate and providing the Government with the perfect scapegoat if they fail. Faced with the constant threat of imminent death, the team (under the watchful eye of their reluctant leader Commander Rick Flag a.k.a. Joel Kinnaman) must join together to stop a force more powerful than any of them could ever imagine, and perhaps wreak a little havoc along the way.

The positives: Call me a fangirl, but this film was just fun to watch. These characters, each positively insane in their own ways, are very entertaining and work really well together on screen. Its clear that the (supposed) emotional turmoil director David Ayer put the cast through paid off, as all the characters had great chemistry with each other and were as believable as a bunch of off kilter teammates can be. Standouts however had to be Robbie’s Harley Quinn (no surprises there, most people already loved her in the trailers) who delivers the right amount of instability with equal parts charm and class, and Smith’s Deadshot, who is surprisingly one of the most humanising characters and starts to become an anchor for the group. As well as the pair, Davis' Amanda Waller was both sadistic and entertaining as well, bringing her all to the table and making us all question which side we're really on. The biggest surprise here had to be Jai Courtney’s ‘Captain Boomerang’: I’m not sure if I’m biased because I’m an Australian, but I really resonated with his character and enjoyed that mannerisms and blunt Australian humour. As well as this, the action sequences were a visual eyeful and gave each character their fighting moment to shine.

The negatives: The main issue with this film (and this seems to be a reoccurring issue with films lately) is once again, the pacing. Whereas Man of Steel and Batman V Superman were far too slow in the narrative structure making them feel like films that seemed to go nowhere, this film is equally as choppy and badly edited, making it feel as though its trying to go everywhere at once. Its understandable that with such a vast array of characters the issue of giving everyone equal weight in the film can be tricky, however I thought this was an issue that may have been resolved by the re-shoots done before its release. While the story was fun to see play out, it wasn’t the best that could’ve been done for such a rich and engaging subject matter as the Squad. As well as this, I can’t write a review without mentioning DC’s new Joker: if you’re thinking this is a Joker-centred film, you’re off by a long shot. His presence in the film is limited, playing more of a wildcard who throws a spanner in the works rather than a central character. While I enjoyed Jared Leto’s performance as a step away from previous Jokers (the idea of the Joker as a mob boss figure in underground Gotham hence Batsy’s vendetta against him refreshes the character), his performance wasn’t groundbreaking enough to warrant all the pre-film behaviour that went on, such as sending the cast dead hogs and (apparently) peeing into Will Smith’s breakfast. I can understand method acting, and I would've understood if the performance was Oscar-worthy, but the shenanigans just don't match the performance. Maybe this is because a lot of his performance was cut out? We'll just have to wait and see.

Although this film has a lot of negatives and needs some work, you can’t ignore the fact that this film has heart and is a fun ride from start to finish. The characters are entertaining, the acting from the big names is believable and enjoyable, and the characterisation makes logical sense (unlike some of the previous DC films released, looking at you Batman V Superman). As a side note, the soundtrack is also excellent. Is it the best film in existence? No. Could you play a drinking game involving this film and the phrase ‘We’re the bad guys/We’re bad guys’? Yes. But overall, its one of those films that you’ll either love, hate, or love to hate. It’s not the Suicide Squad film we deserve, but maybe it’s the one we need right now, and the good news is it’s a step in the right direction for the future of DC. 

Pan

Apart from the 1953 Disney animation, I have never seen a movie about the actual story of Peter Pan. I've seen a biopic about the writing of the play (Finding Neverland), a sequel where Peter is a grown up Robin Williams (Hook) and now a prequel of how Peter got to Neverland in Pan.

Peter (Levi Miller) lives in an orphanage in WW2 London. He dreams of one day being reunited with his mother, whom left him on the doorstop of the orphanage twelve years earlier. After investigating the head nun, Peter discovers that the young orphans are being sold to pirates who come and take them away on flying ships. Peter gets himself captured and whisked away to Neverland, which is led by the evil pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman), who uses the captured boys to mine for fairy dust. It is in this mine that Peter learns that he is the chosen one of a prophecy to kill Blackbeard and free the fairies that have sealed themselves in their world. After escaping with James Hook (Garrett Hedlund), he meets with native princess Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara) to fulfill his part in the prophecy.

I must admit that I do get a certain level of enjoyment from origin stories like this one, but only when they have enough of a connection to the original source material so that there is a reminder why we went to see it in the first place. And Pan has enough of those to get by. Quiet references to Lost Boys, Tinkerbell, the crocodile and James Hook's weapon of choice being a, well, hook do a good job to make older audiences who have grown up with these characters feel a little warm inside. I also get the feeling as though the film was heavily influenced by 1991's Hook, especially with Hugh Jackman's over the top portrayal of Blackbeard rather closely mirroring that of Dustin Hoffman's Captain Hook, even down to the first time both characters appear on screen.

However, references to past works don't make a fully succinct or satisfying film. This is an incredibly action packed film and there were times when I felt like the movie needed to slow down and take a breather just so that there wasn't a flurry of activity at all times. There were two moments as well which come across as just confusing and anachronistic. They involve all of the miners chanting both "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana and "Blitzkrieg Bop" by The Ramones. When you figure out what these songs are, it throws you off completely. This film is also obviously intended to be the first step in a franchise as none of the major character arcs are completed to where they should be. I think if this was made as a stand alone movie it would be a lot better than it is.

Young Aussie Levi Miller leads the cast quite well, especially for a movie of this size. There were parts where I found his accent to be a tiny bit annoying. Garrett Hedlund gives a truly kooky, but enjoyable performance as Hook and this is complemented well by Adeel Akhtar's hilarious performance as his future sidekick Smee. Rooney Mara handles the action sequences well but ultimately I felt as though her character was rather flat. Jackman's insanely upbeat performance is probably the best part of the film although there are moments when he can get rather dark. Supporting roles by Amanda Seyfried and Cara Delvingne round out the cast.

Pan is an enjoyable enough movie with a storyline that is engaging enough that isn't too simple to get bored. Because it is a kids movie I am of course saying that it will be enjoyable for them. If you are over the age of 15, you will most likely be seeing it for the attractive stars of the film (Hedlund and Mara) or just because of Jackman's really bizarre and against type performance.

Let's take a look at the Suicide Squad cast

I know that the casting of Suicide Squad isn't exactly news, DC Entertainment has been slowly releasing the news of who is going to be in the movie steadily over the past few weeks, but I thought that now we have a fair few names attached to the movie, it would be a good opportunity to talk about the movie as a whole.

I can imagine a fair few of you are probably thinking who or what is the Suicide Squad. This group is made up of super-villains from the DC universe who are made to do missions by the government that the regular superheroes won't do, mainly because they involve killing dictators, terrorists, drug barons or any similar bad guy. I also say they are made to do this because if they don't achieve their directives, they are killed by an explosive bracelet on their wrists.

This team is made up of some members who may seem familiar and others that sound like I'm just making them up. But let's have a look. First is someone who everyone should know due to her popularity. Harley Quinn (AKA the Joker's girlfriend) is going to be played by Aussie actress Margot Robbie, known for her lead role in The Wolf of Wall Street. Harley Quinn is a beloved character and it will be interesting to see Robbie's interpretation.

Next on the list is the assassin Deadshot, a frequent enemy of Batman and is known to never miss one of his targets. He will be played by Will Smith, a choice that is strange for his famous face as Deadshot's face remains covered in bandages.

Aussie actor Jai Courtney will play Captain Boomerang which is good because we wouldn't want to see an American playing an Australian character. Captain Boomerang is known for using a vast array of deadly boomerangs, much in the same way Hawkeye from The Avengers uses different arrows. I am really excited about the roles that Courtney has been doing of late and I know this will be a good one for him.

Tom Hardy will play the operational leader of the Suicide Squad, Rick Flag. As far as I can tell Flag is just a mentally unstable soldier, but watching Tom Hardy in a role like this should be fun. Model turned actress Cara Delevingne will play the witch of the group, Enchantress.

Jared Leto has been cast to play the Joker, which could be a good or bad thing, I'm not sure. I'm also not sure of how this will play into the plot. The Joker isn't a member of the team and could possibly be a target of the Squad.

Now we get into rumour territory. Apparently Oprah Winfrey's name has been put out there to play the leader of the group, Amanda Waller. I think it would be a lot of fun to see Oprah in a movie like this, rather than the ultra-serious roles that she normally plays. Another name that has been thrown into the mix is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, but I'm not sure what to think of that.