a superhero mix-bag fatigue

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2016)

SUICIDE SQUAD, conspicuously hits a nadir in its feedback from critics, which officially raise the curtain of the battle-of-wits between DC franchises and carping pundits, perhaps it will be wiser for their next projects to skip the early critics screenings, if their claim of those films are made for die-hard comic books fans is sincere, who cares about critics then? The only problem is, the die-hard fanbase alone cannot cough up enough doughs to cover its hefty production budget, and since it is all about money, one might expect some sea change will soon befall from their grandee decision makers.
This time, one must concur with the critics, maybe in light of a seriousness-bucking freshness wrought by Marvel's DEADPOOL (2016) into the ever-blasé superhero glut earlier this year, audience's surged expectancy towards SUICIDE SQUAD has reached a threshold of inevitable ricochet. There is something frustratingly by-the-numbers in this supposedly paradigm-shifting entertaining fare where a ragtag cluster of characteristic antiheroes are reluctantly mustered together - in this case, a bomb is implanted in their neck, which can be detonate by Colonel Red Flag (Kinnaman, looks impeccably high-minded, ) if they rebel or try to escape -, to work for the US government and save the world from an impending doom from a sorceress-deity Enchantress (Delevingne).
Top hit-man Deadshot (Smith) and former psychiatrist Harley Quinn (Robbie) are among the expendables who predictably get the star treatment with a more generous story arc and screen- time, but Smith doesn't comes off so much a merciless mercenary than a traditionally valued family man who solely happens to be a marksman. As for Robbie, the current "it" girl in Hollywood, her over-merchandised impersonation of Quinn's bi-polar bearings patently stands out among the assembly, not because she is phenomenal, only the competition isn't challenging enough. Yet, the biggest disappointment is Jared Leto's Joker, short-changed in screen-time notwithstanding, his pompous performance is hammy to high heaven, menace and romantic vibes between Joker and Harley Quinn are both in dire dearth. Courtney's Captain Boomerang is the only member who betrays a whiff of unpredictability in his veins, whereas a penitent Diablo (Hernandez), being the only one who actually is bestowed with super power amongst the squad, follows a stock plot device, awakes from his shell of self-punishment (for his own sins) to embrace his power to battle the evil.
A stony-faced Viola Davis plays Amanda Walker, a government agent abides by her own gray-area philosophy and wantonly overstays her welcome, and a long-standing villain problem in the superhero assembly-line doesn't ameliorate at all, numberless and faceless minions are basically weapon-less moving targets to boost the gang's close-combat dexterity, and motivation-aside, is Enchantress's swaggering portal-opening parade a blatant homage to the original GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)? Also the inundating score from Steven Price during the heightened battle is insufferable. Concisely, SUICIDE SQUAD is unintelligently oscillating between a costly cult caterer and a pulpy mainstream appeaser, and as it often turns out, it fial to reach both sides.