I’m Not Sure How I Feel About the Suicide Squad Movie
Am I the only person who’s a little confused that DC Comics seems to be rushing into a movie about the Suicide Squad for no good reason? Don’t get me wrong, the concept has legs. The Suicide Squad has so far made for a great episode of Justice League Unlimited and an OK episode of Arrow. And the basic concept is pretty solid too: super-villains forced to go on dangerous missions for the government. But Suicide Squad is hardly a big name, and they don’t yet even know if Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is going to succeed.
Why is Suicide Squad, of all possible franchises, the next one to hit theaters?
Whatever the plan is, Variety is reporting that DC has nailed down the cast. One part of the plan is clearly to use big name actors to bring in the audience.
Jared Leto as the Joker
Will Smith as Deadshot
Tom Hardy as Rick Flagg
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn
Jai Courtney as Boomerang
Cara Delevingne as Enchantress
The film will be directed by David Ayer, and will begin shooting in April for a planned Aug. 5, 2016 release date.
That’s definitely a pretty solid list of actors. I think they’ll all do fine in those roles. Having both the Joker and Harley Quinn in this movie is a strong move. Everybody is pretty familiar with both characters, and there’s probably no other way they could make a solo film starring the Joker. So let the Clown Prince of Crime take center stage in Suicide Squad. I bet audiences will eat that up. And it’ll be neat to see the character interact with people who aren’t Batman. I’m sure Jared Leto will bring the same unexpected, manic energy as Heath Ledger did.
Will Smith as Deadshot should be pretty awesome. I can see him being a fan favorite, as Deadshot usually is, and Smith is pretty popular too, from what I understand. Leto and Smith should carry this film easily, with the Joker’s zany madness offset by Deadshot’s brutal pragmatism.
I’m assuming Boomerang is just short for Captain Boomerang (who’s also appearing on both Arrow and The Flash this week), and Enchantress is a really weird choice. Of all the lady bad guys they could have chosen, why Enchantress, someone nobody has heard of? She’s a magical character, and that brings a lot to the table, but they could have had so much more fun if they’d picked, say, Poison Ivy. Everybody knows Poison Ivy, and it would give you a pretty amazing love triangle with Harley and Joker.
But I’m sure Warner Bros. knows what they’re doing. I’m sure they think they have a solid script in place, and this will make one heck of a fun Ocean’s 11-style masterpiece. We shall see. I’m going to be cautiously optimistic, but I’m still just not sure why they’re going with the Suicide Squad. Maybe they know something we don’t.
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Posted on December 2, 2014, in DC, Movies and tagged Captain Boomerang, Cara Delevingne, Deadshot, Enchantress, Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney, Jared Leto, Joker, Margot Robbie, Rick Flagg, Suicide Squad, Tom Hardy, Will Smith. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
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I have an issue with Jai Courtney as Boomerang. Because he’s just going to get completely overshadowed by Will Smith. Did you see the cartoon movie “Batman: Assault on Arkham”? It was just a horrible love letter to Deadshot. And Deadshot is cool and all, but not like….action hero cool. And the movie made a distinct point that Captain Boomerang sucks and Deadshot rules. Which isn’t at all true. The JLU episode definitely got it best, but I’m worried this movie will be more like Assault on Arkham.
Which also means a Joker / Harley / Deadshot love triangle. Which would be awful and in fact was very awful in the Assault on Arkham movie.
Seriously, watch that movie and you will be dreading a Suicide Squad movie just as much as I am.
Also, Enchantress was included so that they can kill her very very early in the movie and losing her won’t affect any other DC movie properties. And so help me, if they kill Captain (I’m just going to keep using Captain) Boomerang, I’m gonna be pissed. Think about it: they might introduce and kill Captain Boomerang before the Flash movie even comes out.
I’ve seen Assault on Arkham (though I forgot about it entirely when writing this article), and yes, it was pretty terrible. Man, a Joker/Harley/Deadshot love triangle…that does sound horrible. Though I disagree that Deadshot isn’t action hero cool. He definitely can and should be. You read Secret Six, you know how cool he can be. And while Captain Boomerang can be cool, he’s not cooler than Deadshot, and definitely not in this setting.
I’m picturing an awesome Joker vs. Deadshot movie, with the two of them butting heads constantly, until Joker reveals his evil twist and Deadshot has to pull through as the hero. I suppose that means he’ll also be rescuing Harley from the Joker too. So…yeah, you may have just hit the nail on the head with this movie already.
Also, I have no memory of Jai Courtney. I’ve probably seen him somewhere…
Deadshot is best as the put-upon everyman with just enough competency with guns that he remains useful and not dead. And that’s why we love him.
Ragdoll/Harley Quinn is crazier. Bane/Captain Boomerang has a better supervillain pedigree. Enchantress is more powerful. Catman is a better fighter. Scandal/Rick Flag is a better leader. And Amanda Waller is way more badass than Deadshot. Really, the only thing Deadshot should be on the team is the douchiest and possibly also the most sick of this bullshit….iest.
Personally I don’t think Will Smith will be very good at any of that. He’s too much the action hero. He’s too cool. “You’re all dead; you just haven’t hit the ground.” Is not a cool guy action hero line. But I can see Will Smith delivering it as one. The closest I can see him as Deadshot was Hancock in the first 30 minutes of that film.
Deadshot is not your typical hero or anti-hero. He’s like an anti-anti-hero. So I don’t have a lot of hope for seeing that captured on film.
I’m gonna draw the obvious analogy here:
Seven years ago neither Iron-Man or Thor were big names beyond a comic-reading audience. This isn’t a DC vs Marvel thing – Captain America, Hulk and Spider-Man *are* household names in the same way Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are – but Iron Man? Thor? The average person on the street had no idea who these characters were.
Bring out a movie with an interesting enough premise and people will watch it. “Supervillains being covertly drafted for black ops missions in exchange for time served” is an interesting enough premise.
Of course, it’s still possible for a movie with promise to tank if it’s not very good. But you certainly don’t need characters with a pre-existing profile to make a popular movie.
In answer to your question “Why is Suicide Squad, of all possible franchises, the next one to hit theaters?”, my guess is this: DC has not been doing well in film lately, and Suicide Squad makes a good canary. If it does well, it boosts the profile of the DC Cinematic universe. But if it does poorly well, it’s not a core title so they can just move on with the DC Cinematic Universe ‘proper’ and pretend like it never existed.
You may very well be right! DC is trying two very different films: a standard superhero team-up flick with their two most popular characters, and a smaller action-based film that might appeal to non-superhero people. Hopefully both succeed, but if one does better than the other, they’ll learn a lot going forward. Smart thinking.
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