Suicide Squad Trailer - Reaction/Review

The first official trailer for the upcoming DC Comics movie Suicide Squad has been released.

Directed by David Ayer (Fury, Sabotage, Street Kings), the movie stars Will Smith as Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, Jared Leto as The Joker, Margot Robbie as Dr. Harleen F. Quinzel/Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Waylon Jones/Killer Croc and Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman.

For the uninitiated: Suicide Squad (a.k.a “Task Force X”) is a group of villains who are (forcefully) recruited by Amanda Waller to complete deadly missions. For obvious reasons, the trailer does not reveal the exact mission for which they have been assembled in this movie.

Check out the trailer:

I was not a big fan of the Comic Con trailer. But this trailer looks promising. Set to the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” by the British rock band Queen, this one manages to differentiate the movie from the unnecessarily serious trailers we have seen for the other DC Extended Universe movie - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Jared Leto seems to be a great casting choice as The Joker. Margot Robbie and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje also look to be having fun with Harley Quinn and Killer Croc respectively.

The major drawback is Will Smith as Deadshot. He is way too serious. His casting is understandable: The Studio wanted a big name actor to ensure a decent opening for the movie. But Will probably wanted a bigger role for himself. This is pretty obvious considering that Deadshot is on an equal footing with Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), the squad leader. At least, Rick manages to land a line in the trailer.

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As readers might know, Tom Hardy was first cast as Rick Flagg. But supposedly, his scheduling conflicts due to the then ongoing Leo DiCaprio movie, The Revenant made him skip Suicide Squad. We can only speculate.....

Even the usually dull as dishwater, Jai Courtney seems to be enjoying himself as Captain Boomerang.

Looks like David Ayer has finally managed to make an enjoyable DC Comics movie since Christopher Nolan left the DC Universe.

If this movie is even half as much fan as the animated movie Batman: Assault on Arkham, we are in for a major treat.

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Image Sources: Atlas Entertainment, DC Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Lin Pictures, Warner Bros.

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Suicide Squad Comic Con Trailer - Review and Recap

The comic-con trailer for the upcoming DC Comics movie Suicide Squad has been released.

Directed by David Ayer (Fury, Sabotage, Street Kings), the movie stars Will Smith as Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, Jared Leto as The Joker, Margot Robbie as Dr. Harleen F. Quinzel/Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Waylon Jones/Killer Croc and Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman.

For the uninitiated: Suicide Squad (a.k.a “Task Force X”) is a group of villains who are (forcefully) recruited by Amanda Waller to complete deadly missions. For obvious reasons, the trailer does not reveal the exact mission for which they have been assembled in this movie.

Check out the trailer:

In the 2014 animated movie, Batman: Assault on Arkham, the squad was ordered to kill The Riddler, who is currently in Arkham Asylum. Making things further interesting was the fact that The Joker (also confined in Arkham Asylum) has a ticking time bomb hidden somewhere that will bring destruction to Gotham city.

Batman's efforts to locate and defuse the bomb brings him into conflict with the Suicide Squad. The movie served as my introduction to the super-villain team. Plus, it helped that the animated movie is hands downs one of the best DC Animated Original (DCAU) Movies ever made.

That movie also happens to be the one and only reason, I was looking forward to the live action adaptation coming out next year. 

Unfortunately, the trailer does not do the movie any favors. Just as the Comic Con trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice informed us about the potential drawbacks in that movie, this movie also indicates an unmistakable lack of imagination and humor. The movie looks pretty generic and dull.

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The costumes for Katana, Killer Croc and even Deadshot look like cosplay that would look more at home at the Comic Con itself rather than in a big budget blockbuster.

Will Smith is all emo as Deadshot. As readers familiar with his character will be aware, he loses his daughter when goes to prison. And this factor is really hit over our heads in the most unimaginative way possible.

Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is nothing like the Harley Quinn, who was introduced in the classic Batman: The Animated Series. Gone is the funny and quirky character and in her place, we have been presented with an extremely sexed-up version. Shame on Warner Bros. and the writers for making such crass and commercially motivated changes to a classic character.

After failing to wow audiences in A Good Day to Die Hard and the most recently released Terminator Genisys, Jai Courtney threatens to bore us again as Captain Boomerang.

Rest of the cast do not get much screen-time and/or mouth dialogues to leave any impression. Mention must be made that Ben Affleck's Batman makes a very brief appearance in the trailer. This is presumably taken the footage that was leaked while filming - Batman is on top of the car in which The Joker and Harley Quinn are making their escape.

The only saving grace looks to be Jared Leto's performance as The Joker. He looks to be genuinely having a blast with the role. Hope, he can inspire the same in his co-actors as well.

I do applaud the courage displayed by Warner Bros. in making a movie that does not have Superman or Batman in the lead roles. Perhaps, the marketing department did not do a great job of winning us over. I hope that is the case and that the actual movie turns out far better than what this trailer represents.

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Image Sources: Atlas Entertainment, DC Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Lin Pictures

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Movie Review - After Earth (2013)

 

The opening scenes give us a quick overview of the preceding events. Earth has undergone drastic changes and humans are being hunted by monsters called "Ursas" released by aliens.
 

Ursas are technically blind but hunt humans by smelling the pheromones secreted out of fear. The "Ghosting" technique involves masking one's fear and thus becoming invisible to Ursas, enabing one to kill it. General Cypher Raige (Will Smith), the "Prime Commander" is the first Ghost and is a legend for his Ursa killing skills.

Sophie Okonedo as Faia Rage and Zoë Kravitz as Senshi Raige

Cypher's son, Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) has an artistic temparament and suffers from recurring nightmare of witnessing his sister, Senshi Raige (Zoë Kravitz) being killed by an Ursa. Cypher and Kitai are emotionally distant and at Mrs Faia Raige's (Sophie Okonedo) suggestion, Cypher takes Kitai along on his mission. A generic space mishap makes them crash on Earth and only the father-son duo survive (Surprise, Surprise).
 

Cypher informs his son that other lifeforms on Earth have "evolved" to hate human beings. In addition, there are wild climate fluctuations that can put one's life in instant jeopardy. Cypher's legs are badly injured and Kitai has to go on an one man trek in the hostile territory in search of a MacGuffin to save the day (Surprise again).
 

Struck to his seat and left motionless, Cypher starts having flashbacks of his daughter and even shares some anecdotes with his son. Cue a lot of unintentional hilarity.

Jaden Smith as Kitai Raige doing some action hero type things in After Earth

The digitally created creatures on Earth (baboons, tigers) look to be computer generated rather than realistic as they are intended to be and the chase/action scenes are pedestrian.

The scientific aspects of the movie look quite outdated. The displays on Cypher's spaceship are old school and would be right at home in a B movie from the 1980s. If nothing, this movie will serve the purpose of showing the public how tough it is to make a good space movie. I definitely gained a new sense of respect for the recently released Star Trek sequel.

 

One of the shots of human heads strung on a tree reminded me of a similar shot in the Zack Snyder directed 300.
 

The initial prologue is one of the weakest I have seen with the extras running around, like in a low budget sci fi TV show.

Will Smith as General Cypher Raige in After Earth

Will Smith's usual charisma and winsome personality is lost in his performance as an emotionless warrior.

Sophie Okonedo as Faia Rage delivers the best performance, despite her limited screen time. Similarly, Zoë Kravitz is good in her role.

Lacking both imagination and humor (of the intentional kind), this is an assembly line product made with the sole purpose of launching Jaden Smith's career as a leading man.

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Unintentional hilarity abounds, thanks to the movie's self serious tone and cliched script - Kitai's artistic nature vs Cypher's emotionless one, a subordinate asking to be raised on his one leg to salute Cypher, the cheap props in the prologue, the name "Cypher" and his designation "Prime Commander". The cliches are just one too many.
 

Contrast this with Fast & Furious 6, whose lack of self seriousness and the ability to poke fun at the ridiculousness of the premise results in some well-earned laughs.

Jaden Smith as Kitai Raige wears the same expression throughout the movie

Coming back to After Earth, I actually laughed out loud when Kitai spoke his lines for the first time. The accent used by Jaden as Kitai is hilarious. Jaden Smith delivers a one-note performance, comprised mainly of a continuous look of constipation.
 

The final encounter reminded me of the Frodo-Shelob encounter in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Ursa itself looks to be inspired from the titular creature in The Alien and the Kraken from Clash of The Titans.

M. Night Shyamalan continues his descent into cinematic abyss. One wonders how come the director of this insipid movie also made The Sixth Sense. Following the director's footsteps, the rest of the crew have also turned out mediocre work.

Funniest line in the movie - Cypher to Kitai: "Take a Knee! Take a Knee, Cadet!"

In a nutshell: A laughably bad movie, that is typical of M. Night Shyamalan but represents a rare misstep for Will Smith.

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Image Sources: Box Office Mojo, Columbia Pictures, Overbrook Entertainment and Blinding Edge Pictures

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