REVIEW -- Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is a 2020 American superhero film based on the DC Comics team Birds of Prey. It is the eighth film in the DC Extended Universe and a follow-up to Suicide Squad (2016). It was directed by Cathy Yan and written by Christina Hodson, and it stars Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Chris Messina, Ella Jay Basco, Ali Wong, and Ewan McGregor. The film follows Harley Quinn as she joins forces with Helena Bertinelli, Dinah Lance, and Renee Montoya to save Cassandra Cain from Gotham City crime lord Black Mask.


Robbie, who also served as producer, pitched the idea for Birds of Prey to Warner Bros. in 2015. The film was announced in May 2016, with Hodson being hired to write the script that November, followed by Yan signing on to direct in April 2018. The majority of the cast and crew were confirmed by December 2018. Principal photography lasted from January to April 2019 in Downtown Los Angeles, parts of the Arts District, Los Angeles, and soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Additional filming took place in September 2019.


Birds of Prey is the first DCEU film and the second DC Films production to be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. The film had its world premiere in Mexico City on January 25, 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and 4DX on February 7, 2020. It grossed $201 million worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2020.[7] The film received praise from critics for its visual style, Yan's direction and the performances of Robbie and McGregor, but criticism for Hodson's screenplay.

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Cast: 

Margot Robbie as Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Helena Bertinelli / The Huntress
Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Dinah Lance / Black Canary
Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya
Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz
Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain
Ali Wong as Ellen Yee
Ewan McGregor as Roman Sionis / Black Mask

Additionally, Steven Williams portrays Captain Patrick Erickson, Montoya's superior at the GCPD; Dana Lee portrays Doc, Quinn's friend who owns a Taiwanese restaurant; François Chau portrays Mr. Keo, a rival crime boss of Sionis; Derek Wilson portrays Tim Munroe, a GCPD detective; Matt Willig portrays Happy, previously a henchman who worked for the Joker and for Stefano Galante; and whose face was tattooed by Quinn and the Joker; and Bojana Novakovic portrays Erika Manson, a night club patron who gets harassed by Sionis. Charlene Amoia and Paul Lasa respectively portray Maria and Franco Bertinelli, the mother and father of Helena; Robert Catrini portrays Stefano Galante, the mob boss who killed the Bertinelli family. The Joker appears in the film, through animated-special effects during a flashback sequence, as well as through the combined use of archive footage of Jared Leto from Suicide Squad and a body-double, Johnny Goth, on set. These techniques were used because Leto was not available during filming. A still photograph of Jai Courtney as George "Digger" Harkness / Captain Boomerang also appears on a wall in the Gotham City Police Department.

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Plot:

After the Enchantress' defeat, the Joker breaks up with Harley Quinn, throwing her out on the streets of Gotham City. She is taken in by Doc, the owner of a Taiwanese restaurant, and recovers from her relationship by cutting her hair, adopting a spotted hyena (whom she names after Bruce Wayne), and taking up roller derby.

One night, Harley gets drunk at a nightclub owned by Roman Sionis and cripples his driver after said driver insults her. She meets burlesque singer Dinah Lance, who later rescues an intoxicated Harley from an attempted abduction. Roman is impressed by Dinah's skills and appoints her as his new driver. The next night, Harley blows up the Ace Chemicals plant as a way to publicly announce her and Joker's breakup. Meanwhile, GCPD Detective Renee Montoya investigates a series of mob killings carried out by a crossbow-wielding vigilante. Finding Harley's necklace at the scene of the Ace Chemicals explosion, Montoya notes that Harley is in danger without the Joker's protection. She approaches Dinah about being an informant on Roman for them, but Dinah rejects the offer.

Roman sends Dinah and his sadistic right-hand-man Victor Zsasz to retrieve a diamond embedded with the account numbers to the fortune of the Bertinelli crime family, who were massacred years ago. Young pickpocket Cassandra "Cass" Cain steals the diamond from Zsasz and swallows it after she is arrested. Harley, fleeing from Montoya and several other people she had wronged in the past, is captured by Roman's men. Zsasz informs Roman that Cassandra has the diamond, and Dinah warns Montoya about the situation. As Roman prepares to have Harley killed, she offers to recover the diamond for him. Roman agrees but also places a bounty on Cassandra. Breaking into the GCPD with a variety of firework-inspired non-lethal grenade launcher rounds, Harley frees Cassandra and the pair escape.

After escaping, Harley and Cassandra bond while hiding out at the former's apartment. Doc is approached for information by the "crossbow killer", who is revealed to be Helena Bertinelli. Having survived her family's massacre and becoming trained as an assassin, Helena has been targeting each of the gangsters responsible for her family's murders, preferring the moniker of "The Huntress". Quinn's apartment is later bombed by criminals looking for Cassandra, and Doc sorrowfully reveals that he sold Harley out. Harley calls Roman and offers to turn Cassandra over in exchange for his protection, agreeing to meet at an abandoned amusement park. Dinah notifies Montoya of the rendezvous, but her betrayal is noticed by Zsasz, who informs Roman. A devastated Roman dons his ritualistic mask from which he gets his villainous nickname, "Black Mask".

At the park, Montoya confronts Harley, but Harley knocks her out of a window. Zsasz arrives and tranquilizes Harley before holding Dinah at gunpoint, but he is killed by Helena, who reveals Zsasz was the last of her family's killers. Montoya returns and a stand-off ensues, until they realize Roman has arrived with a small army of masked criminals, known collectively as the False Face Society. Using Quinn's old gear, the makeshift team successfully withstand and repel their attack. During the battle, Cassandra is captured by Roman, while Dinah reveals her metahuman ability of supersonic-level screaming, defeating an additional number of mobsters aligned with Roman. Harley gives chase on roller skates, and with assistance from Helena, the pair pursue Roman. At a nearby pier, the final confrontation occurs. Roman prepares to kill Cassandra, but she pulls the ring from a grenade that she slipped in his jacket after taking it from Harley's weapons chest earlier. Harley throws Roman off the pier just before the grenade detonates and kills him.

In the aftermath of destroying Roman's criminal empire, Montoya quits the GCPD. With the money within the accounts hidden inside the diamond, she joins Dinah and Helena in establishing a team of vigilantes – the Birds of Prey. Harley and Cassandra escape, selling the diamond itself to a pawnshop and starting their own contract killing business.

In a post-credits audio sequence, Harley is about to reveal a secret about Batman, but the film ends mid-sentence.

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The Verdict: 

(Laughs) I'm going to get shit for this, but I honestly fell asleep watching this in the theater when it first came out. Since I missed a good portion of the film, I figured it would be best that I watch until the film was available digitally for I could re-watch in its full capacity.

Still looks trashy to me.

It's the feminist bullshit like that is what makes me shake my head in terms of the reception and dick-riding or rather, vagina pleasing, to this film. The costumes didn't need to be revealing to still be contributors to the male gaze. Even Laura Mulvey herself would shake her head at Robbie misusing any reference to her work. There's still several gratuitous moments of the film that cater to portraying  these women sexually. So that argument about this film is so much different with a female director in charge is completely invalid right there.

That being said, I thought it was comical from the early reactions to this film from the angry feminists who claimed that you required a vagina to like this film. Seriously, what the fuck? I don't need a fucking vagina to point out that this film was mediocre. Sure, there's some glimpses of something that could have been much, MUCH better, but it ultimately falls short and feels under-utilized, especially for most of these marquee comic book characters involved. 

There's some VERY noticeable reshoots in this film too as you could tell the difference between the John Wick-esque fight scenes and the not-so brilliantly choreographed other fight sequences. You cannot watch this film and tell that there's some scenes that aren't like the other in terms of the action. I don't understand why there was a decision to reshoot some fight sequences, but keep others in that were just flat out boring as hell to watch. 

Characters

Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel (Margot Robbie)

It's sad really when the first reactions to this film weren't met to Warner Bros.' expectations and they had to rename the film Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey in most markets. Margot Robbie was financially backing this film, so that couldn't be helped, along with the fact that she's the most recognizable and easily the most popular character out of the film's cast.

I can't really say that I liked Robbie's Harley Quinn here more than her previous performance in Suicide Squad, especially after seeing the version of the character presented in DC Universe's animated series of the same name, voiced by Kaley Cuoco. Her Boston accent feels a tad more forced here than it was in the previous film, but that's just something that I have come to expect from all of these actresses that have portrayed this character following Arleen Sorkin in Batman: The Animated Series. I still feel like this another "audition reel" for Margot Robbie landing a bigger part for this character in a much better film (and a better cinematic universe to boot) than this.

Roman Sionis/Black Mask (Ewan McGregor)

Between animation and comics, I have seen multiple iterations and different takes on this particular Batman villain and I have to say that McGregor's take is definitely something. It's not bad, but I think a common theme that plagues a lot of these human villains in the DCEU, ranging from Lex Luthor (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice) to The Joker (Suicide Squad) now Roman Sionis/Black Mask, is that they border on the eccentric and unorthodox to the point of bizarre and silly, rather than truly terrifying entities as they should portrayed as from the source material. It's a darn shame too as I thought McGregor was growing into the role in the third act, but Sionis is killed off before we could seen how McGregor would have evolved the character further in another DCEU appearance down the road.

I think the biggest disservice this film did to this character was killing him off in the last act before he could get his iconic mask grafted to his face and we could have gotten the traditional psychopath that this character was notorious for being in the comics. Instead, he is reduced to a whiny, spoiled brat who is too prissy to get his hands dirty most of the time, but yet, everyone is afraid of this guy from all of his temper tantrums in public.

Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina)

Zsasz comes across as a bigger waste as Shades in the second season of Luke Cage from Marvel Studios' Netflix television properties. He seems to have a homoerotic relationship with Roman Sionis that's never really fleshed out nor explored properly. He just seems to be highly protective of his employer to the point of borderline infatuation.

Huntress kills him off unceremoniously in the film's final act and doesn't offer Sionis any screen time to grieve his most loyal henchman. It felt like such a massive waste for this character. Much like Cassandra Cain (who we're about to discuss shortly), they could have named Sionis' lead henchman anything else and not waste this character.

Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco)

What a massive waste of a character. The writers of this film could have named this character anything BUT Cassandra Cain for a warmer reception from comic book fans. This one decision alone has shot the DC Extended Universe in the foot for yet another blunder, much like Mercy Graves (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice) and countless other "throwaway" characters in this cinematic universe to date. I swear, the folks at Warner Bros. and DC Comics' film divisions have no sense of long-term planning with these films.

By the end of this film, Cassandra is made out to be Harley's "sidekick" or rather protege as they run away together with the money they made from the Bertinelli diamond. Her past with the League of Shadows and potential to be a future member of the Bat Family isn't even mentioned nor established in any shape nor form in this film. This film took absolutely no regard to this character's established history and just made her a blank slate and only exists in the DC Extended Universe as Cassandra Cain in name only. I guess we'll never see Orphan in a live-action Batman film unless this cinematic universe is rebooted with different people involved.

I don't fault Ella Jay Basco for the role as she did the best what she could with this script and it didn't bother me that this iteration of Cassandra Cain wasn't mute either as I knew that going in from seeing the initial trailers for this film. The number one thing that pissed me off about including this character in this film was that there wasn't even a minor nod or anything here to show that the writers had any clue that this character had ties to Batman lore. You could've name her ANYTHING but Cassandra Cain to avoid pissing comic book faithfuls off.

Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez)

I'm sure most people are more familiar with Renee Montoya from her appearances in Batman: The Animated Series rather than her lesbian, true to comics iteration presented here. I grew fond of this character from DC Comics' New 52 graphic novels (where she would take over the mantle of The Question) and in the Injustice: Gods Among Us comics adaptation, namely her lesbian relationship with Batwoman and her own tenure into being a costumed heroine.

Right off the bat, Harley (as the film's narrator) points out that Renee comes off as a parody of  '80s cop movies and I couldn't unsee that for the duration of this film's runtime. From that moment on, Renee came off as a parody of a generic cop in any other one of these action films. I couldn't take her seriously from that fact, along with the fact that they got Rosie Perez of all people to portray this character. Her and Linda Hamilton (Terminator: Dark Fate) must be running for the Oscar for most irrelevant female to come back into relevancy in a mediocre film in 2019-2020.

(Laughs) At least she's still got a nice rack though...

In all seriousness though, Renee's character arc seems incomplete as she solves the case with Sionis, but she doesn't get the credit for it at all among her peers at GCPD, leading her to quit the force and join up with Huntress and Dinah to form the Birds of Prey. It would've been a better slap to the face of the men who tried to discredit her at every turn by slapping the Sionis case in their faces, but not giving her the last laugh so to speak didn't do anything for her character arc. She didn't get to arrest Sionis and no one knew about the Bertinelli diamond and all of that drama surrounding the case other than her, so it was all for nothing. You could say that she quit the force for a "higher calling" as a vigilante, but whatever at this point.

Helena Bertinelli/Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)

The recreation of the infamous murders of the Bertinelli family was well done, while simultaneously serving as the emotional catalyst for Helena's training as an assassin. They pretty much pegged her to be Batman but without his line he won't cross to kill. Instead, Huntress doesn't have any issue whatsoever with crossing that line to exact her revenge on those who murdered her family in cold blood.

I'm going to be completely honest. I couldn't take Huntress seriously at all in this film from start to finish. When she would open her mouth to speak, the only thing I could see and hear was Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World each and every time. It was bad enough that they gave her an abysmal costume to wear in this film too. She gets a more comics-accurate costume during the closing moments of the film, but it still didn't look very good in that regard either. I don't know what the fuck they were thinking with her costume here at all.

Any attempts to take this character serious are diluted by the fact that once she pairs up with Harley and the other Birds of Prey, her serious nature is made out to be a complete joke, no matter how bad ass she comes across in combat. She got revenge by killing all of the men responsible for the murders of her family, but there wasn't much else to write home about her character arc. The tie-in with Sionis just felt tacked on at the last second in all honesty.

Dinah Lance/Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell)

Black Canary is a character that's traditionally portrayed as Caucasian blonde female, but I didn't have an issue with Jurnee Smollett-Bell being cast as racially diverse take on this character. I can't put my finger on it, but her character in this film is a tad muddled in terms of her direction. At the same time, she has the most "complete" character arc than anyone else in this film - other than Harley Quinn herself to an extent. She shows promise in the first half of the film, where she's content of making enough money to get by singing at Sionis' nightclub that was frequented by Harley Quinn and other shady individuals of Gotham City's criminal underworld. She was content with not getting involved in bringing those individuals to justice, as it was the same vigilante lifestyle that saw her mother get killed (something that Renee Montoya points out via exposition dialogue later in the film). What makes her stand out is no matter how much she tries to run away from that "responsibility" to use her powers for good, she finds herself being forced to answer that call time and time again. The first time was when Harley was about to be "taken advantage of" (read: more likely raped...) by that guy that picked her up at the nightclub during one of her drunken trysts and ready to load her into his van until Dinah stopped in her tracks and beat the shit out of him and his cohorts. Sionis notices her skills on display and employs her as his new driver and enforcer/bodyguard, much to her dismay. Her resolve to not get involved is pushed further by Renee Montoya approaching her about providing intel on Sionis' shady dealings after she reminds Dinah about her mother's heroic exploits.

Dinah struggles to stay within the middle of either side (good and evil) at play here, only to find her hand forced into action once Cassandra Cain was put into the crossfire of Sionis' plans. She informed Montoya of Sionis' deal with Harley Quinn, but found herself still struggling to follow in her mother's footsteps as a heroine. It wasn't until these Birds of Prey were forced with their backs against the wall against Sionis' army that she finally made a stand. She used her signature sonic scream (metahuman ability) to incapacitate most of Sionis' men and finally stepped up as a true heroine. She was done running and hiding from her destiny and true calling. Out of all of the characters in this film, I loved the fact that her narrative was brought around full circle.

Narrative

The film focuses primarily on Harley Quinn chronicling her exploits following her break up with The Joker following the events of Suicide Squad. It should be clarified that this film goes out of its way to keep the ties and references to Suicide Squad to an absolute minimum as Warner Bros./DC Comics wanted to treat this film as it's own standalone feature. Harley Quinn recaps that relationship with a rather cute animation montage at the start of the film.

In an attempt to drown her sorrows away by drinking heavily and partying every night in Gotham City, Harley Quinn abuses her status as The Joker's (ex) girlfriend without fear of repercussions until she foolishly blows up the Ace Chemical Plant that was their beloved "hangout". This clues in everyone to their break up and puts Harley Quinn into the cross hairs of every maniac in Gotham City looking to get even with her or The Joker in some capacity. All of this chaos leads Harley Quinn onto the bad side of Roman Sionis after she broke his drivers' legs during one of her drunken trysts. When she was held at gun point, Harley pleads to curry a favor in the form of retrieving the lost Bertinelli diamond that was stolen by the pickpocket, Cassandra Cain. Cassandra just happened to get arrested for petty theft and swallowed the diamond before she was detained.

The rest of the film has each of the main characters pursuing either Harley Quinn or Cassandra Cain in hopes of retrieving the diamond or cornering Sionis for they could land him in jail after collecting enough evidence.

• Dinah and Renee happen to cross paths with Cassandra out of pure coincidence. 
• Renee sees her as a regular at GCPD being brought in for petty theft and pickpocketing
• Dinah meets her on the way home as they happen to live in the same apartment building
• Huntress meets all four women after following Zsasz trail to fulfill her own revenge for the murders of her entire family
• She kills Zsasz and was ready to leave until Renee points out that Sionis was the mastermind behind the plot to murder her entire family
• Harley was under the impression that Huntress was after her, due to bounty on her head by Sionis
• Sionis wants the diamond from Cassandra as it would give him complete financial control of Gotham City, even though he had enough power over the city as it is, even down to his moles in the GCPD 

Huntress being involved is sheer coincidence since she had no ties to Sionis until Renee Montoya informed her that he was the one who staged her family's murder. With the dynamic between Renee and Dinah along with their unlikely partnership with Huntress, they could have taken down Sionis and Zsasz on their own without Harley's half-baked "let's work together" speech during the film's climax. On any other given day in Gotham City, those three women wouldn't beaten the shit out of Harley and along with Sionis' men.

I should mention that I watched that final fight sequence rolling my eyes at the sheer stupidity of how all of Sionis' henchmen are fighting these women with melee weapons or hand-to-hand instead of running into Amusement Mile with guns. They wised up when they had the women forced into the choke point as they were filing out of the main entrance, but that proved to be an excuse to resolve Dinah's character arc by making her use her powers in this film for the first time. Seeing that I felt like War Machine in Ironman 2, "How about next time you just lead with that?"

Harley confronts Sionis one-on-one and doesn't even beat him on her own, but by the odd chance that Cassandra Cain picked up one of Harley's hand grenades and pulled the pin at the last second before Harley knocks him off the pier to explode to his own fiery demise. I repeat - that was such a complete waste of that character. With Sionis dead, the five ladies go out together and bond over tacos (yeah... really) until Harley and Cassandra dupe them to take the Bertinelli diamond for themselves. Renee, Huntress, and Dinah form a new alliance as the trio of vigilantes dubbed the Birds of Prey, aimed to taking down other criminal exploits in Gotham City like Sionis' own. Harley takes Cassandra under her wing in a sense as they ride out to make a life of their own with the fortune they've acquired from the Bertinelli diamond. I get that this is supposed to be like "redemption" story of sorts for Harley coming out onto her own away from The Joker, but I can't say that this journey for her did anything for me.

That's well and all that she has the kid (Cassandra Cain) to tag along with her and fill the empty void that Mistah J left in her life after he dumped her, but this doesn't feel like an independence story like it comes across as it should. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for female empowerment and this film has a lot of moments where that is in full swing, but as an overall package, it doesn't feel very significant as a whole across the board. Five women down in their luck happen to cross paths and join forces against the common threat of Roman Sionis - I can buy that narrative for sure, but getting to that point is pretty muddled up with a lot of unnecessary red tape. Not to mention, there's Harley's cringe-worthy "rallying the troops" speech at the film's climax.

A few minor changes would have made this work better in my eyes. First of all, rename the kid anything BUT Cassandra Cain as that leaves that character on the table for the DCEU could bring her into the Bat Family in this continuity properly down the road. Keep Renee, Dinah, and Huntress' stories roughly the same, but add that they were getting tipped off by a mysterious informant throughout the film, who refers to themselves as "Oracle". Savvy comic book fans will know where I'm going with this. A mid-credits scene can reveal Oracle to be Barbara Gordon, Commissioner Gordon's wheelchair-bound daughter who has been monitoring Sionis' activities and looking for the means to take him down before they all came into the picture. Dinah, Renee, and Huntress can agree to continue working together and that's the proper start to the Birds of Prey. Sionis isn't killed off, but he's stuck in jail for a while from all of the evidence that's stacked against him from Renee's detective work, the evidence at the crime scene(s), and Oracle's own networking. Harley can still bond with the kid and all that, with the main change being that she allows the diamond to be returned to the proper authorities. Harley's true intentions are made clear after she tucks the kid in bed at her apartment, only to go out to steal the Bertinelli diamond for herself from police custody. This is where the film ends on a big cliffhanger where she bumps into Poison Ivy breaking into the police station for the very same thing. That way the film ends with a tease of what is to come with Ivy and Harley potentially teaming up while simultaneously laying a proper foundation for the Birds of Prey in this continuity.

But yeah... That's just my two cents on how I would have tweaked this film.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

I'm still laughing at the comments from the first week of this film's theatrical debut going along the lines of "you need a vagina to understand this film" along with Margot Robbie herself saying that people need to read the comics to get this film. I laughed hysterically and said, "Bitch, please." It's painfully obvious that those who were involved with the creation of this film were looking at comic book covers and was looking for "cool" ideas to shoehorn into this film with little knowledge of how these characters should be presented in any capacity.

If you like Harley Quinn (especially after her live-action debut in Suicide Squad), then it's going to be a no-brainer that you are going to want to see this. For everyone else who is already on the fence leery about everything that the DCEU has put on the table after Man of Steel, I say don't go out of your way to see this. It'll be on free television sooner more than later.

REVIEW -- Suicide Squad (2016)

Suicide Squad is a 2016 American superhero film based on the DC Comics antihero team of the same name. The third installment in the DC Extended Universe, the film is written and directed by David Ayer, and stars an ensemble cast featuring Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood and Cara Delevingne. In Suicide Squad, a secret government agency led by Amanda Waller recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions and save the world from a powerful threat, in exchange for leaner sentences.

Cast:

Will Smith as Floyd Lawton / Deadshot:
Jared Leto as Joker
Margot Robbie as Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn
Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag
Viola Davis as Amanda Waller
Jai Courtney as Digger Harkness / Captain Boomerang
Jay Hernandez as Chato Santana / El Diablo
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Waylon Jones / Killer Croc
Cara Delevingne as Dr. June Moone / Enchantress
Karen Fukuhara as Tatsu Yamashiro / Katana
Adam Beach as Christopher Weiss / Slipknot
Ike Barinholtz as Griggs
Scott Eastwood as GQ Edwards

Ben Affleck and Ezra Miller reprise their roles from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Barry Allen / Flash, respectively; while Jason Momoa makes a brief photographic appearance as Arthur Curry / Aquaman. Jim Parrack and Common appear as Joker's henchmen, Jonny Frost and Monster T. Shailyn Pierre-Dixon and Corina Calderon portray Zoe Lawton and Grace Santana, Deadshot's daughter and Diablo's wife, respectively. David Harbour and Alex Meraz portray a government official named Dexter Tolliver, and a Navy Seal named Gomez, respectively.

Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

In the aftermath of Superman's death, intelligence operative Amanda Waller assembles a team of dangerous criminals—the deranged Harley Quinn; elite hit man Deadshot; pyrokinetic ex-gangster El Diablo; opportunistic thief Captain Boomerang; monstrous cannibal Killer Croc; and specialized mercenary Slipknot—at Belle Reve Penitentiary and places them under command of Colonel Rick Flag, to be used as disposable assets in high-risk missions for the United States government. Each member has a small bomb implanted in their neck, designed to detonate should any member rebel or try to escape.

One of Waller's intended recruits is Flag's girlfriend, Dr. June Moone, an archaeologist who is possessed by a witch-goddess known as "Enchantress" after touching a cursed idol. Enchantress quickly turns on everyone, deciding to eradicate mankind for imprisoning her. She besieges Midway City with a horde of monsters, begins creating a weapon, and summons her brother, Incubus, to assist her. Waller then deploys the squad to extract a high-profile mark from Midway. However, the squad is briefed and put under the impression that what is going on in the city is a terrorist attack.

Ahead of their departure, they are joined by Katana, who wields a mystic sword and acts as Flag's bodyguard. Harley's lover, Joker, finds out about her predicament and tortures Griggs, one of Waller's men, into leading him to the facility where the nano bombs are made. He blackmails one of the scientists involved in the program into disabling Harley's bomb. On their approach their helicopter is destroyed, forcing them to proceed on foot to their target. On the way, Boomerang convinces Slipknot that the bombs are a ruse meant to keep them under control. Slipknot attempts to escape and is killed, while the team is attacked by Enchantress' minions. The team manages to escape to their final destination at a safe room, where they learn that their mark is Waller herself, who is attempting to cover up her involvement.

The squad escorts Waller to the rooftop for extraction, but the arriving helicopter has been hijacked by Joker and his men, who open fire on the squad while Harley climbs aboard. However, the helicopter is shot down by Waller's men, and Harley jumps out while Joker seemingly perishes in the explosion, after which Harley rejoins the squad. Alerted to Waller's whereabouts, Enchantress' minions arrive and kidnap her. With Waller compromised, Flag relieves the squad of the mission, but chooses to continue. Realizing they have an opportunity to prove themselves, they soon rejoin him and locate Enchantress and Waller at a partially flooded subway station. A group of Navy SEALs, led by Lieutenant GQ Edwards, go underwater to plant a bomb underneath Incubus while the squad fights Enchantress and her forces. El Diablo embraces his abilities and manages to hold Incubus down as the bomb goes off underneath, killing them both as well as GQ Edwards.

The squad members battle Enchantress together, but are ultimately defeated. Enchantress offers to fulfill their deepest desires in exchange for their allegiance, and Harley feigns interest in order to get close enough to cut out Enchantress's heart. Just after, Killer Croc throws explosives into the weapon as Deadshot shoots them, destroying the weapon. Flag takes Enchantress's heart and crushes it, killing Enchantress and freeing June. The squad members are then returned to Belle Reve, but with ten years alleviated from their sentences and special privileges. Shortly afterward, Joker, who survived the explosion, arrives with his men to rescue Harley. In a mid-credits scene, Waller meets with Bruce Wayne, who agrees to protect her from the backlash of Enchantress's rampage in exchange for access to the government's files on the expanding metahuman community.

The Verdict:

Going into this film, I made it a point to not watch many of the promotional teasers and trailers since I didn't want that to sour my impressions of this film much like it did for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice for the months leading up to that film. Right off the bat, director David Ayer has an unique style for this film and it works for the most part with it's unique presentation and visual style. The film adds a sense of color and life to an universe that has been painted mostly in black and white tones for the most part and it's rather odd that one would have the villains bring this emotion to the table instead of the depressing and brooding stories that viewers have come accustomed to from the DC Extended Universe thus far. The best thing about this film for me has to be soundtrack from start to finish. I definitely have to applaud Ayer in that aspect, but that's where I have to draw the line on his brilliance in this film for the most part.

After seeing the film, I've heard that Ayer stands by the theatrical release, even though the film has been chopped to pieces, re-shot and re-cut repeatedly after the fallout of BvS, but you can tell that the narrative suffers greatly as a result. Casual fans aren't going to care for the most part as they were happy just to see Harley Quinn and some of these other characters make their live-action theatrical debuts period but a lot of the storytelling here comes off as a rushed clusterfuck. 

The opening introductions of each of the villains in the form of various flashbacks were a nice touch but they gave away Slipknot's fate when they threw him into the mix without a shred of a backstory nor bothering to let viewers know who he is or what he could do outside of "he can climb anything". Seriously, how the hell is that a noteworthy skill that could get you onto a team like this? That's like saying that I can join for the ability that I can breathe oxygen and have a fully functioning brain. I knew that loser was dead the second that they just threw him in at the last second. I don't get why Ayer went out of his way to make all of the villains have sympathetic qualities when they are like what Harley Quinn said, "We're the bad guys!" That being said, outside of the flashbacks, you couldn't even tell that this was a team of super-villains if you walked into this film twenty to thirty minutes into the run-time. It seemed like Ayer was pitching for a band of misfits story like Marvel Studios' hit-stake gamble with Guardians of the Galaxy. Outside of roughly a handful of noteworthy scenes, this cast of characters can't really even be characterized as villains in my eyes. The whole premise of this film about a group of villainous individuals is lost for the most part as this film is more dead-set on humanizing and sympathizing these villains rather than establishing why they were labeled as villains in the first place. The film repeatedly said this team of villains were all VERY bad people but viewers weren't provided anything to think otherwise outside of word of mouth from other characters about how "bad" they are supposed to be. That ultimately ends up being the biggest flaw in this film and takes away from the dynamic that was advertised. Instead of a rebellious gang of super-villains, this story is too much of buddy flick in the same vein of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy where a band of misfits and unlikely heroes band together for a common interest to do good. 

Deadshot

I think this character suffered the most from having his villainous edge tainted from the sympathy factor. That was amplified by Will Smith's typecast nature of playing these types of characters where he's the dad thrust down a difficult path in life but perseveres only for the love their own children - in this case, Lawton's own daughter. I honestly busted out laughing that Flag was carrying around the letters from Deadshot's daughter during their mission that entire damn time. Like c'mon, Flag came off as a bigger villain than the rest of the team for doing that. What was he going to do with them, throw them in the trash if Deadshot pissed him off?

I'm not saying Will Smith's portrayal of this character was bad. It's just that we have seen Smith play this type of character so much that it's redundant at this point. Sure, he pulled it off but I was looking for more depth and a bit more villainy. I can't blame Smith for that much for the most part; that mistake falls on the shoulders of the writers of this film.

Like seriously, explain to me how this performance was different than any other performance Will Smith has played over the last two decades outside of the language?

One more thing... What was the point of Deadshot having a mask if Will Smith was only going to wear it for maybe two 2 minute shots out of the entirety of the film?

By the way, bravo to Ayer's costume department... The costumes in this film look freakin' amazing. They might have Marvel Studios beat in that regard as everyone looked like something pulled right off a page of a comic book.

The Joker and Harley Quinn

Sixty percent of this film's flashbacks involved these two and laying down the foundations to their relationship. One Easter Egg that's not getting a lot of press that I've noticed is the caption on Harley Quinn's bio in the film that she's credited as the accomplice to the death of Robin. Yeah, the same Robin whose costume was littered with graffiti by the Joker in the Batcave during BvS. That's freakin' HUGE but it's reduced to a mere caption that I didn't notice until my second viewing of this film and I'm pretty sure most people missed it the first time too. The fact that she was an accomplice to Robin's death doesn't bother me, but the fact that it was reduced to a mere caption instead of the film showing viewers what happened is the bigger crime. It seemed like a huge missed opportunity to omit that from the film. I rather them not mention it at all if they weren't going to show it.

Harley's backstory borrows aspects from both her original origin story from Batman: The Animated Series, as well as aspects from her current comics continuity. I love that Ayer went out of his way to provide some Easter Eggs showcasing Harley and Joker's relationship throughout the montage, such as her trademark red and black harlequin costume.

I thought that this was the best Easter Egg in the entire film for those who know where it
came from...

Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is the reason why most people will want to watch this movie in the first place and I will be first to admit that she delivered on her performance - for the most part. Her delivery on Harley's trademark "Boston" accent is a bit inconsistent at times while her delivery and timing on jokes is a little off, but I think she will warm up to the role with more appearances in this future of this universe. She had a lot of pressure on her shoulders being the first woman to portray this character in a live-action feature film, so I'm willing to forgive and overlook these minor gripes I had with her performance. 

Jared Leto's Joker didn't do anything for me. I wasn't neither impressed nor dissatisfied with his take on The Joker. I'm pretty indifferent about it as at this stage, that character has no significant weight in this universe. I have to admit that I'm not crazy about the Joker's affections towards Harley Quinn are legitimately genuine in this universe instead of the abusive relationship that they have been known for roughly two decades now. I was confused on how Leto's Joker knew how to locate the Belle Reve prison AND managed to know about the nanomachine bombs placed inside each of the members of the Suicide Squad with enough foresight to locate and devise a means to disable the device. After two viewings of the film, I found that this was never explained. It just comes across as this information just happens to land into the Joker's lap one way or another. I hate to be the one to point it out, but the Joker's mere presence in this film (even though it's very, VERY minor) brings it down a few pegs. The Joker's mere presence in this film distracts from the rest of the cast that the rest of the film suffers on multiple levels as a result.

Before people throw a hissy fit about the Joker and Harley Quinn's inclusion, hear me out. The Joker should have been limited to either ONE flashback in Harley's origin story or the lead-up to her capture and/or at the film's ending where he busts her out of Belle Reve to tease what's next for these two characters. They could have saved everything else for the next solo Batman film. Alternatively, he could have been the featured villain for this film front and center. It worked for Batman: Assault on Arkham (a MUCH better take on the Suicide Squad if you ask me by the way...) and I don't see how it could have gone wrong here. It would have been a perfect chance to establish The Joker as a major villain in this continuity (as he should be) as well as ironing out the messy details on Harley Quinn's origin and relationship in fell swoop instead of scattering it around aimlessly throughout this film's narrative. 

El Diablo

El Diablo with his own variation of "Spirit Fingers"...

El Diablo was the unsung hero of this story who met his untimely demise during the film's climax but I have a feeling that he's not dead. If his body operates on fire based powers, I'm pretty sure that he survived that explosion somehow. Out of the all of the "villains" in this narrative, he was the one that garnered the most sympathy from audiences next to Deadshot's relationship with his own daughter. Even if he did happen to find peace in death, at least viewers will be happy knowing that he's united with his family again.

I personally saw this character as an amalgamation of all of the iterations of this character from the comics as Ayer seemed to have borrowed something from each of those aspects of that character's publication history. Given Ayer's previous work on gang violence and such on the silver screen, it was no surprise that this character stood out more than the rest.

The Flag/June Moone/Enchantress Love Triangle?

I don't see why WB were so gung-ho about putting Enchantress in this film unless it was one of two possibilities. One being that they are just being petty and want to get their Enchantress introduced into this continuity before Marvel Studios does the same in their own universe as that's one of the rumored castings for the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok. The alternative is that WB/DC are looking to expose Superman's vulnerability to magic in a future film and Enchantress would be the perfect adversary to expose this weakness in combat.

I liked  Cara Delevingne as the Enchantress. She could be eerily creepy as Enchantress
but mousy and timid as Dr. June Moone. It's a shame that her multi-layered performance
will be overlooked in favor of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn by most viewers.

As for Enchantress' showing in this film, I thought her initial design as a mock voodoo queen was a nice touch until I saw how she was literally half-naked underneath all of The Ring-inspired special effects. I thought it was rather far-fetched to have the Suicide Squad defeat her in their first outing as a team, especially for a group consisting of mainly C to D tier villains against an obvious A+ tier level villain threat, even though her master plan was just as silly as the main antagonist's master plan at the end of the Ghostbusters reboot.

Cara Delevingne was a good fit in the role even though I wasn't too crazy about her Lord of the Rings-style demeanor during the film's climax, but she did well for the most part with what little she was given to work with for both Dr. June Moone and Enchantress. Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag wasn't bad either as he was completely unrecognizable as the same guy who starred in the recent RoboCop reboot. Flag seemed like a better fit for Kinnaman and I wouldn't mind seeing the character continue to pop up occasionally in this universe. My only issue with Flag in terms of the narrative was that he really never had any control of the team from start to finish. He brought in a squad of his own hand-picked soldiers that only served to be completely expendable when the actual fighting started while he looked incompetent at every turn while Enchantress' subordinates were making him look like a pushover at every opportunity. I saw that as the film subtly communicating that Enchantress was targeting him to take him out of the equation as she still had that weakness to her mortal heart since Dr. Moone held affections for him and didn't want that to come into play later. It made me question that why didn't she kill him right off the bat if she didn't already have some feelings for him as well... 

Amanda Waller

Give a hand for Viola Davis' performance as Amanda Waller.

If there's anyone who needs to be the flag-bearer for the DC Extended Universe going forward who ties everything together much like Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, it needs to be Viola Davis' Amanda Waller. Davis nailed this character down to the tee, from Waller's cold demeanor to sheer ruthlessness to get things done by any means necessary. I really hope WB/DC have her on contract for multiple films because just wow, it would be stupid not to.

I personally felt that Davis' performance delivered more than Robbie's Harley Quinn and added more to the table going forward for the DC Extended Universe. There's only so much one can do with Harley Quinn as piece on the chess board for structuring this universe going forward. It's a much better gamble to establish Waller as a prominent character moving forward.

Everyone Else...

This looks cool and all, but it sums up this film in a nutshell. The cool kids up in front,
while others are either in the background, neglected due to time, or just wondering around
aimlessly.

Boy, the rest of the Suicide Squad got the short end of the stick here. Why bother doing these big team-up films when you can't even establish the titular heroes properly in their solo films and you jump up to try this? That's the biggest problem with introducing a huge number of characters into any medium. This film is no different. Marvel Studios struggled with this until they found their legs but finally found what works for them. Warner Bros. will have to do the same with their DCEU over the course of the next few films, but I don't know if audiences will have the patience to put up with the state of this universe's shortcomings and fumbles right out of gate. 

Katana was a last second addition to this team in more ways than one. To say she was supposed to be Flag's bodyguard, she was doing a piss-poor job at that. Harley and Deadshot were protecting his ass and getting him out of harm's way more than she was. After how well this character was represented in CW's Arrow and Beware the Batman, I hated to see this character wasted here. I hope we get to see more of her later down the line.

I shook my head that no one thought of having Katana just stab Enchantress and take her soul into the Soultaker Sword and free Dr. Moone that way... 

Captain Boomerang was a complete flop in this film. I guess he was just there for comic relief but Deadshot and Harley Quinn - even occasionally Killer Croc too - had that role down for the most part. Hell, even Killer Croc had better comedy bits than he did. I know that they have to have a Flash villain on the Squad's ranks, but they could have dug up someone better than this. The current comics continuity of the Squad had Reverse Flash on their ranks for a brief period but I doubt that would have worked here if they are saving him for The Flash's first solo film later down the line. I would have liked Boomerang more if they didn't just make him look absolutely worthless in almost every exchange or fight the team found themselves in. By the end of it all, I was going why the fuck is this loser still here? He should've gotten killed with Slipknot if he was just going to be dead weight. 

Killer Croc was cool for the most part, but I had to shake my head at the black stereotypes they had to paint onto the character. It's 2016, folks. We don't need that shit just to make something "entertaining" - it's bad enough that professional wrestling still goes that route for cheap pops. No offense to Adewale, but Ayer could have found someone else who was a little more bigger and physically imposing to play that character. It was rather odd to see him look smaller or the same size as just about everyone else on the team. Sue me, but I've said it a hundred times by now but I'm a stickler for how these comic book characters "should" look in a real life setting compared to their comic book incarnations if we're trying to suspend belief here. Croc was another victim of being shortchanged in terms of character development.

Slipknot... Do I need to go on? That dude was there just to get killed off. He served no other purpose. Allegedly, he was supposed to have a scene shown where he was apprehended by Wonder Woman, much like Flash's cameo when he caught Captain Boomerang, but that was cut due to time constraints. I still can't get over that they went with a Z-tier bottom of the barrel villain like Slipknot in this... Just wow.

The mid-credits teaser

I felt that scene would have held more merit and weight behind it if WB/DC didn't already reveal the Justice League trailer at Comic Con a few weeks prior to this film's release. Instead, it just made it come off a bit silly for my taste - even more so that Batman has the files from Lex Luthor's drive on metahumans so what else does he need from Waller? It's not like Luthor's information wouldn't be enough as I would like to think that a genius at his level wouldn't be slack on details on something very important like that.

Still, it was fun to see Bruce Wayne and Amanda Waller meet up in a live-action setting like this as their encounters in both the comics and in animated media have been nothing short of awesome...

I still have a huge problem with the lack of heroes coming to investigate the situation in Midway City after all of the chaos that Enchantress was causing around the world though...

*** BONUS *** My vision for Suicide Squad:

Deathstroke would have been a "surprise" late addition to the roster as Waller was bringing in members at the last second, much like how Slipknot was brought in briefly with no backstory. The only reason this possibly would not have worked is that Deadshot and Deathstroke have similar designs and skill sets and that would have ended up confusing casual viewers in the long run.

I would have included KGBeast who has been identified as one of the operatives in Lex Luthor's mercenary operation to "frame" Superman from the beginning of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Anatoli Knyazev. He ends up taking the role in the film that Slipknot did where he's just the example of the nanomachines work and Amanda Waller wasn't bluffing about blowing their heads off. People already think he's dead from being roasted alive by Batman during his rescue of Martha Kent, so it won't hurt to put the exclamation point on his demise here.

I would have included Black Manta since we need to establish Aquaman's main antagonist since it's going to be a long time before we get a solo Aquaman film. Sure, he's Aquaman's top adversary but you can introduce him here and do the cameo where Aquaman caught him and left him off-shore to the police. They could always pull Ocean Master for Aquaman's solo film as the main antagonist there anyway.

My take on The Joker would have retained The Joker's vanity for himself over any compassion over Harley Quinn instead of the silly Bonnie and Clyde-sque dynamic that they share in this universe. Ultimately, The Joker would have been the main antagonist here with him trying to control the Enchantress for his own misdeeds. It wouldn't be a stretch for him to do this as he has managed to manipulate entire Justice League and pit them all against the Dark Knight, so controlling a wildcard like the Enchantress shouldn't be too much of a stretch either. Waller's hook on getting Harley to obey would be her jealousy that her "puddin'" has taken a new girl under his wing and has "replaced" her, but in the end, Joker ends up fooling her to betray the Squad. Harley's own Stockholm syndrome ultimately ends up being her own downfall as the film would shed light on her past of her abusive relationship with the Joker. The Squad ends up being prepared for the double-cross by Harley since Waller has a back-up plan for that outcome (of course she does...), and that's when and where you bring in Deathstroke to take out Joker to the shock of the Squad as a last minute addition. Joker escapes while Deathstroke and Batman are at a stalemate ('cause Batman can't beat him straight up without help...) and the rest of the Squad are dealing with a deranged Enchantress.

Keep Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Diablo, Killer Croc, and Flag. Drop Slipknot, Captain Boomerang and Katana. Why introduce another "hero" when it's extremely unlikely that Katana will be enlisted for the Justice League anytime soon? It's not like Warner Bros. are going to do an Outsiders live-action film, so I honestly don't see the reasoning behind having Katana on this iteration of the Squad outside of fan-service, so she's out. Captain Boomerang is fucking lame, even for the goofs that call themselves The Flash's archenemies. I know he's a main stay for this team, but that doesn't mean that he translates well on this team. When Marvel did Guardians of the Galaxy, they weeded out a LOT of the bullshit and lame duck characters that were considered members of that team over the last few decades. They stuck with a roster that works for a live-action film and was simple enough to keep things interesting.

I know that this isn't as good of some of my other pitches, but I'm just throwing some ideas out there.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

Margot Robbie sipping on that tea while she doesn't give a flying fuck about
the reviews of this film say as she's going to get her own solo spin-off no matter what as that's
ultimately what this film was - an audition/demo reel for a Harley Quinn solo film.

After the mess that was Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice earlier this year, you might as well watch this to get the bad taste of that movie out of your mouth in relation to DC Comics' live-action properties. Unlike the many reviews on this film, I don't think that I've took a massive dump on it like everyone else has. This film is nowhere perfect, but there's some decent moments that make up for that film's vast shortcomings while managing to keep a lighter, upbeat tone than previous titles in the DC Extended Universe. I still find that rather ironic that the one films about the VILLAINS of this universe has a lighter, fun tone than the films about the titular heroes in the same said universe.

With that being said, I walked away from this film with a huge "meh" impression after leaving the theater. I was neither blown away nor completely disgusted with what I saw - I was merely indifferent on my opinion on the state of the DC Extended Universe going forward. If this was an independent film without any having any ties to establishing nor laying the groundwork to future DC Comics-based properties, I would have been a lot more forgiving on this film. Sadly, it's not and I was left expecting and wanting a LOT more from this experience. Most casual fans will be happy with just the fact that Harley Quinn and the Joker are in this period, so knock yourselves out, but there's going to be a lot more comic book fans and film-goers in general who are going to walk away from this film desiring a lot more out of this as well.