MadCap At The Movies - "Suicide Squad"

Stop the presses! Stop the presses! Stop the presses!

Let me tell you, my friends, the critics don't know jack!

...except me. I'm a critic, and I know jack, and this is an awesome movie! I know, I know, I'm a self-professed Marvel fanboy and I railed against both this given its trailer content and the most recent cinematic abortion that Zack Snyder still suffers in the Phantom Zone for. But all my fears have been put to rest.

I feared that Will Smith would be underused and otherwise made out to be the "old guy" in the group.

He wasn't and he was phenomenal.

I feared that Margot Robbie wouldn't use Harley's traditional accent and would be nothing more than glorified eye candy.

She did and she wasn't. She was both sexy and funny as all get out.

And, I feared most of all...Jared Leto as the Joker.

He was excellent and didn't steal the spotlight as I feared he would, as he did in Batman: Assault on Arkham.

Now, the only problem with this film is...it doesn't really leave much to the other characters. Because, despite this being a team movie, they really aren't the focus.  I still have no idea (or inclination to go find out) who Rick Flag (Joel Kinnamen) is.  In fact, the only character I really care all that much to find out more about is El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), because he does get a good amount of focus in the film.

Not to say the other characters are bad, and everyone does get their moment in the sun - much like in Guardians of the Galaxy - but the main focus here is very much on Deadshot, Harley, and the Joker. And that's not a bad thing per se.

Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is very excellent in her role as a cold, ruthless government employee who puts together the team for the good ol' Red, White, and Blue (and her own agenda, of course). While it is sad that we're not getting the iconic voice of the character, CCH Pounder from Justice League Unlimited and other DC animated productions, Davis does do an excellent job and is a worthy successor to the role. I look forward to seeing her in the future.

In fact, I'd like to see more of all of this all over the DC Expanded Universe. This is the humor and joy that was missing from Batman vs. Superman. It was clear that not only was some real talent behind this, but they really cared about something other than exercising their fetish for hating buildings and destroying buildings. There is real character here, a real reason to get invested and care about this bunch of cutthroats, lunatics, and psychopaths.

I've seen this film, among other things, being accused of being a Marvel rip-off. Yes. Actually being good and successful are things that DC should be ripping off with its films. And, to its credit, the film revels in that fact. One of the major themes is owning what you are, and the film most certainly does that as do its characters within the narrative...but that's getting into spoilers.

Basically, go and see this movie! Have a popcorn, get an ICEE, sit back and ignore the critics.

Because they don't know jack.

...except me, I'm a critic, and I know jack. And this movie is really, really, really good!

Suicide Squad is now in theaters from DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Suicide Squad"

So...Suicide Squad, the DC universe's answer to Marvel's Thunderbolts and likely one of the more well-known teams in the DC Universe. Why? Because they're bad guys.  And DC is known for, if nothing else, putting their bad guys front and center.  That's the reason why their poster child is a borderline psychopathic nutjob who runs around in leather and beats the snot out of the criminal element of the city of not-Boston.

You may recall that this is not my first go around with DC'S Cream of the Crop for Baddies, that came a bit ago  when I reviewed Batman: Assault on Arkham.  And it was good.  It suffered from having too much focus on Batman, that is to say any focus on Batman, but it was overall very good and stood very well on its own as an animated feature.  Though I'd expect nothing less from the DC Animated products, they've dominated that market for many years in a way that Marvel just can't manage to scratch with their own, regardless of how good Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Spectacular Spider-Man were (yes, yes, and the 90s X-Men cartoon, don't stone me to death).

To get back on topic, however, the first official trailer got released and...it's trying way, way too hard to be Guardians of the Galaxy.  With a full blast of "Bohemian Rhapsody" as we get introduced to an all-star cast of B-List DC villains...and Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie, sans accent).  It highlights the main problem I have with what DC is doing in the post-Christopher Nolan's Batman world: introducing a bunch of characters as though we've already known them.  They're doing it in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Whatever with the Dark Knight himself and now they're doing it here with a bunch of baddies.

The Marvel movies have worked because they take the time and effort to establish their heroes before throwing them into a big crossover event so that we know who in the sphincter of Hell they are when they do.  And before anyone gets in touch to tell me that Guardians did the same thing, I'll remind you that Guardians actually bothered to set up and define the characters of a team relatively unknown to the general public and they managed to make it a monster hit.  And it was in a team film.  At least with Batman he has several previous films of establishment.  Quick, let's do a little exercise. Without having to Wikipedia it, I want you to post in the comments who Rick Flag is for me.

Go on.  Do it.

Mind you, while I find that it's rather pretentious of them to be using Queen in their trailer and while I really still question the fact that Ben Affleck is in this movie (or any movie as Batman, which brings up my fears of a repeat of the animated film what with Joker being involved as well), I have to admit that I am interested to see what they do with it.  I admit, I do like what I'm seeing visually, it looks like a good movie - kind of like my idea of a superhero version of Goodfellas that Sony was going to try and push with that Sinister Six film before Spidey ended up back in Marvel's pen. In truth, it's the first DC product I have had any sort of interest in or excitement from since Justice League Unlimited went off the air.

...how long ago was that? Nevermind.

But yes, maybe I'm being cynical.  Maybe Suicide Squad will prove to be the monster hit that nobody expected and DC will finally have a dog in the fight that is the comic book movie.  Perhaps it will replace Guardians as my favorite science-fiction underdog movi-yeah, reality isn't going to bend that far, DC...

Suicide Squad is due to be released in theaters on August 5, 2016 from DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.