My favorite character in “Suicide Squad” is a jail guard played by comedian Ike Barinholtz, a lippy type who gets on the wrong side of the super-baddies in the movie. Funny guy, at least until the film loses track of him.
The fact that he’s my favorite person in a movie allegedly bursting with zany, colorful characters signals a problem for “Suicide Squad.” This film tries very hard to makes its rogues gallery fun. The strain is evident.
The Squad comes from the pages of DC Comics, and fits into the same movie universe that gave us the glum “Batman v Superman” earlier this year. It’s no spoiler to note that Ben Affleck’s Batman drops in for an appearance, looking mighty reluctant to be here.
Our premise is that a government official (Viola Davis, doing an amazing job of keeping a straight face) assembles a unit of villainous cutthroats who have misused their superpowers. It’s a dangerous, nonsensical plan, but Davis — whose hairstyle appears borrowed from Yaphet Kotto in “Alien” — is so terrifying that everybody goes along with it anyway.
Who are these miscreants? There’s Deadshot (Will Smith), a lethal hitman with perfect aim; Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), a lunatic in baby-doll attire; Diablo (Jay Hernandez), a tattooed firestarter; Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a reptilian humanoid; Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), who throws boomerangs; and a few other reprobates.
If that description sounds underwhelming (a guy who throws boomerangs?), rest assured that they all have bad deportment. In fact, the movie never stops underlining how cool their anti-authority attitudes are.
In “Dirty Dozen” fashion, they are gathered under Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) to combat the Enchantress (supermodel Cara Delevigne), a vixen with ancient powers of destruction. She’s the villain, even though the ads have featured the Joker, Batman’s cackling, green-haired arch-nemesis, who has relatively little screen time.
The Joker is played by “Dallas Buyers Club” Oscar winner Jared Leto. This is a triumph of design over substance: While Leto looks terrifically bizarre, his performance (despite some reportedly crackpot on-set behavior) might’ve been given by a dozen similar actors.
Smith is miscast but knows how to deploy his movie star presence, and Courtney does nicely with the surliest of the bunch. Robbie’s grinning Harley Quinn is in love with the Joker, but Robbie can’t find a way to make that work.
The movie starts out well, because the assembling-the-team scenes in these things are always fun. But I expected more payoff from writer-director David Ayer, who got some genuine hard-edged nastiness going in “Fury” and especially “Sabotage.”
“Suicide Squad” acts tough. But these anti-heroes have hearts of gold, and they talk more about being a “family” — after knowing each other for 10 hours — than the weepy “Fast and Furious” crew. Enough already with the humanizing backstories. Be bad or go home.
“Suicide Squad” (2 stars)
The DC Comics universe opens up to include this team of anti-heroes, whose ranks include Will Smith’s lethal Deadshot and Margot Robbie’s crazy Harley Quinn. The Joker (Jared Leto) is in the mix, but only in a supporting role, as the bad guys try to squelch an ancient curse, with decidedly so-so results.
Rating: PG-13, for violence
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Cinebarre, Edmonds, Everett Stadium, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Stanwood Cinemas, Thornton Place, Woodinville, Blue Fox, Cascade Mall, Oak Harbor Plaza
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