Suicide Squad Review

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was not a failure, not commercially anyway; $800million at the worldwide box office is nothing to be sniffed at. It also wasn't the disaster that the critics would have you believe it was, yes it was incoherent and a bit too po-faced but it was still a perfectly average film. Warner Bros however didn't see BvS: DoJ as the success it could have been, it didn't break a billion, which the title alone should have done, and it didn't successfully tap a large fan base that could maintain a DC cinematic universe to rival the daddies of Comic Book Movies, the Disney owned Marvel. So it's hardly surprising when you read of a panicked Warner Bros fretting over their next big project, Suicide Squad.

Suicide Squad centres on a group of bad guys held up in Belle Reve prison who are utilised by government ball-buster Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to take down a 'metahuman' adversary in exchange for a reduction in their prison sentences. Director David Ayer has delivered thumping thrill rides in the past such as Fury and End of Watch, as a former US Naval officer his skills would seem to lend themselves to helming such a vessel, so sad then that this film really is a sinking ship.

Ayer seems obsessed with trying to make this film 'cool' and one of the main ways he thinks he can do this is by adding a pop soundtrack to the film. The problem is that when you have a pop soundtrack, each track needs to be meticulously chosen in order to lend itself to the scene, it needs to have purpose, Ayer wants to be like a Tarrantino or a Scorsese but for the most part it feels like he’s accidentally left his iPod on shuffle and it’s just blaring out songs.
It also isn't helped by the fact that the early moments of the film have the attention span of a toddler on a sugar rush, the songs change every ten seconds and it flits all over the place like its suffering from ADHD. It also doesn't really know how it wants to begin, it introduces its characters in a very formulaic way, then introduces them again, before introducing them a third time, all three times being as awful as the first.

The characters themselves vary in their levels of interest. Will Smith is as charismatic as you'd expect from him in the role of the ultimate marksman Deadshot, but he's working with thin material, the only thing that defines Deadshot is that he's a father, and we are continuously reminded that he's a father and that he has a daughter and hey, he isn’t that bad because he's a father to his daughter, it’s incredibly one note and underserves a talented actor.

The other main star of the cast is Margot Robbie as the psychotic Harley Quinn. Again, Robbie is excellent in the role with her line delivery on point throughout the whole film, but if Fury had you suspicious that Ayer doesn’t know how to write women, then Suicide Squad will 100% confirm it. She's a character defined only by her obsession for the psychotic killer The Joker, the violence depicted towards her in the film makes for uncomfortable viewing throughout, and the later betrayals of what they've set her character up to be are entirely illogical.

The rest of the 'Squad' have their parts, Jay Hernandez's El Diablo is played as sympathetic despite his entire arc of the film being wholly unsympathetic. Joel Kinnaman plays squad leader Rick Flag, and he brings all the charisma you'd expect from his reputation, which mainly involves him standing around with a head too small for his body and reading lines with all the passion of a man who starred in the dreadful Robocop remake. Then there's the rest who barely register besides Jai Courtney's mildly amusing Captain Boomerang, though one must really question the logic of challenging the might of a ‘metahuman’ with a guy whose soul attribute is that he throws boomerangs.

The much talked about performance of Jared Leto as the latest iteration of The Joker will actually leave most viewers underserved, but even then there are major problems with his depiction. The Joker should be either fun or nihilistic, with the best depictions being both, in the case of Leto he's neither. This Joker doesn’t give off any sense of fun more irritation, and there’s also no sense of threat, the terrifying performance by Heath Ledger has been traded in for something far more constructed, there isn’t a sense that this man is psychotic when he has tattoos and gold jewellery and a very conscious sense of style, he feels like a man who's spent about an hour getting ready before he walks into the room.

The problem also lies in the respect that Ayer has shown the character, this is a big character and deserves a big introduction, but in Suicide Squad he's introduced in flashback just sat at a table. It would be harsh to judge this character on the glimpses that have been given so far, but there seems like there’s a lot of work to be done.

The worst thing you can say about this film is that it’s not actually a film. A film trailer is a series of edited footage, usually done to music that gives the impression or semblance of a plot or narrative. The reasons that the trailers for Suicide Squad were so promising is because that’s all the film is, a series of clips edited together to give the semblance of a narrative, it's like Ayer directed several grating music videos and just strung them together incoherently , the result is a fiercely irksome mess.

For all its faults BvS felt like a film with a thousand bright ideas crammed into the same story, whereas Suicide Squad is a vacuous, empty, hollow shell of a film, it's probably going to find as big an audience as BvS did, but for DC to build a sustainable universe with longevity they need to produce quality, and a good film this ‘aint. (1 Star)  

High-Rise Review

There's a word that is often banded around when a famous book goes from person to person and failed project to failed project, un-adaptable. This has happened with many books in the past, such as Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian which still struggles to make it to screen, and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas which did make it to screen. High-Rise is a 1975 novel from J.G. Ballard which focuses on a class war between the higher and lower floors of a high-rise apartment building, eventually descending into anarchy and mayhem. After failed attempts to bring the novel to screen the project eventually landed at the feet of a British director who's been on his own rapid rise, Kill List and Sightseers Ben Wheatley.

It is unmistakably a Wheatley sort of project, the material plays to his dark sensibilities as well as his innate Britishness. Wheatley manages to capture the nostalgic yet also oddly futuristic feel to the film. The slow deterioration of normality and rationality as the film progresses is managed so effectively that by the time things do deteriorate into anarchy, rape and murder and eating dogs seems oddly rational.

Plaudits must be given to screenwriters Amy Jump and Benjamin Taylor, who have managed to successfully adapt the seemingly un-adaptable. Most notable in their adaptation is they've managed to make the incredibly passive protagonist of the novel seem investing. Laing is the lead character of the book, but he sort of comes off as a spectator in his own story, in the film Tom Hiddleston is given more weight to the character, Hiddleston's Laing has some much needed edge. When everyone else is losing their minds his calm demeanour comes off as alarmingly sociopathic, as Luke Evans manic bull of a character Wilder observes “the real dangerous ones are the self-contained types like you”.

High-Rise won’t be for everybody, it’s not quite the film that its trailer might suggest. It's a slow film which might bore some viewers but there's so much style to it that its worth taking the time. The featured soundtrack is an impressive combination of synth and pop and oozes cool throughout the building. It's an odd film bound to find a following akin to the book, but more than anything its a Wheatley film, dark, funny, violent and with its focus on the class system, very British. (High 4 Stars)

Finding Dory Review

It's hard to believe that Finding Nemo is actually 13 years old. There's every chance that today's 18 year olds, about to start university and drink themselves silly, were once fresh faced 5 year olds sitting down to take in their first film at the cinema. Pixar aren't usually in the business of making sequels, director Andrew Stanton has said that sequels need to have a natural story progression for them to be worthwhile coming back, and Finding Nemo has the unexplained story of a forgetful blue tang called Dory.

Set 2 years after Marlin's and Dory's adventure across the ocean to rescue Nemo after he had been kidnapped, or should that be fishnapped? Finding Dory sees Dory living with Marlin and Nemo, only she's starting to remember things, and she's remembered that she has a family and so sets out to find them at the California based Aquatic Park she thinks they're at.

The animation from Pixar is every bit as extraordinary as you expect it to be, and the ocean based setting allows them to flourish in the design. Returning characters from the first outing play just as strong and there is a real talent in how the voice performances match the animated performance. Despite this being a sequel this isn't a case of running out the whole gang from the first one, despite a brief appearance from Crush the sea turtle, instead the film welcomes a whole bunch of new players. Brits Idris Elba and Dominic West lend their voices to 2 cockney Sea Lions called Fluke and Rudder, they're lazy but also incredibly possessive of the rock they lie on, their cry of “off, off, off” is the “my, my, my” of this film. Then there's Ty Burrell as a beluga whale with damaged sonar and Kaitlin Olson's near sighted whale shark called Destiny, when you know that the two actors probably never had a chance to meet each other, it makes the chemistry the characters have all the more impressive. The there's Ed O'neill's Hank the octopus, or septopus as Dory humorously points out given his missing tentacle. He's a wonderfully animated character and it’s a consistent visual delight the way he flops around and camouflages into scenery, but he's a bit too nasty to really enjoy, yes there is the obvious nice epiphany at the end, but it doesn't make his abrasiveness any more enjoyable.

Pixar are the number one animators in cinema, not just because of what they do in terms of pushing animation, but because of what they do with story. The moments featuring an adorably cute baby Dory are some of the most emotional you'll see this year. The film succeeds in given so much weight to Dory's disability which has previously only been a comedic side note. Seeing Dory's parents helping her cope with her memory loss and making sure that she will be able to make it in the world is utterly heart-breaking, and it transcends the film from mere fun animation. The film has a positive message throughout that disabilities don't have to hold you back, it doesn't matter if its Hank's missing tentacle, Nemo's lucky fin or Destiny's near sightedness all of them have something to offer. Last year’s Inside Out showed that they could confidently tackle questions other film makers had struggled with for years, and in Finding Dory they show that you can make a film just as affecting for adults as it is fun for children without having to make nods and winks to things children won’t get.

After a beautifully played emotional denouement to the film it feels a little frustrating that it then slips into an entertaining but fairly simple and not very Pixar climax, but the work they'd put into that point means that they've earned themselves that ending.

This isn't quite as transcendental or original as last year's Inside Out, but Finding Dory is a very worthy sequel and shows that on their day there are few that can conjure the magic of Pixar. (Low 5 Stars)

Jason Bourne Review

We've had Identity, Supremacy and then Ultimatum, and now nine years later we finally have a fourth Bourne film, and this time it’s just Bourne, Jason Bourne. Of course, we did actually have a fourth Bourne film back in 2012, only without Paul Greengrass behind the camera and Matt Damon in front of it, it turned out The Bourne Legacy was as much a Bourne film as Austin Powers was a Bond film. This dual return to the world of espionage and all things Blackbriar, Treadstone and Bourne must be seen as a conscious reaction to the disaster of the so called legacy film, but with The Bourne Ultimatum being such a strong closer to the original trilogy coming back for another outing could have spelled trouble.

In this latest venture Bourne has been off the radar for some time and has taken up the not so nice hobby of bare knuckle fighting. Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) brings Bourne back in after she hacks the CIA and uncovers something unknown to Bourne about his past. The hack and Nicky end up leading the CIA to Bourne and the usual ensues. Writers Greengrass and Rouse have attempted to provide the film with some timely commentary as a Mark Zuckerberg type figure, performed pathetically well by Riz Ahmed, is in cahoots with Tommy Lee Jones shadowy CIA figure, so that the social media platform that Riz Ahmed creates can be used by the CIA to provide information.

The greatest achievement that Greengrass accomplishes here is that he makes you forget all the terribleness of the spin off and reminds you why these films are so great. When it gets going it really gets going, an early motorbike escape and a Vegas car chase are really edge of your seat brilliant. As bombastic as those bravura sequences are, it’s also the smoothness and slickness of the covert Bourne sneaking past people and watching them from a distance that is incredibly difficult to achieve but looks effortless in the hands of Greengrass.

Matt Damon has owned this part for almost 15 years now and his performance as Bourne is now completely weathered in, Bourne obviously looks older, but he also looks worn down and with very little dialogue Damon conveys so much just through the way he carries himself. Performances elsewhere are good, but Nicky Parsons aside, they're all new characters and unfortunately don't feel fully developed. Tommy Lee Jones' Robert Dewey and Alicia Vikander's Heather Lee are the two CIA directors at odd over to handle The Bourne Situation (that would have made a good title). The problem is, though Tommy Lee Jones is as craggy as ever Robert Dewey just feels like diet Brian Cox from the earlier films. At one point he says about Bourne “he was always coming for me”, but there's been nothing to suggest over any of the previous films that he even existed so it rings entirely hollow. The same goes for Alicia Vikander, though she could comfortably act anyone in the film off the screen, there's so much of Heather Lee that feels false, maybe that's supposed to play on her CIA status, but small things such as people calling her a rookie despite clearly being in charge of a very large team end up feeling quite annoying. Then there's Vincent Cassell's agent, known only as The Asset. Vincent Cassell brings it his all and in the film he's a force to be reckoned with, however with a name like The Asset, his character should remain far more ambiguous, yet they choose instead to give both Bourne and The Asset personal vendettas against each other, the film longed for Joey Ansah's Desh, or Karl Urban's Kirill, they were brilliant because they were dangerous and wanted to kill Bourne, only because they'd been told to.

There's this desperate sense in Jason Bourne that its trying to be as relevant as possible, which as admirable but when it’s trying to shoehorn references to Edward Snowden and makes social media a central plot point yet clearly doesn't really understand what social media is, it feels like a dad at a teenagers party trying to name as many of the latest pop stars his brain can struggle to mention.

It can never be understated how influential the Bourne films were on cinema, they were the films that forced the Bond franchise to up their game and change their style, and inspired a trend in action style that allowed the likes of Liam Neeson to become stars of the genre. This does definitely feel like Bourne is back, but it more aptly feels like Bourne again (another good title). It feels as though it’s returned about a decade too late. It’s a lot more fun and gripping than any other films you're likely to see this summer, but if that what you want, just go back and watch the original trilogy. (High 3 Stars)