In the name of all things Wonderful - Review of Wonder Woman

The people at the helm of the DCEU can finally take a collective sigh of relief, because finally they will be able to salvage some of that competitive dignity that they lost with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And after 2 pathetic attempts at making films on female superheroes, with Catwoman (2005) <ugh> and Supergirl (1984), they finally gave us Wonder Woman, AND AM I GLAD! And should YOU be! And that's a lot of ands. And I should stop. And you should read on ... and so. 

However, not getting carried away, there are both pros and cons of the movie: PROS in terms of the story’s consistency, comic timing, acting and background score; and CONS in terms of what is the bane of every DC movie till date. Rest assured the PROS outweigh the CONS.

It is quite a task to take one of the hottest comic book superheroines and render them on screen in such spectacular fashion, because it’s easy to hire an attractive actress to fit into the stereotypically tight clothes of a typical comic book superhero, but it’s absolutely another task to make her look so convincing in the role, it’s as if she was born into it. 

Words fall short in praise of Gal Gadot, or as I call her, “DC’s gift to the cinematic world.” Gal Gadot flirts very gracefully with the line that defines Wonder Woman as a pin-up girl on one side and as a symbol of female empowerment on the other. This is not the first role the Israeli girl is known for though , who you may remember behind the driving wheel in the multi-million dollar Fast & Furious franchise, in a comparatively lesser significant role. She perfectly fits the bill as the curious young Amazon demigoddess trying to come to terms with the reality of her birth and the extent of her powers. Superman and Batman have us used to a particular dark, grim brand of superheroes. Gal Gadot as Diana restores an inherently childish and grounded element of humanity into the DCEU that was much, much required after their last 2 offerings (not saying that those were bad films, those were some pretty good, mildly underappreciated (okay, quite underappreciated) films) which had been trying to establish themselves in the shade of the massively successful and ingeniously rooted Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The movie explores the origin story of Diana, the Princess of a race of Greek women warriors that live on the island of Themyscira, who are hidden from and exist for the destruction of Ares, the Greek god of war. When fate lands American spy Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine) on the beaches of Themiscyra followed close behind by a fleet of German soldiers, Diana comes to know about men, and starts on a journey of rediscovering a world embroiled in World War 1, and the true purpose of her mysterious birth.  

A beautiful spectacle of a film, with fluid fight correctly timed fight sequences, choreographed to a power-packed background score by Junkie XL and Hans Zimmer, DC and Warner Bros. have provided a grounded film that sticks as close as possible to its comic book roots, with classic forgotten villains and yet dissipates information in a way that even a layman audience getting introduced to Wonder Woman for the first time can tune into.

The only CON that seems to have become a running disease for every DC movie, is its cinematography and green-screening. Bringing in the MCU at this point, it must be pointed out how realistic all of their films appear, making it very easy for a viewer to imagine those same characters in front of themselves in reality, because that’s how close to reality their sets and their world is. DC has this penchant for featuring fights in the dark, something one can observe even in the trailer of the upcoming Justice League.  And not wanting to be harsh, but DC’s cinematography is more like a video game rather than a film. This becomes a huge problem, even with a movie like Wonder Woman, who has a monumental build-up to a climactic reveal, to feature a boss-fight in a night-sky that looks so artificial, it very nearly kills the entire momentum it had built up till that point.

VERDICT – 4  /5 toots of the bugle 

Probably the best thing by DC after the Dark Knight trilogy, in the name of Hera!!

Gal Gadot is truly a Wonder Woman for one of the most earnest and immersive performances of her career, and for restoring faith in the DC universe, one which is hoped shall not diminish with Justice League. 

Suicide Squad: A Lesson in genius marketing, and suicidal storytelling

When you – hell, the whole world - wait for something for over a year, you expect it to be sky-blazin’ amazing. Suicide Squad was riding on a zeppelin of expectations. Shame, that it had to crash and burn the way it did. Time for an autopsy of the most highly anticipated comic book film of the decade.

Let’s start with a disclaimer - Suicide Squad is actually a decent time spent at the theatre. It has all the elements of a quintessential summer action flick – a looming apocalypse, high octane gun-toting action sequences, a hot girl, Will Smith and general Hollywood stupidity. Plus, it has cameos by Batman and the Flash to boot. But then again, this isn’t some brawny ‘Murican film we’re talking about here, because if we wanted that, Bruce Willis is still alive and kicking ass all Yippee Ki-Yay. Director and writer David Ayer has written stuff like 'Training Day' and 'Fury'. But then he even wrote the farce that was 'Sabotage' starring Schwarzenegger, so my bets weren't really on him.

Frankly, if the movie could be described in 2 words, they’d be ‘Stupid’ and ‘Superficial’.

The film starts off post the death of Superman in Dawn of Justice. There’s little that the trailers left to the imagination of the viewers with regards to the plot – Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), a high-ranking U.S. government official assembles a covert team of ‘Bad Guys’ (like there’s actually a category like that) called Task Force X to execute dangerous life-threatening missions where if successful, the members would be given time off of their sentences. However, if they fail or try to escape, they’d be killed through ‘nanite explosives’ implanted in their necks (Hence the name Suicide Squad). The members are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Digger Harkness a.k.a. Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, Enchantress, El Diablo, and Slipknot led by Colonel Rick Flag.

Apart from the Joker and Batman, this is the first time any of the characters are appearing on screen. So one would actually expect some introduction into their pasts, something more than a two-line snippet, something DC botched up grandly to save up on the length of the movie, and something which if shown a bit more in detail, could have provided much more depth to it. 

I suppose this is how the studio decided upon the intro sequence -

“This is Harley Quinn. Used to be a psychiatrist, fell in love with the Joker, went dangerously mad. Now candidate for Task Force X.”

“Okay. How’d she fall in love with that psychopath? Could you show a bit more of..”

“No we ain’t got time. We got 4 more to present here. NEXT.”

“No I know that, but still, you could offer some detail into their...”

“NEXT!!!”

Without their proper story, the star attraction of the film, i.e. the bad guys that are going to do some good, just fall limp. The film trailers were more sympathetic to their identities rather than the film itself.

Without giving any spoilers, I can say that the entire film was actually about Amanda Waller sending in this Squad to cover up for some major ‘oopsies’ she pulled along the way. ‘Oopsies’ that could well result in global destruction. And it’s actually fine. It’s a pretty spot on portrayal of the ambiguity of the intentions that people in power profess.

Speaking of power and supervillains, where were the likes of Batman and Wonder Woman all this while? It would have been pretty sensible if they’d bumped into the Squad in the midst of this entire charade. But no, not one Batarang flying anywhere close to where it was actually and reasonably expected.

That was about the story. Coming to the characters, special appreciation is due to Margot Robbie for her maniacal portrayal of Harley Quinn. Be it the crazy laughs, the unpredictable insane antics, or the PDA with the Joker, she pulls it pretty much down to a T. But even she gets suppressed in the general noise of the movie and the lack of a solid back-story justifying her character transition, and some might even agree that her character’s been over-sexualised at numerous instances.

Will Smith as Deadshot does what he knows how to do best – be Will Smith, and I can’t complain. He’s the sanest member of the squad, which is otherwise mostly a motley crew of ‘antisocial freaks’ as very aptly put by squad leader Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). Thankfully for him, his character has received marginally extra attention which helps to establish his humanity better, basically making him the pseudo-mascot of the squad.

Someone who really surprised me was Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang. Judging his previous flat performances that include ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’, and ‘Terminator: Genisys’, it is quite a treat watching him as the comic, edgy and loony boomerang expert Digger Harkness. He and Margot Robbie are the true embodiments of the 'crazy' element of the movie.

And now onto the Star Disappointment of Suicide Squad. I present to you the Joker.

For all those in line for a monumental Jared Leto performance, burn your tickets. Firstly, the Joker is not a lead attraction; he is merely in the film because Harley Quinn is. The promotions of the film have been riding on Mistah J and Leto’s star value, when the truth is that he’s ornamental, ordinary, artificial and not-even-galactically close to the hype. All the while I was thinking, “This is what Leto came up with after his methodical ‘deep dive’ into the role? An amateur in Improv class could have cooked that up!” Talk about doing justice to Heath Ledger.

Gotta give it to the studio though, rarely has a film received the level of marketing and promotion that Suicide Squad was subjected to. What with all the trailers, accompanied by tracks like Bohemian Rhapsody and Ballroom Blitz; a kickass soundtrack featuring original songs from names like Skrillex, Rick Ross, Imagine Dragon, Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, and Twenty One Pilots;s and a year’s worth of PR. So despite all the shred-by-shred analysis into the structure of the film, one can bet good money that Suicide Squad might even cross BvS in terms of revenue. 

VERDICT - 2/5 stars

DC is following an awkward trajectory with their films, which seek to explore substance, in a grim manner sticking true to the comics’ roots, but get tangled up in messy plot-lines, restricted time frames resulting in a pace faster than a bullet train, and a vision for the future of the DCEU which seems to neglect the needs of their current projects.

Suicide Squad is a stylish testament that there is actually something called ‘excess promotion’. Despite all that , nothing can take the spotlight away from the fact the future of the DCEU seems pretty bleak.