Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/720999
AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 UCW 23 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Bad Versus Worse Suicide Squad (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Once upon a time the Marvel Cinematic Universe made approximately all the money. Producers took note, and tried to create an analogous DC Extended Universe. Regrettably, instead of putting out fun movies that made us believe a man could fly, a few screenwriters and directors went off their meds and gave us genocide (Man of Steel) followed by Hey! Your Mom is Named Martha, Too! (Batman vs. Superman). Then, Deadpool came out and proved that R-rated comic movies could make bank in a big way. This led directly to rewrites and reshoots on the third film, Suicide Squad (123 minutes). On the one hand, given how endlessly depressing the first two DCEU films were, the do-over was probably a good choice. On the other hand, what we ended up with was less coherent than it might have been, with logical inconsistencies and a slew of other issues. I can say I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw, even if what I saw consisted of pasted together stereotypes and recycled dialogue. The film picks up after we all agree to pretend that Superman is absolutely for real, definitely not coming back, dead. Government operative Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) discusses her dreams of forcing bad people to protect humanity from worse people. The rogue's gallery includes Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith), an Australian Stereotype (Jai Courtney), a Japanese Stereotype (Karen Fukuhara), a Latino Stereotype (Jay Hernandez), a Southern Stereotype (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and someone less important than these other characters, who will, Spoiler Alert, obviously be the first to die (Adam Beach). Col. Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) travels to various prisons and measures the reluctant recruits for their head-exploding tracker shots, which is the only way to get any of the supervillains to cooperate long enough to be an evil-fighting team. The concept of using the bad people to fight the worst people is enough to keep me interested in the narrative, but the last minute editing definitely showed in some huge plot holes that presumably didn't exist before the studio took a weed whacker to the film. For example, Amanda Waller is clearly on top of everything. Her back-up plans have back up plans…so why didn't she notice that the main villain had sneaked into her room, set off a warning alarm, stolen a macguffin and then resurrected a secondary villain? I could buy that these things would happen, but not that Amanda Waller would miss them happening. Overall, the first half is stronger than the second. The supervillains get theme songs and backstories, though some characters get more attention than others. I am more familiar with Marvel canon, so the DCEU summary helped me keep track of all the newly introduced characters. I didn't hate Robbie's Harley Quinn as much as I thought I would, but I wouldn't say I loved this version of the character either. I was always a fan of the classic Batman: The Animated Series version — the one where she got functional clothes to wear instead of scraps of torn denim and a child's shirt. Now showing at PAtriot 14 + IMAX. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. $i. 50 Drink, Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drink, Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Popcorn. Every Day All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. Every Day, All Day! $i. 50 Drinks. Every Day, All Day! $2.00 before 6:00 p.m. $3.00 after 6:00 p.m. $1.00 extra for 3D MOVIES Movie Monday: $1.50 All Day(Holiday or 3D movies excluded) 26th YEAR 26th YEAR