THE SUICIDE SQUAD : Tuesday 19th October 2021.

I finally got around to seeing 'THE SUICIDE SQUAD' on the big screen now that cinema's have reopened across greater Sydney in the past ten days or so, following almost four months of COVID-19 forced lockdown. Written and Directed by James Gunn, this standalone sequel to 2016's 'Suicide Squad' (Directed by David Ayer) is the tenth film in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe). Gunn's previous film making offerings include his directorial debut in 2006 'Slither', 'Super' in 2010, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' in 2014 and 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' in 2017, with 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' currently filming and due in 2023. 'The Suicide Squad' was released in the UK in late July, and in the US in early August while streaming on HBO Max for a month starting the same day. It has generated positive critical reviews, although has been a Box Office let down recouping just US$168M so far from its production budget outlay of US$185M.

Here then, A.R.G.U.S. Director (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans) Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles two Task Force X teams, known as the Suicide Squad that consist Belle Reve penitentiary inmates (a high security metahuman prison), who reluctantly agree to carry out missions for Waller in exchange for having ten years shaved off their sentences, while at the same time having explosive devices injected into their necks which Waller can activate at any given time should the need arise. The teams are sent to the island nation of Corto Maltese, located off the South American coast, after its government is overthrown in a military led coup by an anti-American regime. They are tasked with destroying the Nazi-era laboratory, Jotunheim, which holds a secretive experiment known as 'Project Starfish' as well as conducting clandestine experiments on human subjects, led for the past thirty years by lead scientist Gaius Grieves aka The Thinker (Peter Capaldi). 

The first team is led by Waller's subordinate Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and comprises Brian Durlin aka Savant (Michael Rooker), George 'Digger' Harkness aka Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Cory Pitzner aka T.D.K. (The Detachable Kid) (Nathan Fillion), Gunter Braun aka Javelin (Flula Borg), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Richard 'Dick' Hertz aka Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Mongal (Mayling Ng) and Weasel (Sean Gunn). They are almost entirely wiped out by the Corto Maltese military upon landing, with only Harley Quinn and Rick Flag escaping the fray. This distraction allows the other team to enter the country undetected, from a beach on the other side of the island. The second team is led by assassin Robert DuBois aka Bloodsport (Idris Elba), who accepted the mission in order to prevent his daughter Tyla (Storm Reid) from being incarcerated at Belle Reve, and consists of Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Abner Krill aka Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and Cleo Cazo aka Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior). 

After Flag is deemed to be still alive albeit being held captive, Bloodsport and his team systematically kill all those guarding the campsite only to discover that Flag is sat relaxing and enjoying a cold beer with the leader of a group of rebel soldiers fighting the resistance against the new regime Sol Soria (Alice Braga). Despite all of Soria's foot soldiers and resistance fighters being killed off, she agrees to assist them. 

Harley Quinn survives the attack on the first team and is taken captive by the Corto Maltese government, after killing the new President Silvio Luna (Juan Diago Botto) with whom she had a one night stand during which she learned from him of the new regime's plans to use Project Starfish against other nations, most notably America, Russia and China. Mateo Suarez (Joaquin Cosio) the Major General of Corto Maltese interrogates Quinn by having her strung up and goaded with an electric cattle prod to the stomach. In the Corto Maltese capital, the second team captures the Thinker, the lead scientist in charge of Project Starfish, in a bar and is ushered out the back door by Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man just as the military arrive and detain Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag. Needless to say it doesn't end well for the three military guards escorting their three new prisoners in the back of an armoured vehicle or the two upfront in the driver and passenger seats. Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot Man, King Shark, the Thinker and Milton (an Associate of Task Force X) arrive in a beat up old Toyota bus to retrieve Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag.

Meanwhile, Quinn using the power of her thighs strangles her interrogator and using the dexterity of her foot retrieves the padlock key from the now dead interrogator, turns herself upside down, inserts the key into the padlock and turns the key so unlocking it and freeing herself. She then goes on a killing spree wiping out every guard who happens to be in her path either in a hail of bullets, or using the golden javelin bequeathed to her by Javelin just before he died on the beach a couple of nights ago, or by breaking necks from some accurately landed high kicks or savage punches. You never should underestimate the wrath of a woman scorned! 

And so Harley successfully escapes and joins the others, who use the Thinker to gain access to Jotunheim. As the Squad rigs up the facility with explosives, Flag and Ratcatcher 2 enter the laboratory with the Thinker, where they witness the fruits of all of his clandestine human experiments. He tells them that Project Starfish is Starro the Conqueror, a giant alien starfish that is able to create thousands of smaller versions of itself to kill people and take control of their minds and bodies. Starro was brought to Earth by the US government, who have been secretly funding experiments on him in Corto Maltese for the past thirty years and using thousands of its citizens as test subjects. Upon learning this, Flag decides to leak a hard drive containing evidence of this news but is killed by Peacemaker who is under secret orders from Waller to cover up the US's involvement in the experiments, and the existence of Starro.

Meanwhile, a skirmish between the Squad and the Corto Maltese military lead by Major General Suarez results in Polka-Dot Man accidentally setting off the explosives prematurely. As the facility slowly begins to implode and fall apart, Peacemaker catches up with Ratcatcher 2 and is poised ready to kill her for knowing the truth about Starro, but Bloodsport shoots him instead and takes the drive, so sparing Ratcatcher 2. 

Starro escapes from the now destroyed laboratory, kills the Thinker and the majority of the military personnel on the ground, and begins taking control of the island's population by releasing thousands of smaller starfish which latch onto the faces of the victims, so suffocating them almost immediately before taking control of their minds and bodies at which point they are revived - zombie like. Waller tells the Squad that their mission is complete now that Jotunheim is destroyed, but Bloodsport chooses to ignore her and leads his teammates in battling Starro, while Waller is knocked out by one of her subordinates using a golf club across the back of the head, back at Task Force X HQ to prevent her from executing the squad. 

During the battle, Polka-Dot Man is killed, Harley pierces a hole in Starro's eye using the javelin, and Ratcatcher 2 summons the city's rats to chew the alien to death from the inside. With the military diverted, Soria takes control of the government by gunning down all of the corrupt officials and pledges democratic elections. Bloodsport forces Waller to release him, Harley Quinn, Ratcatcher 2 and King Shark from their imprisonment, and to swear not to go after his daughter Tyla, in exchange for keeping the contents of the drive confidential to which she has little choice but to agree. The remaining Squad is airlifted out of Corto Maltese.

It's easy to see where Director James Gunn filtered away a production budget of US$185M, and it's equally as easy to see why this film has yet to recoup that initial investment. 'The Suicide Squad' is a silly film full of largely one dimensional characters that we have very little investment in by way of back story apart from one or two glib sentences in passing from the main characters; there is plenty of cussing and swearing; the humour seems aimed mostly at fifteen year old boys; there is lots of blood and gore; and the action sequences are so over the top that it really does remind you that you're watching a comic book adaptation after all. As for the giant alien starfish, Starro, well that reminded of the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the 1984 'Ghostbusters' film, just a little more menacing. On the positive side, Gunn's absurdist direction shines through in this no holds barred, fast paced, ultra violent, piece of nonsense that doesn't take it self too seriously, has moments of sardonic humour, and is visually everything you would expect from a movie such as this. Worth watching on a big cinema screen just for the spectacle of the action sequences which Gunn delivers with aplomb and of which there are plenty to satisfy the most die hard fans of the genre. The film also stars Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher, the father of Ratcatcher 2 who is dead but is seen in memory flashbacks by his daughter. Also, remain in your seat for the post-credits sequence.

'The Suicide Squad' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

HONEST THIEF : Tuesday 27th October 2020.

'HONEST THIEF' which I saw earlier this week, is an M Rated American action thriller Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Mark Williams in only his second film making outing following 2016's 'A Family Man', although he has twenty-nine Producer credits to his name and three as Writer. Released Stateside last week, the film has so far grossed US$13M and has garnered mixed or average Reviews so far. 

Calling him the 'In-and-Out Bandit' because meticulous career bank thief Tom Carter (Liam Neeson) has stolen US$9M from twelve small-town banks across seven States while successfully managing to keep his identity a secret, and therefore keeping the Police authorities at bay for the past nine years following his life long career in bomb disposal with the Marines where he learned and honed his very particular set of skills. 

One day Carter walks into a rental self storage unit business looking to rent a unit, when he is greeted by Annie Sumpter (Kate Walsh) on the other side of the counter. She is a psychology graduate student divorced a couple of years ago, and there is instant chemistry between the pair. We then fast forward one year and Carter is showing Annie around a empty house that he has his eye on to buy, at the same time asking her if she will move in with him. It has now been a year and he says that he can think of no one with whom he would rather spend the rest of his life with. She agrees. Carter also says that there is something else he needs to tell her, but Annie has had enough surprises for one day, and it will have to wait she replies. He in turn replies it can wait. 

Carter is ready to come clean about the string of his robberies and the US$9M he has stashed away, never having spent a single dime of the money he has stolen. He picks up the phone from a hotel room where he is staying and dials the FBI and is ultimately put through to Agent Sam Baker (Robert Patrick). Initially, Baker is disbelieving of Carter's story saying that they often receive crank calls from people claiming to be the 'In-and-Out Bandit', so why should they have any faith in his story. Carter says that he wants to strike a deal for coming clean and handing himself over to the authorities with the US$9M stolen returned in full. He wants a reduced sentence down to two years, within a facility less than two hours drive from Boston, and full visiting rights. When Baker asks why - Carter simply says for love - he has met a woman with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life peacefully without his criminal past hanging over his head. 

And so Baker, still skeptical, sends a couple of his Agents to conduct an initial interview with Carter to determine is he is for real. There is Agent John Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Agent Ramon Hall (Anthony Ramos), who come knocking on the hotel room door later the next day. Asking if Carter can prove his story he recounts how he single handedly conducted his robberies, the banks he chose, the methods he used, and that his stolen cash is to be found in a secure self storage unit facility. Carter willingly hands over the key, gives the Agents the address and patiently awaits their return once they have located the stash of cash. At the storage unit facility, the Agents sure enough find the cash, but rather than take it in as evidence they elect to hold onto it for themselves to fund their retirements. 

They return to the hotel to meet with Carter and say they located the cash, with the intention that they will shoot him dead making it looks as though the Agents acted in self defence. Carter says that those boxes contained US$3M and there is still another US$6M stashed elsewhere (just as an added security measure). But, their plan is foiled when Agent Baker comes knocking on the door looking to question Carter for himself. When suspicions are raised, Nivens shoots Baker dead. In the ensuing scuffle, Carter and Nivens crash out the window two storeys up, landing on top of each other on the ground with Annie who has just arrived on the scene to surprise Carter with her visit. 

Carter and Annie drive off at speed with Nivens and Ramos giving chase. Meanwhile, Agent Tom Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) arrives on the scene to survey the corpse of his partner Baker. Meyers now gets involved in the hunt for Carter, vowing to bring Baker's murderer to justice. What follows is a cat and mouse chase across the streets of Boston involving shoots outs, fist fights, car chases and car smashes as Carter seeks to clear his name and gain some sort of confession out of Nivens and Hall. Nivens is intent on killing off Annie who is a material witness to the pair of Agents loading boxes (of cash) from the storage facility into the back of their car, which she also has on a memory stick from the on site camera recordings. Nivens confronts Annie at the storage facility and a fight breaks out with Nivens getting stabbed in the leg with a pair of scissors and Annie getting knocked out cold, and almost a bullet to the head were it not for Hall intervening at the crucial moment. 

Carter arrives after the fact and rushes an unconscious Annie to the hospital for emergency treatment. Later Carter ambushes Hall at his home. Hall confesses that he is the reluctant partner in all of this, and gives up the memory stick which he secured from Annie while he frisked her when she was unconscious - a fact unknown to Nivens. Hall also states that Nivens is going to kill Annie at the hospital and that Carter should get her out of there immediately. Hall also gives over the details of the safe house where the money is stashed. When Nivens rocks up to the hospital with Hall, he orders Hall to commit the kill, but he refuses. So Nivens goes in and sees that Meyers is sat by her bedside, waiting for her to come round for questioning. Upon seeing Meyers he leaves. 

Annie by now has recovered in the comfort of a hotel room and refuses to leave saying that she wants to be in on the act to see Carter clear his name. She is present in the car when Carter blows up Nivens home yet deliberately sparing him his life. He then follows Nivens to the safe house knowing full well that he intends to make a run with the money. Carter enters with Hall, holding them both a gun point. Hall comes clean to Nivens about the memory stick, at which Nivens turns on Hall with Nivens ultimately plugging Hall with bullets killing him outright. A gunfight erupts between Carter and Nivens, with Carter sustaining a non life threatening bullet wound to his right side. Nivens escapes in his car with his stash of US$3M. 

Carter calls Nivens on his mobile phone while also tracking his journey. He warns Nivens that there is a hastily assembled improvised explosive device located directly under this car seat, and because it was so hastily assembled it is likely to be unstable. If he leaves his seat it will explode, even if he sneezes it could explode - any sudden movement, and potentially boom, they'll be scraping off bits of Agent Nivens from the road for weeks. The bomb squad arrive, the street is cordoned off, and the device is disarmed although with no detonator installed it would have been impossible for the bomb to explode. Nivens is escorted from the car and immediately placed under arrest by Meyers and two other Agents standing by. 

Following this, later that night back at FBI HQ, Meyers receives a voice recorder (dropped into his office by Annie) which recorded the conversation between Nivens and Hall before the gunfight at the safe house, proving Carter's innocence in the death of Agent Baker. Carter turns himself in, with Annie looking on, as Meyers promises to try to get a lighter sentence for him.

This film hardly ranks as one of Neeson's best, but it is a serviceable, passable yet almost instantly forgettable offering that sees the sixty-eight year old action star doing what he does best with his particular set of skills. The plot is a little lame verging on the romantic action crime genre that is saved by the convincing performances from Neeson, Walsh, Courtney and Donovan, but other than this the dialogue is questionable, the action set pieces you have seen done a hundred times before and the story moves along at such a pace that there is hardly any time to build up the suspense factor. A low on thrills, no frills by the numbers film that has a few saving graces that would elevate this to a middle of the road offering that has been the trademark of Neeson's career of the last fifteen years or so. 

'Honest Thief' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

ALITA : BATTLE ANGEL : Tuesday 19th February 2019.

I saw 'ALITA : BATTLE ANGEL' earlier in the week. This American cyberpunk action film is Directed by Robert Rodriguez, and Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by James Cameron based on the Japanese manga artist Yukito Kishiro graphic novel 'Gunnm' (aka 'Battle Angel Alita'). Going back to 2000, Kishiro's manga was brought to the attention of James Cameron by Guillermo del Toro who so liked what he saw and read that he immediately registered a domain name for the film, and by 2003 was announced as Director on a feature length live action film. Then Cameron's 'Avatar' got in the way and it was then slated for a 2009 release. In 2010 Cameron stated that the film was still in development but no plans existed as to a release date. In 2013 he set a Production start date of 2017 and in the meantime Robert Rodriguez was in discussions to Direct if he could condense Cameron's script and sizeable notes into a workable Screenplay. Filming began in late 2016 with Rodriguez Directing with Cameron Producing, and a budget of somewhere between US$150 and 200M. Digital effects were provided by Peter Jackson's New Zealand based Weta Digital, amongst others. The film was released in the US last week too, has so far recouped US$156M of its circa US$180M production budget, and has generated largely mixed or average Reviews so far. If the film proves commercially successful ultimately, this will be the first instalment in a franchise that will see at least two sequels reportedly.

Set some five hundred years in the future, following the catastrophic global war known at 'The Fall' of some three hundred years previously, the abandoned disembodied 'core' of a female cyborg, with a still intact human brain, is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyber-doctor. Ido takes the remnants of the upper body back to his workshop come lab and fits her out with a new body, one he had previously built for his disabled daughter, who died before he was able to give it to her.

When the girl awakens in an upstairs bedroom, she is surprised by her fully functioning body and takes a few moments to find her feet and get accustomed to her new and strange surroundings. She ventures downstairs and is greeted by Ido and his assistant. The cyborg girl has no recollection of her past life at all, not even her name. Ido calls her Alita (Rosa Salazar) - after his dead daughter.

Ido takes Alita out into the street where she gets her first taste of her new world and all the hustle and bustle of the metropolis that is Iron City. Pretty quickly Alita befriends Hugo (Keean Johnson), who harbours dreams of moving to the wealthy sky city of Zalem that hovers just a few kilometres above Iron City. A few days later Hugo introduces her to the competitive sport of Motorball - the street version as opposed to the grand spectator arena battle royale race where cyborgs fight to the death (kind of a more up to date take on 1975's 'Rollerball').

One day Ido comes home with a badly injured arm. A few nights later, Alita follows Ido as he leaves the house carrying a huge case and subsequently discovers that Ido is a 'Hunter-Warrior' when they are set upon by three cyborg assassins led by Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley). In the ensuing attack Ido is injured. Alita's instincts click in and she attacks the cyborgs, killing two of them and severely damaging Grewishka, who retreats underground. Despite Alita re-igniting her skill in the ancient martial art of 'Panzer Kunst', Ido discourages her from becoming a Hunter-Warrior. 

Later, out on an expedition with Hugo and two of his friends to the outskirts of the city and through a forest Alita is taken to a downed space ship resting overgrown and half submerged in a lagoon. Hugo tells her that it is a relic of 'The Fall' but Alita is drawn to the ship, jumps in the lagoon and seeks to gain entry. She does and emerges on the inside where the controls of the ship spring to life as if Alita is a charged battery needed to power it up. In it, she finds and brings home to Ido a 'Berserker body' which Alita begs Ido to fit onto her. Ido refuses, saying it is a relic of the past, she now has a new life and besides its an unknown quantity that could do more harm than good. This angers Alita, so she promptly registers herself as a Hunter-Warrior.

Alita and Hugo then make for the Kansas Bar, a local hang-out for the Hunter-Warrior community to ask others to help her take out Grewishka, but they refuse. There Zapan (Ed Skrein) an acclaimed cyborg Hunter-Warrior picks a fight with Alita and comes off worse. As a fight breaks out and mayhem ensues across the crowded bar, an upgraded Grewishka storms into the bar and challenges Alita to a rematch, stating that he had been ordered by Nova, his boss, to destroy her. At the same time Ido arrives on the scene.

Despite her bravery and proven fighting skills, Alita's body is sliced up by Grewishka's bladed fingers before she blinds him with her left arm. Ido, Hugo, and McTeague (Jeff Fahey), another Hunter-Warrior who leads a pack of robot killer dogs, force him to retreat. Ido has no option now but to transplant Alita onto the Berserker body, which automatically begins to interface with her core system.

Kitted out with her brand new shiny all singing all dancing Berserker body, Alita enters a Motorball tryout race as a means to send Hugo to Zalem with the winners proceeds. Ido discovers that the other contestants are Hunter-Warriors and wanted cyborgs hired by Vector (Mahershala Ali), an entrepreneur working under Nova, a powerful Zalem scientist, to kill her. He warns Alita, and as the race gets underway, she dispenses with many of the contestants with her superior combat skills and evasive techniques.

Meanwhile, Hugo is being hunted by Zapan, after he frames Hugo for murdering a cyborg - a charge punishable by death. Hugo calls on Alita for help. She locates Hugo just as Zapan arrives and reveals to her that Hugo has been attacking cyborgs and stealing their body parts for Vector to transplant onto other contestants in his Motorball games. Zapan mortally wounds Hugo and cordially informs Alita that Hunter-Warrior law dictates that she must either now kill Hugo or let Zapan finish him off.

Chiren (Jennifer Connelly), Ido's ex-wife, also a master cyborg engineer and in cahoots with Vector as a means to relocate herself to Zalem, is looking on, and is prompted by a flood of emotion to save Hugo by attaching his head to Alita's all powerful cyborg heart in order to keep his brain functioning. Zapan attempts to stop Alita from leaving and she slices part of his face off with his prized sword, which she claims as her own.

Back at Ido's cyborg surgery, he transplants Hugo's head onto a cyborg body, and then promptly advises Alita that Hugo's actions were based on the fact that he would be able to eventually buy his way into Zalem, which quite simply was not the case. Ido confides that this was a lie fabricated by Vector for his own ends, and that citizens of Iron City are unable to gain entry into Zalem unless they become a Motorball champion. Alita decides to confront Vector, who is being mind-controlled by Nova. Alita arrives at Vector's high rise penthouse suite and through Vector, Nova reveals to Alita that Chiren has been harvested for her vital organs and then orders Grewishka who has scaled up the outside of the building to reach them, to kill her. Alita battles Grewishka again and this time, thanks to her new powerful Berserker body, finally kills him by slicing his re-modified body clean in half, then stabs Vector, communicating with Nova through Vector's dying eyes that he made the mistake of underestimating her.

Ido communicates to Alita that Hugo has fled and is desperately attempting to climb one of the supporting tubes that binds Zalem to Iron City, in a seemingly vain attempt to reach the place of his dreams. Alita gives chase, catches up and pleads with Hugo to return with her. Hugo ventures ever upward and in doing so Nova releases a razor spiked defencive ring that slices through Hugo's body sending his various body parts into the air. Leaping after him, Alita is unable to prevent Hugo from falling to his death. Some months later, and Alita is the star champion of the Motorball arena. As she walks into the packed stadium greeted by the cheering crowd of spectators, she points her sword towards Zalem, while Nova (unmasked for the first time to reveal Edward Norton in an unspeaking cameo role) watches her from above. 

There is no doubt that 'Alita : Battle Angel' is a feast for the senses, a visual spectacle, and an achievement in world building that offers the audience all the latest in CGI technology writ large with enough slicing and dicing violence and flailing body parts to keep any genre die hard fan in clover.  And, on that level the film delivers in spades. Rosa Salazar puts in a convincing enough performance too as our rebirthed and then born again protagonist Alita, but as for the other human characters they are under cooked, and the others are nothing more than human heads perched atop various heavily customised cyborg killing machines. The story is nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before and as such plays out predictably saved only by various digitally rendered action set pieces to help things move along apace. All that said, this film is a worth a look and worth catching on the big screen - just don't go in with too high an expectation. Michelle Rodriguez and Jai Courtney also cameo.

'Alita : Battle Angel' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SUICIDE SQUAD : Tuesday 9th August 2016.

I saw 'SUICIDE SQUAD' earlier in the week, and after much hype and eager anticipation the long awaited third instalment in the DC Extended Universe with its assembled mad, bad, disparate antiheroes has burst on to our screens across the world last week. Made for a cool US$175M, Directed by David Ayer and Co-Produced by Zack Snyder this film stars an ensemble cast of Actors and Supervillains, poised at the ready to wreak havoc and bloody mayhem on an unsuspecting Midway City - seemingly nestled somewhere between Gotham City and Metropolis. These titular characters first appeared in 1959 published by DC Comics but received a make over and a modern touch in 1987 by John Ostrander, upon which this film is based, and having been written for the screen by David Ayer too (watch out for the visual nod to Ostrander too in the film). This latest version sees our anti-hero strike force of imprisoned nefarious supervillains operating covertly under the jurisdiction of the US Government on high-risk black-ops missions in exchange for leniency of their prison sentences . . . assuming they survive their missions of course. The film has so far made US$295M.

And so here we have a secret government intelligence agency headed up by Director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) working for 'ARGUS' (Advanced Research Group for Uniting Superhumans) who creates a task force of our deadly, dangerous, despicable super villains under the banner of 'Task Force X' affectionately dubbed 'The Suicide Squad' by Deadshot, for a top secret mission to thwart an unknown but powerful enemy. Taking place after the events of  'Batman v. Superman' which sees Superman supposedly dead, and leaving Batman to clean up the streets, and he does, bringing in Deadshot/Floyd Lawton (Will Smith) an expert marksman, assassin and doting father to his eleven year old daughter, and Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel (Margot Robbie) a former psychiatrist who used to treat the inmates at Arkham Asylum until she turned as mad as those she was treating - especially The Joker (Jared Leto) whom she just happens to be 'madly' in love with.

Incarcerated in Belle Reve penitentiary with Deadshot and Harley Quinn are Captain Boomerang/Digger Harkness (Jai Courtney) an opportunistic thief and assassin who uses deadly boomerangs to dispense with his prey and now serving three life sentences; El Diablo/Chato Santana (Jay Hernandez) who can command flame at will and is serving time because in days gone by he couldn't contain this skill and he torched those closest to him and numerous others; Killer Croc/Waylon Jones (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) with a reptilian skin condition and an animalistic criminal with a tendency to eat his enemies - he spends a lot of time in the water; and Slipknot/Christopher Weiss (Adam Beach) an expert with chemically treated ropes and a skilled assassin.

We are quickly introduced to these characters individually, we get a little back story which Waller discusses with her advisors over dinner and her plan for them, and by way of bold text up on the screen which is all well & good but you need to be particularly adept at speed reading for the time that data scrolls out in front of you (David Ayer take note!). Under the pretext of wanting to protect the planet from possible otherworldly attack with someone of Superman's strength, a rag tag bunch of the worlds worst career criminals with nothing to lose are assembled under the command of Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) as the field leader of The Squad and seasoned special forces combat soldier applying the wishes of Waller, although not always agreeing with them. She gets approval to assemble her team, and what can the aforementioned gang do but to accept, and they do with promises of reduced sentences, special privileges, and the full arsenal of the US Government at their disposal . . . as long a they behave themselves. As a precaution, each has implanted in their necks a rice grain sized incendiary devise that will be deployed should they rebel, attempt to escape, not follow orders or step out of line - just once!

One other recruit is Dr. June Moone (Cara Delevingne) an archaeologist possessed by an evil ancient force that transformed her in to a powerful sorceress known as Enchantress. Rick Flag is in love with June Moone, but she is able to transform into the witch-goddess by simply whispering her name. She is under the control of Waller who holds her ancient heart in a brief case, enabling Waller to command the Enchantress at will knowing that for now she is fully subservient to her wishes and that she will comply. However, as if on cue the Enchantress quickly turns on everyone, deciding to wipe mankind off the face of our planet for imprisoning her for so long (literally thousands of years!) She summons up her brother, Incubus, to lend some much needed support, creates an army of humans transformed into deadly stone like orc monsters; begins building a super machine to destroy the planet and along the way gets her heart back from Wallers grasp.

Waller summons up the Squad on the basis that Midway City is under fierce attack from terrorists, and their mission is to extract a high-profile individual from the top of a tower block in the city centre. Just before leaving for their mission, the team are joined by Katana/Tatsu Yamashiro (Karen Fukuhara) an expert in martial arts and sword play wielding the mystical 'Soultaker' Samurai blade that captures the souls of those it kills. Katana has got Flags back. As the helicopter taking the Squad into the now evacuated city is en route it is attacked by Incubus and brought down, but all escape unscathed. However, they are attacked by hordes of the stone like orc monsters created by Enchantress once on foot, but are able to overcome them and make it to their final mark at the top of the tower block. Waller it turns out is the subject of the extraction, who quickly dispenses with her own immediate team with a well aimed pistol to several heads to cover up any involvement she has in what has just gone down. This shows Flag and Deadshot exactly what they are dealing with, and what Waller is capable of.

Meanwhile The Joker infiltrates the facility where the nano bombs are made that have been implanted into the Squads necks, and is able to disarm that which is in Harley Quinn's neck. He then makes off in his own helicopter to extract Harley Quinn from the others, by raining down rapid machine gun fire on Flag and his crew on foot below. Harley Quinn escapes up a rope thrown down by The Joker from the helicopter above, and they fly off into the night, but the aircraft is soon shot down by Wallers men. Harley Quinn escapes seemingly unhurt and rejoins her Squad members, but The Joker is believed perished in the wreckage. Immediately after, Waller is extracted by helicopter from the roof top, and her helicopter is shot down too, and she is carted of by the stone like orc creatures of the Enchantress.

With Waller now compromised, an all powerful evil force at work intent on destroying life as we know it, and the prospect of returning to incarceration The Squad decide enough is enough and they haul up in a deserted bar for some much needed refreshment and self consolation. Flag joins them, destroys the device that would activate the nano bombs in their necks, and says your free to go. But The Squad decide that they have a chance to prove themselves and do something worthwhile (like save the world!) and so they regroup. They track down Waller, Enchantress and Incubus to a deserted partially flooded subway station where they hatch a plan to destroy Incubus first as he poses the biggest threat. A NAVY Seals team intend to plant a bomb in the sewer below, but need Diablo to summons his set of particular skills with fire to help distract and thwart Incubus to position himself over the bomb at the point of detonation. This attempt is successful, but it costs Diablo his life in the process.

With Incubus gone, all attention centres on Enchantress who with her heart back is now all powerful. Ultimately she overcomes The Squad and offers them anything they can dream of in exchange for their submission, loyalty and honour. Harley Quinn gives in and sidles up to the Enchantress. Kneeling before her, and beside Katana's Samurai sword, which she lifts up and plunges into the stomach of the Enchantress ripping out her heart with her hands in the process. Killer Croc then throws an explosive package into the centre of the still functioning all powerful machine which Deadshot fires at with a well aimed shot so destroying the weapon of mass destruction, enabling everyone to live happily ever after (well, until the next global crisis anyway!) Flag takes the heart of Enchantress and crushes it to dust, so freeing June from the evil ancient curse. The Squad are returned to Belle Reve with ten years taken off their sentences and allowed certain special privileges, that include Deadshot being allowed access to his beloved daughter (see he is human after all), and Harley Quinn an espresso machine in her cell.

Just when you thought it was safe to look away, in bursts The Joker to spring his love, Harley Quinn from incarceration, much to her surprise and delight. In a mid-credits scene, we see Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) around the dinner table with Amanda Waller. He offers her protection from the backlash brought about by the shenanigans of the Enchantress in exchange for access to a Top Secret dossier that 'ARGUS' has on the ever increasing metahuman community and their known activities. He flicks through its files revealing, amongst others, Aquaman, and so setting up 'Justice League, Part One' due in November 2017.

I did enjoy 'Suicide Squad' for all the adverse press it has so far received, but I did feel let down by all the hype and expectation that went on months before its release. The film moves along at a cracking pace, has a thumping soundtrack, but there are plot holes and editing flaws in here aplenty as the story jumps around and in places is half-baked. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith at Deadshot carry this film without doubt and are both convincing and engaging in their roles, but many of the other characters are superfluous or simply under developed. Jared Leto plays a good Joker, but not in the same league as Heath Ledger's, and as someone sitting on the periphery of the Suicide Squad he adds little value to the story other than his relationship with Harley Quinn, or perhaps he's just in there for effect. There are several brief scenes with Batman/Bruce Wayne for continuity sake that do add value, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller portrays the formidable, ruthless and intimidating Director well too. The effects are well delivered, but really nothing we have not seen in other similar comic book adaptations and certainly nothing that stands out with a 'wow' factor. With 'Man of Steel' bringing in US$668M, this years 'Batman v. Superman' US$873M, the DC Extended Universe needs a sure fire winner at the Box Office. Will this third instalment in that universe be the commercial success needed despite the luke warm reviews so far received? One thing is certain . . . you can't believe the hype, and for me the guys at Marvel set the standard by which DC will be judged, and they have!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-