THIS have been a tough watch for Jared Leto. Five years ago, the method actor was hiding from his co-stars on the set of Suicide Squad, the supposed first of many blockbusters where he was set to play Batman’s nemesis.
Now after watching Joaquin Phoenix collect a Bafta for playing HIS character in period crime thriller Joker, his bosses have returned to the Suicide Squad timeline without him.
Here our heroine is his psycho, ex-girlfriend Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). At the beginning of the film she has just split with the crimelord who she still insists on calling “Mistah Jay” in that shouty New Yoik accent.
Without the unseen villain’s protection, all the thugs she used and abused are out to get her, most noticeably Black Mask, a camp gangster played by Ewan McGregor.
VILLAIN: Ewan McGregor is Black Mask
After some business involving a mega-valuable diamond, Harley goes searching for a teenage pickpocket (Ella Jay Basco), adopts a hyena and forges an alliance with three of the forgettable new villain’s enemies — club singer Black Canary (Jurnee Diana Smollett-Bell), cross-bow wielding assassin Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and renegade cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez).
HERE COME THE GIRLS: Harley teams up with another team of oddballs
So far, the “DC Universe” has struggled to settle on a tone and it seems this time they are trying to ape the anarchic comedy of Marvel’s Deadpool.
There are knowing winks to the viewer, freeze frames and a constant shuttling back and forth of the timeline.
The fight scenes are slickly choreographed with the acrobatic and charismatic Smollett-Bell most deserving of a spin-off.
It’s a strangely enjoyable enough romp that’s missing a standout action scene or a killer one-liner.
Although I don’t envy screenwriter Christina Hodson for having to write gags for Robbie.
Her shouty, mugging performance made me yearn for the slick patter of Ryan Reynolds or the arch delivery of Adam West’s Batman.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
