Trailer Talk: ‘Suicide Squad’

Movie trailers are like free samples at Costco: The good ones excite you and leave you wanting more, while the bad ones make you cringe. Each week, A&E columnist Matthew Fernandez will dissect movie trailers and analyze the Hollywood fare to come.

The age of the superhero film is upon us, with multiple movies slated for release until 2020. DC has come out swinging with two high-profile films releasing this year. One of them, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” has already garnered considerable media attention for its multiple trailers, TV spots and magazine articles. The other, “Suicide Squad,” has been kept relatively under wraps.

Until now.

Warner Bros. released the first “Suicide Squad” trailer on Jan. 19 – a mess of artistry and action, at once exciting and disappointing.

The film revolves around a cast of DC’s supervillains forced to do the bidding of mysterious government agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). Prominent members of the crew featured in the trailer include Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith) and the Joker (Jared Leto).

Set to Queen’s iconic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the trailer introduces the talents and powers of each team member. It begins with the villains in prison and gives a quick glimpse inside some of their psyches: Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) violently yells to be released, Deadshot stares wistfully out of a window and a very posh Quinn – pinky out – reads a book while drinking tea.

From there, the team is brought together, then let loose into the world to wreak havoc in the name of saving the planet. The trailer gives the audience a sense of what the film is about, while not revealing too much plot or showing too many pivotal scenes.

Color variation appears to be a major part of the film’s aesthetic, as the trailer shows both washed out earth tones and vibrant neon. There is a marked transition from the muted grays and browns at the beginning to the bold, dark night scenes toward the end, a visual differentiation between the bleak confines of the insane asylums and the chaotic liberty of the streets.

Two of the biggest sources of interest in the film are Quinn and the Joker. “Suicide Squad” is the first film to ever feature Quinn, the former psychiatrist who went mad and became the Joker’s assistant and lover. Initially, Quinn was created as a one-time character for an episode of “Batman: The Animated Series.” However, her whimsy and blind devotion to the Joker was so well-accepted by fans that she became a regular part of the Batman canon.

However, the Quinn in the trailer is not the one I have come to know and love. Her introduction in the trailer, reading and drinking tea in her cell, was the only time I really felt like I knew the character. Her joke about the voices in her head, despite eliciting a mild chuckle from me, felt forced and unnatural. Gone is any semblance to Quinn’s original clown-like garb (“Harley Quinn” is a pun on the word “harlequin” which means clown). Instead, she wears a pair of skimpy booty shorts straight out of a geeky wet dream.

I found Robbie’s portrayal of Quinn, in the trailer at least, less than convincing. As much as I like the grit and realism of DC movies, they once again removed all of the chaotic comedy imbued in the character by original cartoon and video game voice actors Arleen Sorkin and Tara Strong, which made Quinn so much fun to watch.

When pictures of Leto’s Joker hit the Internet, fans went into a highly divided uproar. The tattoos and metal grilles were too much for some, while others welcomed the new interpretation on the Clown Prince of Crime. The trailer’s heavy emphasis on the Joker indicates he will play a large role in the events to come.

While Heath Ledger’s Joker was chilling and memorable in “The Dark Knight,” his interpretation of the villain was very off-canon. He was more of a sadistic anarchist than a deadly prankster and very much lacking in his trademark sense of twisted comedy. Leto’s take, it would seem, is making a return to the Joker of old with more mirth in his giggles than Ledger’s malice. The trailer contains a shot of the Joker in a fit of hysterics, laying in a circle of obsessively arranged knives and guns – a perfect picture of his meticulous, gleeful insanity.

“Suicide Squad” is an interesting concept: villains doing good things under the threat of death. Although Marvel has already visited similar concepts with “Guardians of the Galaxy” and its upcoming “Deadpool,” it will be interesting to see how DC tackles the villain-hero super team concept with its more iconic characters and darker sensibilities. “Suicide Squad” looks like a mad, darkly beautiful mess and may be just what DC needs to show its strength in the movie war.

– Matthew Fernandez

Are you excited for the release of “Suicide Squad?” Email Fernandez at mfernandez@media.ucla.edu.