Suicide Squad is fun but so much less than it could have been

I walked into the theater as I always do:  hoping to enjoy the movie I was about to see.  I want to give myself to the film, embrace it, and walk out happy to have seen it.

Over two and a half hours later--we had a fire alarm about two-thirds of the way into the movie--I left generally glad I'd seen the movie but, as is so common these days, nowhere near entirely happy.

A lot works in the film.  Will Smith and Margot Robbie deliver wonderful performances and continue to have great on-screen chemistry.  Viola Davis is appropriately scary.  Jay Hernandez made me want to check out more of his work.  The special effects were generally solid.  The soundtrack was awesome.  The pacing was appropriate.

The big weakness of the movie is its story.  As with so many films, you simply cannot think twice about any significant plot point.  For reasons that baffle me, Hollywood continues to be unwilling to deliver strong, coherent stories in most of its action films.  These movies could be so very much more memorable and engaging with better stories.

I've put off Jared Leto's Joker because he was decidedly meh for most of the movie.  I didn't hate him, I didn't love him, I just didn't care enough about him.  Following Heath Ledger is a very tall order indeed, but rather than embrace something completely different, Leto seemed to be trying to walk a line between adhering to Ledger's vision and making the character entirely his own.

If the trailers made you want to see Suicide Squad, go; you'll have a decent enough time.  If the trailers bored you, though, or put you off, skip it.  I'm glad I went, but not as glad as I'd hoped to be.

Focus

I'm a big fan of con-artist books and movies; Slanted Jack is my (so far only) entry in that genre.  I tend to go to con-artist films as soon as they appear.  With Focus, however,  I let the mediocre critical (55%) and audience (58%) ratings on Rottentomatoes deter me--until the other day.

I'm so glad I caught it in the theater.  Despite those ratings, I enjoyed this movie from start to finish, as did everyone in the group that went with me.  Neither the overall plot nor the many sub-plots are simple, but that's exactly as it should be:  we're talking con artists here.  The cast members turn in uniformly good performances, with both Will Smith and Margot Robbie very good in their lead roles.  The dialog is snappy and often funny, and the film is full of grace notes.

If you also enjoy con-artist films, I encourage you to ignore the reviews, avoid reading any spoilers, and head out to catch Focus.

Changing my mind about Jon

As I think I may have written here, when people have asked me which actor I'd cast as Jon, I've typically answered, Hugh Jackman. He's fairly tall, especially for an actor, has done action, can act, and has the look.

Recently, though, I've changed my mind.

The right man to play Jon is Will Smith.

If you've read the books or seen their dustjackets, you may question this choice, at least in part because Jon's skin is decidedly lighter than Smith's. No matter; an actor of his quality will make the role his own. And, if a movie were to be made of one of the books, I'd be willing to do a quick rewrite of that book (or all of them) to fix this small problem.

Why?

Because I'm just that kind of money-loving fool.

Think about it. Will Smith is the most bankable actor in the world today. The man takes mediocre films and turns them into blockbusters, and he transforms blockbusters into insanely huge blockbusters. Make a Will Smith movie of one of my books, and the reprint sales alone would be happy news indeed.

This is all fantasy land, of course, because no one in Hollywood, much less Will Smith, is knocking down my door, but you have to admit, it's a good fantasy.