‘Suicide Squad’: Super-villains hit the target market

Superheroes and now super-villains are running amok on the big screen – and by all intents and purposes audiences are loving it. It seems Hollywood doesn’t have much of a stomach for new concepts – except to borrow freely from the world of the comic book.

DC Comics, whom many critics consider a poor cousin to the Marvel Universe, comes under the microscope here as director and writer David Ayer plunders a world of bad, bad people. The Suicide Squad has been an important presence in the DC Universe since writer John Ostrander revitalised the group in the ’80s, and now they’re getting a chance to shine.

In this scenario the world’s most dangerous super-villains, who are under lock and key at a high security location, are let loose by the US government to wage war on a group of supernatural entities dead keen on wiping out everybody. David Ayer has wrapped his story in full-blown action sequences, some wry humour and more character interaction and development that one can reasonably expect from an action fantasy flick.

Once again, the special effects and the liberal use of CGI imagery dominate, and without it you simply don’t have a film. Suicide Squad is an unrelenting attack on the senses, both visually and aurally, and another ambitious addition to the fast-growing comic book franchises.

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