If there's one thing that's become synonymous with the San Diego Comic-Con it's crappy cell phone leaks of awesome trailers and pissed off studios...guess that's two things. One of the trailers not officially released over the weekend but shown to those in attendance at Comic-Con's fabled Hall H was Suicide Squad DC's more "out there" offering next year. I say that with love, not derision, after all this time three years ago people couldn't shut up about how "out there" Guardians of the Galaxy was. Anyway, persuaded by the many low-quality leaks that hit the net today and yesterday Warner Bros. has released the full trailer for Suicide Squad officially and it. is. AWESOME. Ok, not 100% awesome...Will Smith, of whom I have been a complete apologist, kind of feels like he could be the weak point. They could have really re-invented him and given us something totally different from the usual Will Smith summer faire, instead they chose to include the Will Smith-iest of lines from the film "We are the heroes". That being said Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is absolutely transfixing, from the small portion we are given you can really feel how deeply she sunk into the role, we knew she had the look down but now we know she IS Harley.
The rest of the trailer does it's best to introduce us to the rest of the group who are, admittedly, far less memorable than a talking raccoon or 10 foot sentient tree. I'm not ruling them out, but squad members like Captain Boomerang are going to have to grab the audience somewhere outside of the visual first impression. The world David Ayer has built is astounding, keeping the grimy asthetic we've seen in the other DC universe films and adding a more cartoonish feel with a lot of Tim Burton thrown in. I don't know how else to put it other than to say that I'm extremely excited to see what this film looks like on the big screen, it's sure to be something completely new while still keeping you somehow in the familiar. That's it, that's all there was of import in the trailer. Oh...wait...am I missing something? That's right, the first real appearance of the Joker since Heath Ledger. Yes we've seen stills but you can't judge anything until you get the whole package and while I'm still firmly against the grill Leto appears to have continued the tradition of cinematic Joker's in that there is no tradition. Each actor has brought his own vastly different version of the clown prince of crime to the table and Leto's is no different. A devious laugh followed by a singe line "I'm not going to kill you, I'm just going to hurt you really really badly" is all you get but it's enough. Leto's joker is more kinetic and just as off-putting. In a way this version could be the most frightening yet. Nicholson gets more of an icon status then I think he deserves, Ledger's Joker was amazing...as if that needed to be said, but ironically, he seemed more in control of himself then Leto's appears to be.
Now my usual disclaimer, it's just a trailer and this could ALL be clever marketing, BUT, I have a feeling that we will soon find DC and Marvel co-existing at the top. They are just different enough for this to work and if Suicide Squad, DC's hardest sell, is half as good as this trailer makes it seem then the world of blockbuster movies is about to change for good. Say goodbye to the summer movie season folks, mark my words, if this works the year will be one long blockbuster season.
