Last week, DC Comics released their newest film: "Suicide Squad". There was a lot of controversy about the quality of the film, and it was heavily criticized before it even hit the big screen. So a lot of people, myself included, were skeptical as we walked into the movie theater. However, in my opinion, "Suicide Squad" wasn’t the abomination everyone has been trying to make it out to be. By the time I walked out of the theater I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of things.
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The thing that impressed me the most was the way that the film treated its female characters. The superhero film genre isn’t known for being particularly kind to their female cast in terms of fair and honest representation. More often than not, women are reduced to topics of romantic subplots, or when they are in the mainstage, like Cat Woman or Black Widow, they are extremely sexualized in a way that comic writers and movie directors would never dream of depicting their men. If neither of those things happen, a lot of times the female characters get killed off at some point, usually to be a motivation for the male superhero and/or his team. "Suicide Squad," however, mixed things up a bit.
For starters, there was a racially diverse cast for the film overall, which was great. With the four leading female roles alone, two of them were women of color. We had Viola Davis playing Amanda Waller the strong-willed and determined woman in charge; we also had Karen Fukuhara playing Katana, a master assassin and sword handler. The two of them were joined by Margot Robbie, who performed as Harley Quinn, and Cara Delevingne who played June Moone/Enchantress. Combining the four actresses and the characters that they played into a single movie resulted in a film that was just as female-led as it was male-led and for me that was refreshing to see.
Another great thing was that the film kept the integrity of all the female characters. I spoke earlier about how more often than not, female characters in superhero movies are extremely sexualized. Now, before you go, “But did you even see how they dressed Harley Quinn?” Let me tell you this: I saw — I know. I know she was dressed in a revealing way but if you watch the film, she knows how she looks and she uses it to her advantage. The only times that she is overtly sexual with other characters in the movie is when she is choosing to use her sexuality as the means to an end. That’s power. It’s a power that she has and it’s a power that she is willing to use. They also show you very early on that she is highly educated — a psychiatrist, in fact — and they continue to hint at it throughout the film, because she is so much more than a pretty face with a baseball bat. She’s smart and strong.
Then you have Amanda Waller. Viola Davis is known for playing strong characters, and this role was no exception. From the start of the film she makes it very clear to this group of convicted criminals and murderersthat she is going to be their worst nightmare, because she isn’t willing to put up with any nonsense. She throws a leash on them immediately. Not only that, but she has the leverage and power to have the entire security organization bend to her will and allow her to initiate the project to begin with. She has an element of control in the film, and even when everything goes wrong, in the end she still maintains a hefty amount of power.
Katana was one of my personal favorites. She doesn’t have many lines in the film, but she is still an extremely important character. She’s the backbone and a security blanket of sorts for a military captain (Rick Flag), if that says anything about the extent of her abilities. Despite her lack of lines, the film still provides her backstory, which was heartbreaking. But to see how it transformed her power and strength, making her into who she was, interested me. I’d love to see more of her character in DC movies. Her character showed up in the movie for the sole purpose of completing the mission, and she did just that without having to say too much or take and heat from other characters. Definitely another no-nonsense woman like Amanda Waller.
Then we have Dr. Moone, who is possessed by Enchantress. While Enchantress certainly isn’t one of the nice characters, she is important and powerful. She is able, through the use of her powers and possession of Dr. Moone’s body, to call upon the powers of the ancient gods and uproot the entire operation that the Suicide Squad was working on. She was able to overpower and otherwise manipulate nearly every character in the movie. She even had a few members of the Squad hesitating on what they were doing by the end of it. Dr. Moone’s character, when she wasn’t being actively possessed by Enchantress, was dedicated to the cause that they were fighting for. She openly and plainly told Rick Flag that if it came down to it, and he had to kill her in order to kill Enchantress by extension, that he should do it and not think twice about it. In my mind, that makes her not only smart, but a whole different kind of strong for being willing to sacrifice everything, her entire life for the success of the world.
One of the best parts of all this, is that all of these women live! All four main female characters last until the end of the movie! To me, that was one of the biggest victories of all. Not only did we get some fair representation in a film, some real character development, but we also get to see these women develop further in sequels or other movies because the writers didn’t kill them off. There’s really not much more that I can say about this particular point than: finally. Finally we get a large number of female characters living to see the next film, and kick some serious butt while doing it.
If you can’t tell, I’m very excited about this. I know that people had their reservations about the "Suicide Squad" film, and I’m not here to say that it’s a film without faults. But what I am here to say, is that maybe we should all cut DC a little slack, because lately their movies have all been slaughtered before fans even saw the opening credits. We are so ready to slam them for everything and I think it’s a bit unfair. There are some really cool and good things about "Suicide Squad," and I think it would be a disservice to yourself as a superhero fan to say otherwise. If you can’t find it in yourself to be excited about anything else in the film, have a little joy in your heart because finally the women of the comic world got some time in the limelight and lived to tell the tale.
