Warner BrothersMarvel have been top-dogs in the superhero genre for years now but DC are making a push to win over audiences with their upcoming supervillain film Suicide Squad.
The film breaks into cinemas in August, and will follow a group of DC’s nastiest supervillains embarking on a dangerous suicide mission in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.
The frantic and funny trailer has an unhinged energy – helped by the rather jarring use of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody – that’s definitely been lacking from previous DC films and it looks like a whole lot of fun, while still keeping to the dark themes of the original comic.
Of particular note is Jared Leto’s Joker who, despite some earlier criticism, looks to have a wacky menace that separates him from previous incarnations of the ‘clown prince of crime.’
The film looks like a refreshing break from DC’s usual uber ‘grim-dark’ tone and it seems that someone over at Warner Bros remembered that comic book movies are a form of escapism, and don’t have to have superheroes breaking people’s necks – I’m looking at you Man of Steel.
All that said, we can’t help but feel that, despite it being a colossal improvement on DC’s usual rather formulaic trailers, it’s definitely aping the style of Marvel’s super popular Guardians of The Galaxy which used pop music to similar effect in its trailer.
Warner BrothersWritten and directed by David Ayer, Suicide Squad stars Jared Leto, Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevingne and more.
The new Suicide Squad trailer wasn’t the only thing to debut. On the CW’s special DC Films Presents: Dawn of the Justice League, host Kevin Smith also unveiled the first footage from Wonder Woman, the upcoming film starring Gal Gadot as the Amazon superheroine.
Wonder Woman has only been filming since last November, so this isn’t what the finished movie will look like. But it does have a few intriguing glimpses of Wonder Woman in action, and it also shows her as Diana Prince, the secret identity that she adopts in Man’s World.
Despite the teaser footage looking to a be a return to the darker tone of their previous films – seriously, the footage’s colour palette looks to range from dark grey to light grey – we have hope.
The main reason why, is that despite the film reinforcing the notion of Diana as a powerful woman and fighter, the director, Patty Jenkins, clearly understands the character.
Jenkins said:
The greatest thing about Wonder Woman is how good and kind and loving she is. Yet none of that negates any of her power.
Even better, DC have actually managed to beat Marvel to the punch on this one and have a female led superhero film.
All in all, DC look to finally have their films in order and may give Marvel a fight over who’s king of the superhero genre – and, best of all, we’re the real winners here because we get more great superhero action!
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.