39Hundreds hit streets

in Hong Kong’s first ‘PokeWalk’

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 2016

LOS ANGELES: This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows, from left, Jai Courtney as Boomerang, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Will Smith as Deadshot, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje asKiller Croc and Jay Hernandez as Diablo, in a scene from “Suicide Squad.” — AP

By Aakash Bakaya

It’s been 8 years since ‘Iron Man’ and ‘The Dark Knight’graced our cinema screens and brought the SummerMovie Season into a new era of Superhero/Comic-book

blockbuster films. After almost a decade of being bombardedby Superhero flicks, it’s relatively easy to have a certainamount of expectations when going to watch one. If you are acasual movie-goer, you’ll be expecting some great actionsequences, larger-than-life characters and a bit of social com-mentary thrown in to make it feel less like mindless entertain-ment. Hardcore fans on the other hand simply want to seethese characters and stories stay true to themselves in someway or the other. So how does the latest ‘Suicide Squad’ holdup by twisting the narrative to focus on the villains for achange? The only thing that comes to mind is garbage. It wassimply atrocious, confusing, cringe-inducing and at timespainful garbage.

What happened here?The concept, the setting and the characters were ripe for

something truly unique. A film about a crooked Intelligenceofficer duping the government to let her control and usesome of the country’s most dangerous villains is a ‘DirtyDozen’ style of plot hard to not get interested in. Throw in thefact that it ’s also a direct continuation of ‘Batman VsSuperman’ where (SPOILER ALERT) the world is reeling fromthe death of Superman along with minor appearances fromBatman and a brand new Joker. It’s a really interesting setting

but what ends up on screen is a confused, mishandled messthat reeks of studio interference.

The film begins quite well. We are first introduced toAmanda Waller, a stone-cold intelligence operative who iseager to get the Army to approve her hand-picked team ofcriminals that would be tasked in ‘protecting the country infuture wars’. We never find out what those ‘wars’ refer to andmuch like the rest of the film’s dialogue, it feels thrown at theaudience and quickly forgotten. She narrates the introduc-tions to our ‘Suicide Squad’. Deadshot, the world’s greatest hit-man; El Diablo, a Mexican gang-runner who can control fire;Captain Boomerang, an Australian super-thief; Killer Croc, amonster that kind of looks like a half-man half-crocodile andthe deranged lunatic Harley Quinn. There’s also an archaeolo-gist who gets possessed by an Ancient God and high-rankingArmy Commander Rick Flag who has the power of being anAll American Army man.

These intros are done in the stylized, neon-blazed colorsthat makes up the crux of this movie’s marketing. But just likethe film’s dialogue, it feels thrown at the audience and quicklyforgotten. We see how the squad got sent to the highest-secu-rity prison in the country and the life they are facing in jail. Butwhen a super-human entity starts attacking the fictional‘Midday City’ (yes that’s the name), the army immediatelyapproves the use of these criminals and tasks Waller to leadthem into dealing with the threat. And here’s where the moviestarts quickly collapsing upon itself and leaves the audiencewith one confusing question - why send these particular indi-viduals at all? They don’t have to kill a single target

(Deadshot’s speciality), infiltrate a highly secure location(Captain Boomerang) or burn everything in a targeted area (ElDiablo).They most definitely don’t need Killer Croc or HarleyQuinn to do whatever it is they do.

None of these problems are addressed or even brought up.When your films entire premise is clearly flawed, forced anddown-right idiotic - you start asking yourself what the entirepoint of this movie is. Unfortunately for everyone involved theanswer to that question is a big, fat nothing. There is no point.No symbolic look at the inherent goodness in even the worstof criminals or a jab at the self-righteousness of our govern-ment powers. There are miniscule lines of actual characterdevelopment but they feel so absolutely inconsequential thatthere is no point in bringing them up.

What about the action you say. You might just want towatch the film to see how the action hold-ups or to see JaredLeto’s performance as the iconic Joker. To put it bluntly, bothwere terrible. When it comes to the action it’s hard to expectmuch in truth. These characters aren’t Spider-Man or WonderWoman. The most they can do is shoot guns really well orswing a baseball bat in Harley’s case. Captain Boomerang isreally good at throwing Boomerangs and if you’re eager to seesome bursts of CGI boomerang action then you’ll love theaction scenes. Deadshot does have one really cool scene ofhim shooting stuff and at one point El Diablo becomes a mas-sive Fire-demon. But other than that, the action is boring andflat. It would have been exciting if we actually got a chance tocare about any of these characters, just like in every goodaction movie!

Jared Leto as the Joker is simply a Hollywood con-job.Everything from the trailers, the posters and the pre-releaseinterviews teased at a unique, new take on the character.What we end up getting is a poor imitation of Heath Ledgerfrom ‘The Dark Knight’. His character appears in both flash-backs and the main-story but apart from setting up HarleyQuinn’s character, his role is as useless as nipples on the Bat-Suit. You know it’s there, you can’t take your eyes of it and nowthe film has the live with this embarrassment until someoneedits it out. Behind all the shiny apparel and ludicrous make-up, you cannot for one second envision this Joker hasBatman’s arch-nemesis. He might appeal to some movie-goersbut I cannot imagine fans of the character approving this ver-sion.

Ultimately I feel the film will be polarising much likeBatman Vs Superman was. But at least that film had a sem-blance of actual story and was confident in the direction of itscharacters. In most films, one can argue its merits and like allart it will find its niche crowd and fans. I can’t seem to do thatfor ‘Suicide Squad’. Some might find the film entertaining inbetween all its flaws and horrendous dialogue. Some mightlike the choice of music which feels ripped from a teenager’siPod from the year 2004 and some might actually like thecard-board representations of these characters that might actand look their comic-book counterparts. For me, the film has awhole felt like the dialogue - thrown at the audience and thenquickly forgotten.

‘Suicide Squad’ is a mess of epic proportions Film Review

Once an afterthought in the historicallymale-dominated outdoor retail industry,women have become a sought-after force

with companies vying to tap into a market that hasgrown to $4.6 billion in annual sales. A wide arrayof clothing, gear and equipment specificallydesigned for women adventurers is on display thisweekend at the summer version of the world’slargest outdoor gear show for retailers that attracts30,000 people a year to Salt Lake City.

Large images of women rock climbing, paddleboarding and doing yoga in exotic locations adornthe elaborate setups at company booths inside theconvention center for the Outdoor Retailer show.The sales of women-specific goods has grownfrom about $400 million some 15 years ago to $4.6billion this year, said Julia Clark Day, executivedirector of business development for the sportsdivision of the research firm NPD Group.

She says the gap has decreased considerablebetween that figure and the annual $7.9 billion inannual sales of men-specific gear. Companiesmake women’s apparel in a wide pallet of colorsand with feminine prints, stitching and features,

but most outdoor brands have moved away fromthe “pink it and shrink it” philosophy that frustratedfemale outdoor enthusiasts for so long. “Every sin-gle company knows that we are expecting morefrom them,” said Laurie Tewksbury, chief operatingofficer of the Outdoor Women’s Alliance. “We’re notjust looking for things that are cute, it better workwell too.”

Evolution of productionThe way skis and bikes are made, for example,

has evolved in recent years to not just be smallerthan men’s gear but made to fit women’s bodiesand features. Within women’s sales, active wear or“athleisure” is the current hot trend, Clark Day said.That includes yoga pants, versatile shorts, dressesand pants. Most come with high-performance fea-tures such as moisture wicking materials and fab-rics that stretch for hiking or ride a bike.

“We call it trails to cocktails,” said Clark Day, whois also on the board of directors at CamberOutdoors, previously known as the OutdoorIndustries Women’s Coalition. “It’s that ability to goout hiking and then look great when you meet

your friends at the bar afterward for a drink.”Adidas Outdoor decided to focus on the bur-

geoning women’s market when it launched sixyears ago, a decision that has paid dividends, saidGreg Thomsen, managing director of the division.Their booth features colorful shoes designed espe-cially for women’s feet and a host of shirts, jacketsand pants. Large images of a professional femalerock climber - a brand ambassador - cover thewalls. At California-based PrAna, yoga pants, light-weight dresses and stylish blouses that can be lay-ered on top of sports bras were on display.

Women “want performance. They want some-thing they can wear comfortably through whatev-er activity they are doing over the course of theday,” said Sasha Dietschi-Cooper, vice president ofsales for the company. “Equally important, theywant something that looks great.”— AP

’From trails to cocktails,’ active wear hot at outdoor show

SALT LAKE CITY: A woman reaches totouch the fabric on a mannequin at theLa Sportiva booth during the Outdoor

Retailer show on Friday. — AP