Suicide Squad (David Ayer, 2016) Movie • Page 39

there are lots of accounts that I have read

 

Was it interesting though? It didn't tease anything new, they could have teased Steppenwolf, Darkseid, or the mother boxes heck the could have thrown in a Cyborg scene. Nope, we get scene that we already have a trailer for and is something everyone already knows is currently shooting. Wasted opportunity (seems to be a theme of DC) is the words I'd use to describe it.

 

If all of this was cut, no way this was Ayer's preferred version. Definitely should have left a good chunk of that in.

 

I liked Ayer's Fury, I like Will Smith, and I love the DC universe. I hoped the film would be good.

To be fair, there are threads of interesting ideas. If they had cut like, four characters and really focused on building the three or four main conflicts that had any thematics or emotion behind them, this film could have been a fascinatingly complex comic book movie. The juxtaposition of Deadshot against Rick Flag, a mercenary who kills for money against an American soldier who represents American violence and imperialism (and by extension, capitalism) would have been great. The film hints at it, on the helicopter when they're talking, but drops any of those ideas in favor of the two kind of just going back and forth, talking but not really saying anything to each other. Harley Quin could have been an examination of abusive relationships in her intoxication with the Joker, a manipulative and evil person who seems to actually like her and want her around despite his constant abuse, while also being a complex character who turns to the Joker because she is treated just as horribly and despicably by the government and prisons. Instead, she's brutalized and sexualized constantly, this camera oozes the male gaze whenever she's onscreen. Batman punches her in the face, then gives her mouth to mouth in a jarring jump from brutalization of a woman to sexualizing that victim. (Added unintentional comedy, when she and the Joker rise from that vat of acid, it legitimately looks like they're absolutely drenched in cum). Diablo and Deadshot kind of have arcs, or at least the foundations of them. They aren't fully realized, though. Diablo finally indulges his powers because... Deadshot was annoying him? Did he just forget that he killed his wife and kids with those powers? Or is it worth it now because he has friends who also murder people? The arc there is... weird. Will Smith is so good as Deadshot that you kind of feel like he's changed, until you realize that he's the same guy from the start of the film. A guy who kills people but ultimately does the right thing. Not shooting Batman is intentionally parallelled with shooting an evil being who's destroying the whole world. He doesn't shoot Batman and does shoot the evil villain. Both of these are the correct moral decision, one is at the beginning of his arc, the other at the end. He's the same guy, he's unchanged. Not in a way where the film knows it, either, they play him with his daughter at the end like he's some new man, but really he just made a friend in Rick Flag. Viola Davis was a stellar Amanda Waller, but her ruthlessness and violence in service of the government doesn't really say anything. She feels no consequences, her actions feel no consequences (seriously, this attack is just as massive, actually probably more so than the Man of Steel battle, is this another instance of leaving the catastrophic fallout to a sequel? Or will they just proceed as normal in whatever DCU film is next?). It's frustrating that those hints of interesting ideas are there, but completely unexplored.

Besides that, it's a sloppy, badly made movie. Katana, Killer Croc and Boomerang could be completely cut and edited out of the film and the story remains unaffected. Same goes for Batman and Flash, excepting maybe the Batman/Deadshot scene. The first forty five minutes introduce literally no conflict. They're just character introductions that don't let two minutes go by without an overbearing popular song. Why is Waller assembling this team? What are they going to go up against? We have no real clue until almost an hour in, when Enchantress escapes and frees her brother, and we realize they're going up against CGI nothing villains who want to destroy the world for whatever reasons. They look ridiculous, the action is empty, and the emotional investment in stopping Enchantress is tied to Rick Flag being in love with her human avatar, which isn't given equal weight to the insane havoc she inflicts on the world. This movie tells us that Enchantress escaped and freed her brother, and that's why they recruited the Suicide Squad. For some reason, they don't tell the Suicide Squad, and when the Squad finds out, it flashes back to scenes that were literally in the movie, but it doesn't provide any new information. It's just new to the Squad. It's a baffling move in a movie full of bad choices.

There's good in there. Viola Davis and Will Smith were top notch. While Jared Leto is basically being what you'd expect from Jared Leto in this role, he'd be an adequate Joker if he didn't look so fucking ridiculous. On a similar note, I wasn't thrilled with Margot Robbie's performance. She mimics the Animated Series hyper-stylized Brooklyn accent, but it doesn't work well when she and the Joker are drenched in extremely stylized stereotypical pimp and gangbanger iconography.

This movie probably wasn't helped by the studio getting their hands in there to try and make fixes, but it feels like it had problems from Ayer's original script. I liked Fury, I thought Ayer might be able to do something interesting, and I do think there were hints of things that could have been new and exciting and complex. This movie drops all of them for team of people with superpowers going up against CGI bullshit.

 

Yeah, I didn't know any of that. If you're not connected to the DC world, or comic book world at all, it was an interesting ending.

 

Fair point, for anyone who isn't connected to the internet following movie updates from comic-con or didn't see BvS it was an interesting ending, which there were a few individuals in the theater who seemed intrigued by that ending.

 

I didn't even stick around for a post credits scene. Was too annoyed at the final third so I left ASAP.

 

it was mid credits. not too long a wait.

 

BOX OFFICE: SUICIDE SQUAD Exceeds Expectations On Friday For Possible $150 Million Debut

 

Bruce Wayne meets Waller in a restaurant and receives files labeled *top secret* which shows Aquaman and the Flash. Wayne promises that Waller is under his protection and nothing will happen to her for leaking these files. With Bruce Wayne saying he wants to make new friends and Waller saying he looks tired and should stop working nights (this meeting happened at night)

 

Saw it last night. Movie was fine. Not nearly as bad as people are saying.

 

Wasn't the Enchantress file there as well?

 

Might have been, I know there was a villain in those files that was in the movie, I just don't recall which one. So it could have been her.

 

All this negative talk has done is manage my expectations. I fell in love with the trailer so this is keeping me humble going into it.

 

Seeing it at 6, pray for me.

 

I didn't even know it existed till now lol

 

I actually thought this wasn't bad, coming from someone who normally doesn't like comic book movies. Robbie and Smith were the stand-outs. I didn't see BvS, should I check out the re-cut?

 

If you don't like comic book movies my answer would be no, but if you plan on seeing any of the upcoming comic book DC movies I would recommend it so things make sense. The overwhelming consensus is to watch the Ultimate version as the added scenes add some clarity.

 

Unfortunately the trailer made this seem much more amazing than it actually was. Whoever was in charge of developing the trailer footage should be given a raise.

The film felt very disjointed and rushed. There was little to no character development. It felt like it couldn't decide between being a love story or a Will Smith movie. The Joker is in the film for all of 12 minutes tops. The main villain was cringeworthy, as was almost every line out of Robbie's mouth. Her character was also incredibly useless - she's a sociopath wielding a baseball bat and a gun. However useless she is was nothing compared to nearly everyone else not played by Will Smith. The boomerang dude is utterly insignificant, as was Katana - who felt incredibly shoe-horned in. The final fight scene made no sense whatsoever.

There was one action sequence that was pretty cool. Everything else was super forgettable.

 

I really wanted to like this movie, but it was such a mess. It was gimmicky and weirdly paced and the story was all over the place. Ugh.

I liked Harley Quinn a lot more than I thought I would though, and Katana was awesome.

 

Do it! It's nowhere near as bad as some make it out to be. In fact, it's actually a pretty good movie. It just has a lot of flaws.

 

*El Diablo tells a p intense story about setting his family on fire*
Harley Quinn: own that shit we can't have families
*Enchantress shows one vision*
HQ: My one true wish is to have kids with the joker


Sure.

 

That own that shit line was awful

 

For as subversive as the marketing and tone of this and Deadpool (and even Guardians of the Galaxy) claim to be, they're all basically the same as every other standard superhero film in terms of structure and conflict. Edgy jokes dress them up, but when will one of them actually take a risk and do something fresh?

 

That was my main problem with both of those films, despite immensely enjoying both. As great as Guardians was, it had a few eye rolling moments of standard MCU-cliche.

Deadpool was especially paint by the numbers, but is saved by reveling in it's R rating.