Suicide Squad

[Donomark]

Apparently WB panicked after BvS and turned it into a mess. 

 

 "The movie's got to do $750 million, $800 million to break even. If they get anywhere close to that, they'll consider it a win."

Good Lord...

[JackFetch]

I would love to see the movie that the trailer promised, but if that's not what you filmed just show me what you got. 

[Molly]

This company could not find their ass with both hands and a flashlight. 

Stop trying to "be like Marvel" and just focus on making good films. 

[teenalphabro]

I mean, I'm gonna see it before passing any judgement, but. Yeah, I haven't heard great things yet.

[JackFetch]

My local theater is not doing a late show which means they haven't sold enough tickets to add one. That's not good. 

[Davedevil]

Enjoyed it overall. Solid ensemble, everybody gets just enough, with Harley and Deadshot having the most to work with and possibly develop later on. Decent action and humor. Editing was a bit of a mess, with scene transitions being jarring more often that not. And not to compare, but despite this having a great soundtrack, Deadpool and Guardians did better with having the music come at appropriate times.

[Molly]

I liked it quite a bit. Waller was spot on perfect, as was Boomer. Harley was solid, and while I appreciate the female form as much as the next guy, could we get Margot Robbie some pants? It's fun for about a scene and then goes to pandering to kinda squicky. 

I don't know if I buy into "Loving Father Deadshot", but the character was appropriately badass. 

That said, Jared Leto's Joker is hot fucking garbage. Barring the bullshit look, the character makes zero sense, his objectives are constantly shifting and the performance isn't funny or creepy or scary, it's just... Odd. And not in the Grant Morrison sense. 

Solid film, though. 

[S-T]

I just don't understand the outrage over the bad reviews.

I plan on seeing it. What the critics say won't convince me to hate something I like, or to like something I hate.

I couldn't care less if it is savaged or praised. If I see it and like it, then I like it. If I don't like it, then I don't.

[JackFetch]

I just came back from it. I enjoyed it a lot but it does have some issues, mostly with the editing. You can tell where a lot of the reshoots are because they feel out of place. Mostly Harley's one liners.  Also they really reached far to squeeze it into the DC cinematic universe and you can tell it wasn't originally part of it. 

[Gareth]

This was complete shlock.  Me and the person I saw it with were actually laughing at the movie consistently by the end.  The writing and most of the acting was truly horrible, however, I gotta say I had a really good time.  It's not a good movie and I'll never watch it again but in the end I'll put it at least a couple notches above 'Civil War' when it comes to summer blockerbusters of 2016.

[Dread]

I don't know if I buy into "Loving Father Deadshot", but the character was appropriately badass. 

That's right in line with the comics. 

[Donomark]

Yeah it is. I've not seen it yet but from what I gather from the tenor of the reviews, the negative press is truly overblown. Like, either people enjoyed it quite fine or they didn't care for it. Nothing that sounds like the shocking stuff from BVS.

[JackFetch]

For those that have seen it:

Can you explain to me why a guy that can regrow body parts and it's basically indestructible can be killed by what is basically a mine?

[Delete]

I don't know I liked it.

It wasn't perfect. The villain left a lot to be desired. The tone was obviously changed because of BvS you can tell by how choppy the editing is especially when Deadshot starts talking about Phil Jackson, and you can tell Joker was supposed to be in this more.

I thought the Squad themselves were great. Katana and Croc were undercooked as characters, but everyone else worked great for me especially Amanda Waller. Loved Harley and The Joker together. They are totally gonna steal the next Batman movie.

I mean it's not Godfather Part 2, but the savaging it has taken from critics is a bit much. I don't want Rotten Tomatoes taken down nor am I convinced movie critics are being paid off by Disney, but I have a hard time believing that a Marvel movie with the exact same flaws would have been judged as harshly by the exact same critics. Mostly because there are Marvel movies with the same exact problems that have not been judged as harshly by the same exact critics.

[Professor]

I tried to see it.  For some reason my theater only has 1 showing of it not in 3D.  One.  And it is at like 10:15 PM.  Not gonna happen.

[Missy]

For those that have seen it:

Hidden Content

Because Diablo weakened him first?

I'm still processing this one. There are some big problems when it comes to the actual filmmaking, the villain is Generic 101, and it's another superhero movie with another energy beam shooting into the sky for reasons. That said, the actors save this movie from being below-average. Should I find the occasion to watch it again, it will be solely for Davis, Smith, and Robbie. (And, to a lesser extent, Kinnaman and Courtney.)

As for The Joker, I kept getting a lot of Crispin Glover in Leto's performance (that's a good thing), and the character was wasted due to the main plot. I want to see more of this Joker, but I want him to be properly used.

[Stavros]

I'm gonna hold my hand up and say I truly hated this film. From the editing and forced nonlinear narrative to the plot to the stupid overused music to the bland characters, terrible action and the complete incompetence of Amanda Waller I thought this was a near total failure, on the level of the last Fantastic Four movie with pretentions of cultural relevency. 

But most people have been at least somewhat kinder than me.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Stavros

[Pan-dub]

As for The Joker, I kept getting a lot of Crispin Glover in Leto's performance (that's a good thing), and the character was wasted due to the main plot. I want to see more of this Joker, but I want him to be properly used.

But seriously, I really enjoyed it. It's definitely taken a page out of Guardians of the Galaxy in terms of soundtrack but that helped me to adore the first 30 minutes. Pacing and ending issues, yes.

I really appreciated the way Batman and The Flash were used, however briefly, to keep the universe consistent. It does raise a similar issue to that of Marvel films, though, in terms of 'Where are the other superheroes?'.

[Missy]

Yeah, if that shit was going on for three days, where were Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash? As you said, Pandy, the solo Marvel movies sometimes have the same trouble, but it really bothered me here.

[slothian]

Yeah, if that shit was going on for three days, where were Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash? As you said, Pandy, the solo Marvel movies sometimes have the same trouble, but it really bothered me here.

In fairness, a lightning cloud thingamy that, admittedly caused a city-wide evacuation, has shit on the US President seemingly moments from being executed on television when Cap/Thor/Fury/Widow/Hulk think "nah, Tony's got this...."

[dc20willsave]

Yeah, if that shit was going on for three days, where were Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash? As you said, Pandy, the solo Marvel movies sometimes have the same trouble, but it really bothered me here.

With the evacuations having been ordered, the news outlets were probably talking about the government having stepped in. Bruce probably doesn't want to step in then, The Flash, we have no clue what his personality is in this case, and Diana might but who the fuck knows? Maybe respecting that the military seems to have the situation under control. The lightning taking out everything didn't come until the last 10 minutes of the attack.

[Stavros]

Yeah, if that shit was going on for three days, where were Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash? As you said, Pandy, the solo Marvel movies sometimes have the same trouble, but it really bothered me here.

In fairness, a lightning cloud thingamy that, admittedly caused a city-wide evacuation, has shit on the US President seemingly moments from being executed on television when Cap/Thor/Fury/Widow/Hulk think "nah, Tony's got this...."

Thor was on another planet, Hulk isn't exactly the guy you want on a save the hostages mission and Cap/Fury/Widow are mere mortals who perhaps cannot respond to a crisis as quickly as Iron Man. What's the Flash's excuse?

[teenalphabro]

My opinions on it: 

I thought that it had a lot of potential. It was good, don't get me wrong. But it felt like, had Ayer been give, I dunno. A little bit longer to work out the script, maybe? And had been allowed to flesh out characters like Katana, and made the villains the Squad is trying to take down a little stronger, then I think I would have liked this movie a lot more. 

That said, I enjoyed it. It wasn't a godawful piece of flaming horseshit, like I thought it was gonna be. But I think it was bogged down by the studio mandating things. 

[Donomark]

After several failed attempts I finally managed to see it yesterday.

I enjoyed it quite fine. It has very basic, very real problems all over in terms of the script. The entire plot with Enchantress, when it got started, I found to be really confusing. Characters like Croc and Katana appear and look great throughout but an hour goes by before they have additional lines of dialogue. For the most part, it's the Will Smith and Harley Quinn show, and I think the latter had less deep characterization to her than I was expecting.

The Joker was...meh. This is not going to be anyone's favorite Joker, but he wasn't awful. I argued about this with my brother for a while; from what we were shown he was little more than a basic thug with a flair for cosplay. The was none of the inherent showman that the Joker always has that tries to entertain an imaginary audience. He's just a gangster who seems to actually love Harley as opposed to all other interpretations. Also Jared Leto was completely cribbing off of Heath Ledger's voice for the character. Ultimately it wasn't a bad performance or even bad take but because we saw so little of him he didn't leave a strong enough impression to make a dent in the long line of classic Joker actors.

It's also funny to me that in a universe which started out with a film ashamed to call their main character "Superman", this just goes in with all the comic booky-ness. Enchantress, a character I seriously know nothing about, is the most comic book-y character in a long while in these movies. People call each other by their comic book name. Everyone has legit costumes and not leathery whatever. It's jarring, but honestly kudos to Ayer and the crew for just making this a DC world and not being afraid to jump into the lake.

It's got problems, but none of them made me mad. Will Smith made for a solid Deadshot. Robie was cast very well as Harley, although I think Harley could have been written a bit better. Even Batman, the worst part about BvS, was recognizably Batman in this. It was like going from Keaton to Val Kilmer. I think my biggest problem was that there are several things that just aren't clear in the script. it might necessitate a re-watch, but I do think it's a symptom of an incomplete script. Still, this is by far the most enjoyable DCEU movie to my mind. It's not great, but it's perfectly enjoyable with likeable characters and a solidly pronounced comic book universe.

[Stavros]

Might as well post my collected rant from a few days ago on this here as well. Let me just say it wasn't helped by watching the masterpiece of editing and unstated universe building that is Mad Max: Fury Road just the weekend before. I really unleashed both barrels here.

Suicide squad

I used my last free movie ticket on this. It was wasted.

People say that behind the studio interference and the machete job they did re-editing there's probably a good film but I just can't see it. From the footage they showed they had a bunch of 2 minute origin vignettes, some prison stuff, a cutscene in a bar and three levels of a bad video game with faceless impersonal foes. That's this whole movie.

If I had to find one word to describe suicide squad it's unearned. It's unearned within the wider DC movie universe. It's unearned when they bring in characters in two minute flashbacks and expect you to care. It's unearned when 20 minutes into their first mission when they've just met each other they're acting like they're family with some lifetime bond of loyalty.

Now I'm willing to believe theres a mediocre one hour tv episode in there. Plot wise there's enough to fill a 22 minute animated episode. But it's undeniable that whatever this was originally was mercilessly butchered one the alter of populism. The stitched together corpse has had random hot 100 tracks of the last 40 years slathered over the cracks to hide what's been done but like any extreme plastic surgery the effect is unconvincing and offputting. Think someones attention miht be wavering? Throw Eminem on top with a track that in no way relates to the scene. Basic information from moment to moment is missing, either because it was lost on the floor of the editing room or it was never filmed. This is a bastard monster born of hacks that misunderstood the art of choosing the right music or inferring the right character back story brings to a film like this. It's like a fan edit of three different films spliced together by a teenager in his basement.

I care more about Rocket Raccoon seeing the scars on his back than I do about any of these people in 30 minutes of devoted setup. I know less than that even about Groot, but his death was the heart of the GotG film. Every effort here rings false. I don't enjoy the company of any of these people. Even Margot Robbie the unquestioned highlight is butchered by sudden unexplained soul searching and out of nowhere strange reactions to other team members revelations. I blame the script and editing far more than her.

Performance wise otherwise its utterly unremarkable. Will Smith is just 2016 Will Smith, a one time movie superstar whose charm was long since worn away under the strain of a string of box office failure. The rest I could barely tell you about, they're undercooked minor characters in every sense.

Honestly I expected a below average film with some occasional highlight performances and moments. I expected something like Prometheus, a collection of talented people in a disjointed effort that at least had interesting ideas. There's nothing interesting here. There's nothing of value here. It's fantastic four with pretentions of pop culture relevency. It's the dollar store unlicenced Guardians ripoff. It's abysmal. And everything about it implies shortcuts and half measures designed to get one dollar now over a thousand down the line. Go watch JLU episode Task Force X. Go watch Guardians of the Galaxy. Go read any of the excellent runs of the Suicide Squad comics! Just don't waste your money here, they haven't earned it.

Oh yeah Jared Leto is the least remarkable screen Joker of all. Not scary, not funny, not anything. I'm gonna go home and watch Heath Ledger.

Part 2

Fuck it I've got more. There's zero team dynamic! You know how Tony and Cap banter back and forth? You know how Star Lord stitches together that bonding with humour and honesty and charm? It's completely absent. There's no chemistry! Guys occasionally smiling at Harker Quinn is not chemistry! It's a complete void which is why its such a mystery that they decide to band together at the end when they dont need to! And don't get me started on the fights. Go watch power rangers. Go on now go watch any random episode. You've just enjoyed better stunts, fight choreography and villains with more personality. Not even kidding, if you saw one episode with Rita and some putties you saw more personality. You want a superhero fight go see Cap 3. You want a 'superhero' fight where the only powers are that baseball bats somehow are more effective than bullets then you might get something out of this. 

I'm done. I'm probably not done.  Gimme some time I'll think of something else.

Part 3

I'm willing to bet others find more to like than me, but I can't recall being so bored by a film in so long, especially one that was trying so hard to get my attention with supposed action, music and gratuitous Margot Robbie. I used one life or death gun battle as a piss break.

Oh, and most of the back half of the movie looks like they were trying for a abandoned city Cloverfield look and wound up with something akin to Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Also, Amanda Waller has the least efficient management style since General Katana in Highlander II. She has folder filled with profiles of the future Justice League and she picked the fucking psycho dregs deliberately?! Her character comes across as a complete moron not least because the villain of the whole thing was her own fault! 

Edited August 11, 2016 by Stavros