The Suicide Squad - minor spoilers only
Aug. 15th, 2021 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerFriday night we watched The Suicide Squad. "It doesn't suck, does it?" Hawk asked a friend. She was wary about it being a reboot of the 2016 Suicide Squad which... I think the only people who liked it were diehard fanboys/fangirls of the character Harley Quinn.
"It's actually really good," our friend assured us. Still wary we watched it on a free trial of HBO Max instead of shelling out $20++ to see it in a theater. It was... 2 hours 12 minutes long. Yeah, it wasn't that great. It wasn't bad enough that I want my time back, but if I'd paid much more than $0 for the tickets I'd want something back.
The Suicide Squad is an action comedy patterned on 1970s war movies such as The Dirty Dozen. (Yes, cinemaphiles, The Dirty Dozen is from 1967. The director of this movie has repeatedly cited "1970s war movies" and "The Dirty Dozen" in the same sentence in interviews about his inspiration. That may tell you something about the quality of the art here.) Instead of garden variety criminals sent on a dangerous mission, it's comic book villains sent on a dangerous mission. D-List comic book villains.
"This is like Mystery Men," I quipped as the team of misfits was pulled together. "Except without the charisma of The Shoveler."
"I think that's the one played by the guy who did Pee-wee Herman," I snickered about one character. "No, wait, I think that's him," I corrected moments later. For the record, none of them are played by Paul Reubens.
By the time the full team assembled, with brief backstories given for each member, I'd already stopped caring about the characters. "I've already ranked my list on which ones I want to see die first," I announced.
It turned out that was ironic because in practically the next scene, staffers at the unnamed intelligence agency that sent the misfits on this top-secret mission are seen conducting a "dead pool"— taking bets on who's going to die.
That's the point, of course. The characters are not meant to be sympathetic. Like in The Dirty Dozen you may root for them to win because they're fighting for your side, but at the same time you know they're scum. Except here most of them are so unsympathetic, so ridiculously fourth-rate, sad sack villains, that you're rooting for most of them to die.
And that's kind of the point, too. Actor John Cena describes his portrayal of the character Peacemaker as, "Captain America, if he were a total douchebag."
It's hard to imagine a story full of unlikeable characters keeping itself together for over 2 hours. The Suicide Squad does... barely. It does that by stringing together action scenes with plenty of violence and gore. And a high body count. Yeah, one reason you might keep watching is to see the character(s) you hate get whacked.
Overall I give this movie a D+. It does a bit better than the minimum passing grade, but not by much.
You know what's scary, though? At a D+ this might still be the best DC Comics movie adaptation. Why is it that dozens of movies have been made in the Marvel Comics universe and the worst of them is still okay, but with DC it's such a struggle to do better than crap a turd onto the screen?
"It's actually really good," our friend assured us. Still wary we watched it on a free trial of HBO Max instead of shelling out $20++ to see it in a theater. It was... 2 hours 12 minutes long. Yeah, it wasn't that great. It wasn't bad enough that I want my time back, but if I'd paid much more than $0 for the tickets I'd want something back.
The Suicide Squad is an action comedy patterned on 1970s war movies such as The Dirty Dozen. (Yes, cinemaphiles, The Dirty Dozen is from 1967. The director of this movie has repeatedly cited "1970s war movies" and "The Dirty Dozen" in the same sentence in interviews about his inspiration. That may tell you something about the quality of the art here.) Instead of garden variety criminals sent on a dangerous mission, it's comic book villains sent on a dangerous mission. D-List comic book villains.
"This is like Mystery Men," I quipped as the team of misfits was pulled together. "Except without the charisma of The Shoveler."
"I think that's the one played by the guy who did Pee-wee Herman," I snickered about one character. "No, wait, I think that's him," I corrected moments later. For the record, none of them are played by Paul Reubens.
By the time the full team assembled, with brief backstories given for each member, I'd already stopped caring about the characters. "I've already ranked my list on which ones I want to see die first," I announced.
It turned out that was ironic because in practically the next scene, staffers at the unnamed intelligence agency that sent the misfits on this top-secret mission are seen conducting a "dead pool"— taking bets on who's going to die.
That's the point, of course. The characters are not meant to be sympathetic. Like in The Dirty Dozen you may root for them to win because they're fighting for your side, but at the same time you know they're scum. Except here most of them are so unsympathetic, so ridiculously fourth-rate, sad sack villains, that you're rooting for most of them to die.
And that's kind of the point, too. Actor John Cena describes his portrayal of the character Peacemaker as, "Captain America, if he were a total douchebag."
It's hard to imagine a story full of unlikeable characters keeping itself together for over 2 hours. The Suicide Squad does... barely. It does that by stringing together action scenes with plenty of violence and gore. And a high body count. Yeah, one reason you might keep watching is to see the character(s) you hate get whacked.
Overall I give this movie a D+. It does a bit better than the minimum passing grade, but not by much.
You know what's scary, though? At a D+ this might still be the best DC Comics movie adaptation. Why is it that dozens of movies have been made in the Marvel Comics universe and the worst of them is still okay, but with DC it's such a struggle to do better than crap a turd onto the screen?
