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Suicide Squad Review Thread: As Fresh As Green Lantern!

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Jazzem

Member
Yeah the critics were right; this was confused, dull, directionless, unfunny, the lot.

Shame as the performances were generally fine, but man they can't save such an unfocused mess of a film.

...which is to say it's by far the best DC Universe film :p...why do I keep going to see these!?
 

bob_arctor

Tough_Smooth
Tell us about your Boomerang theory

Hey man you can keep harping on that if you want but I didn't think much about it beyond that obvious reference and thought it was fine. I'm of the mind that nobody really cared that much. Certainly I didn't. My wife and kids didn't. Nobody I know has who has seen the movie has brought it up, aghast and offended at the horror of terrible writing, editing and/or character breaking because dude walked out and then was seen again a few secs later. But like I told one poster that tried to go in on this, whatever you feel about it, it's cool. Your opinion is just as valid ultimately.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
Of course there have been misfits thrown together movies before, Guardians just happens to be an extremely popular and recent example. Plenty of people have suggested that the editing (particularly the pop-song heavy beginning) is indicative of attempting to ape Guardians' tone, and I doubt that this movie would have been greenlit without the roaring success Guardians had.
This movie was about a year into production before Guardians even hit the theaters. C'mon.

Well not a year iirc. But I believe it was in the works before Guardians got out.
 

tomtom94

Member
This movie was about a year into production before Guardians even hit the theaters. C'mon.

Well not a year iirc. But I believe it was in the works before Guardians got out.

The film's been bouncing around since 2009, but Ayer signed on in September 2014. I don't think it's a stretch to say they looked at Guardians and went "we need our one of those", personally, even if it's just they were planning it and Guardians made them go from 80% greenlit to 100%.
 

Schlorgan

Member
Half in the Bag: https://youtu.be/ePoxmPMwJNQ

They found the movie frustrating. It basically came down to wondering why WB would hire a director like Ayer to do a movie just to completely change it at the end when they could just hire Brett Ratner and not have to waste all of that time, money and talent on a sub-par movie.
 

Nokterian

Member
Half in the Bag: https://youtu.be/ePoxmPMwJNQ

They found the movie frustrating. It basically came down to wondering why WB would hire a director like Ayer to do a movie just to completely change it at the end when they could just hire Brett Ratner and not have to waste all of that time, money and talent on a sub-par movie.

Love these guys and double toasted, well not going to see it anyway to me it shows on why WB really don't know what the hell there doing.
 
The only way I'd really compare Suicide Squad to Guardians of the Galaxy is the sense that your enjoyment of the movie heavily hinges on how you feel about the characters. Neither plot matters, it's just an excuse to have them on screen

Claims that the movie itself is a clone or something is pretty hard to take seriously, as people were saying that from the first teaser trailer just because it used popular music. The script utilized a couple of jokes too, a technique pioneered in the MCU
 

SargerusBR

I love Pokken!
now spielberg is the next shyamalan

The circle is now complete
tumblr_inline_oa0h7x0DzR1t09k6m_500.gif
 

correojon

Member
Saw it on Friday and didn´t like it. This movie has many problems:
  • Horrible pacing: Many flashbacks that cut the pace, mixed with dream/hallucination scenes. At one point there even was a short flashback explaining smoething really basic which had already happened on the movie itself (can´t remember the exact example, it may be something related tot he Enchartess´ heart). Bio introductions for many characters and then but-wait-here-come-3-new-characters-out-of-nowhere! They´re important too, except rope guy, but please don´t think he isn´t because we spent 3 seconds on him...ooops he´s gone! Haha bet you didn´t see it coming, how we we were going to decapitate this integral, central to the plot member of the team!! /s
  • Lame characters: This is supposed to be a squad formed to stop Superman-level threats, yet most of it´s members can only shoot weapons, throw blades, climb really fast (wtf?) or use a baseball bat. It´s like an Avengers movie where you take out Thor, Iron Man and Hulk and replace them with lamer versions of HawkEye. BTW, HawkEye is awesome compared to most of the cast in SS, at least he has the secret spy angle going for him. He could easily take down all members of SS except maybe Diablo and I´m not a fan of HawkEye.
  • Boring action scenes: Horde mode where the enemies always miss and the main characters always hit the mark. No decently coreographed fights, just yesterday I saw some Arrow chapters and the action there was a lot better than in this movie. Deadshot is awesome because he never misses, that somehow gives him a superpower to allow him to go out in the open durign a shootout and not get hit once.
  • No teamwork: Everyone has a little scene to shine, but there´s no teamwork whatsoever. Things like Iron Man shooting at Cap´s shield to reflect the ray, or Hulk laying down a metal piece for Thor to slam it into one of those big aliens were great. But in this movie you don´t see anyting like that, everyone just shoots at their targets and doesn´t interact with the rest of the team at all during action scenes. Special mention for the last scene, where Croc throws the explosives for Deadshot to shoot at them. They had a guy in the team whose special abbility was that he throws things but no, let´s use Killer Croc instead. Seems like no one knew what to do with these characters or how to use them at all. This affected immensely the action sequences pacing: it was senseless action scenes one after another where you knew that "now Capt. Boomerang will do something because it´s his turn", "Katana hasn´t done anything yet, it´s her turn now....yep, there it is". Everything was disconnected like completing independent bullet points on a checklist, without any intent to tie them all together into something bigger and better.
  • Will Smith was cool, but I couldn´t stop seeing him as Will Smith, not another character and in this situation it was impossible to not like the character since the first moment. Despite his efforts to remind us that he´s a bad guy it was totally unbelievable. Will is a cool guy, there´s no way we´re going to see him as something evil and reprobable if you just make him go out and say some sentences instead of acting as someone else.
  • Harley was great sometimes and dull in many others: I hated that when she got surprised crying on top of the car, she wiped her tears away and put on a fake smile as if nothing happened. It wouldn´ve been much more believable for her to have a nervous breakdown and don´t give 2 shits if she´s surprised crying, go on a rampage and attack the soldiers or something...hell, that would´ve been a very nice chance for the team to bond: make them stop her, calm her down and comfort her. That scene make her whole persona look fake to me, another of many instances of the characters trying to be edgy and failing at it. When she steals the purse, her reply was really cringeworthy ("we´re the bad guys, it´s what we do"). Instead she should have made that seem natural to her and act surprised or confused at the complaints of the soldiers.
  • "This is my family" moment (Diablo): Totally unearned and out of nowhere.
  • Katana at the bar: I couldn´t understand why she went to the bar instead of with the soldiers, apart of "because the script says we now need a bonding sequence at the bar". Katana´s whole pressence in the film felt unjustified.
  • The whole movie reeks of tryhardness: The Shadow the Hedgehog meme where he says "It´s like stealing candy from a kid, which is totally fine for me" constantly came to my mind during the film. These guys aren´t evil, save Captain Boomerang maybe.
  • Tell, don´t show: The movie is constantly telling us that the characters are bad guys, but instead is showing us at everytime that they really aren´t. Diablo was the worst offender, he was shown as a pacifist for 99% of his screentime and only a short flashback showed him as a gangster. This is bad storytelling and I even find it insulting and simpleminded: don´t tell me these guys are the worst of the worst if I´m seeing they aren´t. Don´t make them say at every time that they´re bad while they fall short on that, make them do bad stuff instead so I can reach that conclusion on my own in a much more natural and powerful way. The movie was trying to lie in our faces at every turn like we were stupid.
  • The secret files: After finding the dossier everyone was really outraged at the soldiers and went to the bar to vent. I really didn´t understand this. These are supposed to be villains, men and women capable of the worst with lacking moral, but they were really offended when the same organization that has kept them captive, implanted an explosive on their necks and forced them to go out and risk their lives, was responsible for the whole mess present on the city. I don´t get it. This only served to, once again and despite everything the movie was trying to say, show the characters as good guys. Everything that came after this seemed false and hard to believe.
  • Me too: As happened with BvS, this movie clearly shows WB´s and DC´s combined intents to replicate Marvel´s MCU´s success and strategy. And as happened with BvS, it also felt flat and was harmed by it. I couldn´t help but compare it with the latest Captain America movie at every turn. Suicide Squad just tried to introduce many characters, give us some small info and done! We´re supposed to instantly grow attached to them and think they´re cool. Show a little flashback, make the character talk about how he wants to be seen and we´re set. Well, I have some bad news: it doesn´t work like that. The DCU is trying to run before learning to walk and I really think they should employ more time in each character and introduce them more slowly, develop them more and make each one show their personality. Make a movie about the Flash and maybe introduce 1 or 2 other important characters, like Marvel does (Ant Man and Falcon in Ant Man, Black Panther and Spidey in Civil War, Vision and Wanda in Avengers 2...). That way everyone has time to show who they are while you develop the plot. Not like this film (or BvS) where you have 7 or 8 characters fighting for screen time while a plot totally unrelated to any of them develops on the background.
  • Comparisons are bad: But in a world where we´re getting 3 or 4 new superhero movies every year they´re invevitable. Any Avengers movie is much better than this one. GG is much better too. Deadpool is awesome and really puts this one to shame. Speaking about Deadpool, that movie really did a good job of showing a believable character with a broken moral compass that got you to root for him. The bigger difference with SS? Deadpool doesn´t say he´s evil at every step, instead he actively rejects to be called a hero, gets mad when doing hero stuff and be recognized by it but, most of all, spends the whole movie doing crazy, sick stuff like it´s nothing and natural to him. The scene when rambles whether it´s more politically incorrect to hit a girl or not to hit her while he´s carelessly preparing his gun to shoot her on the face is gold. Or how he shoves the camera away when he´s about to break the fingers of a bad guy...in SS Harley would have told the camera to look and end the sequence with a lame sentence like "I broke his fingers, see how bad I am?" - laughs maniacally while thinking "please believe I´m bad and edgy and dangerous".
  • I have mixed feelings about the Joker and he shouldn´t have been in the movie at all: There are already too many characters and the main story has nothing to do with him, he appears a lot in flashbacks, then suddenly erupts in the main plot only to quickly vanish from the film shortly after. BTW, what a lame way to trick us into thinking he was dead, I don´t think anyone bought it. As a character, he suffers from the same flaws as the rest: Leto´s interpretation is good and could be something, but the character is again hyped as the root of all evil, while he really doesn´t actually DO anything noteworthy. With the dark tone of the movie I was expecting him to do some really sick stuff, something really horrendous to bring him to a higher level of evilness. But again, the worst he does is shoot someone up close (another gangster for that matter). I was watching this with my girlfriend who´s really not into comics and this kind of stuff, so I had to explain her that Joker is supposed to be a very big deal. She didn´t see that in the movie and just thought he was another simple one-use villain.
  • Jane should have died: At least it would´ve been a brave way to end the movie, it may have given the whole team an excuse to be sympathetic towards Flagg and bond. Or it may have been a good opportunity for the supposedly bad guys to say or do something inappropiate and act as dicks. I can imagine Capt Boomerang peeing on the corpse, or Harley smashing it with her bat as Flag is hugging it and make a silly joke. But the moment she broke the Enchantress´ dead carcass and emerged from it, the movie lost what little respect I still had for it (anyway, not much was lost lol). Only thing missing was the squad surrounding them and clapping like in an institute movie.
  • Best part of the movie for me was the Doctor Strange trailer showed at the beginning: As I was wlking home with my girlfriend trying to explain to her how not all superhero movies were this bad, this was the only argument I could give her.

I think I might have enjoyed this even less than BvS...Anyway, this is the last time I buy tickets on the opening date to a DC movie, I´ll definitely wait for reviews on Wonder Woman and JL before deciding if I go see them.
 

tribal24

Banned
I felt the movie was way to try-hard. The soundtrack was annoying with all the licensed stuff. The group thinking theit a family was totally unearned. Enchantress was cool but thats it, harley was ok she didn't nail it completely. Will Smith was will Smith he was fun for a bit.
 

Cuburt

Member
Anyone see the after credits easter egg?

After all the credits roll it says:


The Suicide Squad will return.



James Gunn, the check is in the mail ;)


Cute and classy, David Ayer.
 
Straight up booed Snyder?

Kids these days no respect.

Like what DISCO?

Fwiw the cheers outweighed the boos. The losers were silenced.

Rush Hour 1/2 and red dragon >>>> ayers best film...which is uhh end of watch I guess?

He shouldn't have been hired for this. But I'm not saying ratner was a good alternative either lol no thanks.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
Fwiw the cheers outweighed the boos. The losers were silenced.

Rush Hour 1/2 and red dragon >>>> ayers best film...which is uhh end of watch I guess?

He shouldn't have been hired for this. But I'm not saying ratner was a good alternative either lol no thanks.
Ah fuck. Rush Hour 2 alone beats out his filmography.

You win this time. But I'd still would've liked to see Ayer return with something more... Coherent. He's the main reason why I bothered looking forward to this at all.
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
The only thing Brett Ratner should be doing is drinking alone in his mansion, masturbating to his ego until the eventual headline hits where we can all collectively sigh that we don't have to hear about him anymore.

Ayer deserved better. The guy fucking tried, and whatever missteps he made were only compounded by WB taking an axe to his movie. Not saying what would've come out would've been a masterpiece, but it sure as fuck would've been better than what we got.
 
While I sorta dug the this Joker I could not for the life of me understand why Leto went with a deep sinister voice for the character when he talked to Harley. Just sounds like he's trying too hard, whereas on the other hand Will Smith literally could've been playing Cap'n Steve Hiller from ID and I wouldn't have known the difference.
 
Isn't that basically what Joker is supposed to be?

There's a ton of takes on the Joker and that is certainly one of them. Not a great one really but it's not awful implicitly. Maybe Leto Joker was secretly brilliant, but he certainly didn't get any great scenes in this movie.
 

Alcibiades

Member
These bad DC movies are ruining my main movie group.

Once the reviews come out everybody ends up flaking and now I have an open sunday.

Same thing happened to BvS, funny how this never happens with stuff like Civil war or deadpool.

I think I'm just going to stop keeping an open day for DC movies.

Uh just go see it on your own?
 

faridmon

Member
I am just baffled that the opening week of this movie was this huge.

I mean, DC and WB doesn't even need to make a good film anymore. They just need to have good trailers and have a huge marketing push and people will still see it.
 

Litan

Member
I am just baffled that the opening week of this movie was this huge.

I mean, DC and WB doesn't even need to make a good film anymore. They just need to have good trailers and have a huge marketing push and people will still see it.
That's the point of movie marketing, though. Get as many butts in the seats as possible for the opening weekend, and they did a good job with that.
Can't be mad at 'em.
 

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
Ah fuck. Rush Hour 2 alone beats out his filmography.

You win this time. But I'd still would've liked to see Ayer return with something more... Coherent. He's the main reason why I bothered looking forward to this at all.
I don't think it's fair to compare Rush Hour to Fury or End of Watch, but if I had to I'd place Ayer still far above Ratner.
 

Kuros

Member
Half in the Bag: https://youtu.be/ePoxmPMwJNQ

They found the movie frustrating. It basically came down to wondering why WB would hire a director like Ayer to do a movie just to completely change it at the end when they could just hire Brett Ratner and not have to waste all of that time, money and talent on a sub-par movie.

I find it interesting that they both missed where HQ got the phone from (the casino gambling guard gave it to her as they were leaving) I caught that part but maybe it was another part of the movie that was so badly edited that people missed it.
 

Rlan

Member
I find it interesting that they both missed where HQ got the phone from (the casino gambling guard gave it to her as they were leaving) I caught that part but maybe it was another part of the movie that was so badly edited that people missed it.

I remember the part where that happened, but you couldn't even recognize the guy as far as I could see it. I thought the guy handing the phone was the shitbag who was torturing a bunch of them throughout the start, which felt weird.

There's also the part where they break in... I think for the bomb-taking-out device, which they never use at all
 

Kuros

Member
I remember the part where that happened, but you couldn't even recognize the guy as far as I could see it. I thought the guy handing the phone was the shitbag who was torturing a bunch of them throughout the start, which felt weird.

There's also the part where they break in... I think for the bomb-taking-out device, which they never use at all

I think the shitbag guard at the start is the same as the casino guy. So it was all the same guy throughout.
 

Betty

Banned
What a shitty thing to do. Guy probably already felt bad that his movie took such a beating. Who pays money and waits for hours in the heat just to boo a dude? Comic book fans can be pretty terrible sometimes.

They probably came there to see the actors who are the biggest draw.

Things will only get worse for Snyder though when Justice League becomes a critical flop too.
 

Blader

Member
Zacks Synder when they booed him at Comic-Con
giphy.gif

Damn, dat tie/vest. Snyder is one handsome man.

I've enjoyed some of ratners movies more than I have ayers tbh.

Ha, I'd actually agree. I enjoyed Rush Hour 1 and 2 more than Fury (and even Training Day if you want to include that). And I actually forgot til your post that Ratner had done Red Dragon, which wasn't great, but I thought was solid.
 

D_prOdigy

Member
Zacks Synder when they booed him at Comic-Con
giphy.gif

Aw man.

Snyder's gone 'through the wall' for me and come out of it quite likable, like the polarities have been reversed because the dilithium crystals cannae take any more captain.

I can't say I've particularly liked... any of his movies, but I've never doubted that he is just trying to make the best movie that he can in his own way*

Doesn't deserve that kind of fanboy shit


*
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Glass

Member
I didnt realise he got booed there. As much as I hate the Synderverse, that's not cool. Just makes CBM fans look like such a fickle bunch.
 
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