The Suicide Squad (Spoilers after OP)

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My scene stealer was actually rat catcher 2, she brought some actual heart and emotion to the movie, was my fav character by far.

Ratcatcher in particular has a downright adorable look on her face as she mutters "They were gone when we got here."

 

[Istbor]

I guess Starro is the 'Big Bad'. Though, I am really unsure myself.

One of its last line being "We were happy just floating in space looking at the stars", makes it hard to hang the hat on him being the true villain.
I think it is a familiar message that we are our own worst enemies. Interfering with things beyond our understanding in a destructive way, putting ourselves into a situation that only hurts us more.

As an aside, I too was curious about Waller being seemingly fine with letting the island nation burn. Like... was there a plan to just nuke the island? What were they going to do about the massive monster? Was the plan to let the actual DC heroes deal with it once the evidence was destroyed?

 

[payn]

I guess Starro is the 'Big Bad'. Though, I am really unsure myself.

One of its last line being "We were happy just floating in space looking at the stars", makes it hard to hang the hat on him being the true villain.
I think it is a familiar message that we are our own worst enemies. Interfering with things beyond our understanding in a destructive way, putting ourselves into a situation that only hurts us more.

As an aside, I too was curious about Waller being seemingly fine with letting the island nation burn. Like... was there a plan to just nuke the island? What were they going to do about the massive monster? Was the plan to let the actual DC heroes deal with it once the evidence was destroyed?

One of the most disappointing things in TSS was Waller. Immediately Weasel dies because it cant swim. Sure that might be on Waller's team, but all she does is give a them a little side eye about it. Then, whats up with the team decisions? Why wouldn't King Shark be a team 1 candidate? I mean KS is a liability to a rather important mission. Then, she sends her solider on the ground Flag with the distraction team 1? Finally, her subordinates whack her in the head with a putter and still have their jobs afterwards?
Which wouldn't have been necessary if she didnt send in the redeemable members of the squad with team 2 anyways...

I mean the answer is because it serves the comedy of the film, but its still pretty weak as a plot point. I think with a few extra scenes they could have made Waller appear more cold and calculating, essentially a non-super version of Peacemaker. In TSS Waller just seems like a garden variety bureaucrat with little idea of what she is doing. That part was rather disappointing.

 

[Stalker0]

One of the most disappointing things in TSS was Waller. Immediately Weasel dies because it cant swim. Sure that might be on Waller's team, but all she does is give a them a little side eye about it. Then, whats up with the team decisions? Why wouldn't King Shark be a team 1 candidate? I mean KS is a liability to a rather important mission. Then, she sends her solider on the ground Flag with the distraction team 1? Finally, her subordinates whack her in the head with a putter and still have their jobs afterwards?
Which wouldn't have been necessary if she didnt send in the redeemable members of the squad with team 2 anyways...

I mean the answer is because it serves the comedy of the film, but its still pretty weak as a plot point. I think with a few extra scenes they could have made Waller appear more cold and calculating, essentially a non-super version of Peacemaker. In TSS Waller just seems like a garden variety bureaucrat with little idea of what she is doing. That part was rather disappointing.

Definately agree about KS. If he was on team 1, they could have easily decimated the military with basically no casualties.

now her goal could have been to get that team killed as she didn’t trust them or wanted them out of the way…except she then authorizes the rescue of flag, which goes against that theory.

 

[Istbor]

Definately agree about KS. If he was on team 1, they could have easily decimated the military with basically no casualties.

now her goal could have been to get that team killed as she didn’t trust them or wanted them out of the way…except she then authorizes the rescue of flag, which goes against that theory.

It was odd that Flag was on that doomed team. Maybe she though he could manage his way out?

More, I think they wanted to still illustrate her as a cold-hearted director type, but wanted to pull back from that whole, shooting everyone on my surveillance team vibe. That is what caught me the most, is this kind of a continuation of the last one? Is it a real thing that she killed those people? Do these current desk-jockeys know she could just up and flatline them like she has done in the past?

 

[Tonguez]

I guess Starro is the 'Big Bad'. Though, I am really unsure myself.

One of its last line being "We were happy just floating in space looking at the stars", makes it hard to hang the hat on him being the true villain.
I think it is a familiar message that we are our own worst enemies. Interfering with things beyond our understanding in a destructive way, putting ourselves into a situation that only hurts us more.

As an aside, I too was curious about Waller being seemingly fine with letting the island nation burn. Like... was there a plan to just nuke the island? What were they going to do about the massive monster? Was the plan to let the actual DC heroes deal with it once the evidence was destroyed?

The US Government was the villain - thats the gist the Thinkers speech when they enter Jotunheim revealing how it was a US space crew got hold of Starro. The US funded dodgy research in an off-shore black ops site and then after the coup the US sent in the Suicide Squad to shut it down.
Starro was a dangerous mind controlling alien threat but only because of what the Thinker and his Government Masters had done to it - otherwise it would have been content to just float through space

I assume Waller would be prepared to nuke Corto Maltese if Starro survived and made moves to cross the ocean. But then Waller was played a bit dumber in this movie. I really cant see her letting the surveilance team live after they had proven themselves willing to oppose her orders

 

[Argyle King]

I think, overall, I like the movie if I don't think about it too much.

There are a lot of cool scenes which are enjoyable in isolation, but the movie as a whole flows a bit oddly for me. (FWIW, I had similar issues/criticisms of Star Wars Rogue One: a lot of cool individual characters and pieces, but it's somewhat incoherent when all put together).

Thinking more, this film reminds me of a lot of some knock-off films I watched on Cinemax or on late night USA in the late 90s. What do I mean by that? Those channels would have thinly veiled knockoffs of popular movies which would be like Mad Max but not Mad Max or like Star Wars but not Star Wars... if that makes sense. To be fair, some of those knockoffs were very enjoyable films, but, in the end, they always just ended up being a substitute for what I really wanted to watch and filling up some of my leisure time until the real thing was available. Suicide Squad felt a lot like that to me. Even the main character (despite being played by the excellent Idris Alba) came across as the B-Movie version of Will Smith's character from the first movie.

It was kinda like Dirty Dozen or the Expendables, but not quite. It was kinda like Guardians of the Galaxy, but not quite. It was sorta like a lot of things, but not quite. It hits a lot of vibes from a lot of things I enjoy, but never quite fully hits the stride. Overall, it's an enjoyable movie and it does a good job of feeling as though I am watching a live-action comic book in some parts, so that's good, but many parts of it end up feeling like a lesser imitation of something else.

For me personally, Harley Quinn made the movie worse. I completely understand why she's in the movie, but she's given way too much time and it hurts the development and marketing of other characters. Honestly, I think I'm just burned out on the DC Movie version of HQ. She's not even a character anymore; she's a plot device which requires her to be a version of HQ which really doesn't make a whole lot of sense (even in the context of a comic movie). This may sound crazy, but I recently watched the movie Cruella, and I feel as though Emma Stone's portrayal of Cruella was a better Harley Quinn than what we've been getting from DC Movie Harley Quinn.

There were a lot of other characters in the movie who I wanted to get to know more, but their time was rushed and/or cut short because of the amount of time given to HQ. For me, that hurt the movie. Also, it seems as though the point of the movie was to introduce some of the other DC characters and building movies or shows around them, so it seems weird to not give the audience more time to bond with those characters so as to promote those other projects.

There are points at which the movie is a lot of fun, but I think it's ultimately a very forgettable movie because of what I said early: it never quite captures any of the things which the film is trying to imitate. Suicide Squad teases giving me some sort of connection with the characters, but never quite delivers. In contrast, I recently watched Black Widow, and I walked away wanting to know more about a lot of characters and parts of the MCU setting which have not yet been explored on screen.

Suicide Squad often falls short of pushing me over the edge of wanting to know more. The few exceptions to that were King Shark (who, despite being a less likable approximation of Groot mixed with Drax, was given just enough personality to make me want more); Starro (who hit enough Lovecraftian and morally gray areas that I wanted to know more; and whatever the carnivorous jelly-fish things were. After the end, I was also curious about what happened the Weasel.

Cena isn't a great actor, but he did alright at playing Peacemaker as a douchey version of Captain America. Still, do I want to watch an entire show based around that character? Maybe the show will be awesome, but nothing in this movie made me feel as though I should watch that show.

Polka Dot man somehow managed to both have a backstory which seemed like it could be interesting and be my least favorite character in the movie. Contracting an inter-dimensional virus and being a Starlab experiment is something that could have been cool to explore (and maybe the inter-dimensional thing could have had some relevance when dealing with a giant starfish from space). But, as it was, his story with his mom just lead to lame jokes and a weird club scene in which he's dirty dancing with his mom. Visually, his powers looked like he was shooting Bingo Chips. The character as presented didn't work for me.

I wanted to like Ratcatcher and parts of her story with her dad were emotional and touching. However, she also reminded me of Squirrel Girl, so that bothered me a bit. I'll accept that as a failing on my part and being a product of my own internal negative bias.

All-in-all, it's a movie that's an enjoyable 2 hours and a worthwhile Tuesday-matinee-price movie. It by far exceeded the quality of the first Suicide Squad, but a lot of the movies problems prevent it from being something memorable or something which will lift the Dc Movie Universe up from its current state. After a somewhat lackluster WW84, I think DC needed something with a little more oomph to get the overall franchise back on track as we come out of Covid lockdowns; despite being enjoyable, I do not believe this movie delivered what was needed to give the brand a jolt forward. It simply treads water.

 

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Even the main character (despite being played by the excellent Idris Alba) came across as the B-Movie version of Will Smith's character from the first movie.

Idris was originally pegged to play Deadshot, and the character was allegedly planned to actually be Deadshot in earlier drafts but was changed to a different character to allow Will Smith the chance to return in the future.

In contrast to Deadshot, Both men are elite-level assassins and Notorious Parents with hidden hearts of gold who end up being dragged into Waller's suicide mission for the sake of their children. But whereas Deadshot is the doting father of a cheerful young girl who loves him despite his career as a hired gun, Bloodsport is a terrible father to a juvenile delinquent who are both constantly at each other's throats. Where as Deadshot is motivated into joining the Squad by his need to be back in his daughter's life, Bloodsport personally wants nothing to do with his kid but is coerced into joining the team's roster or else his daughter will intentionally be sent to Belle Reve by Waller to die. Where Deadshot was consistently at odds with Rick Flag during their mission in Midway City and had to overcome their grievances with one another to get the job done, Bloodsport and Flag are old war buddies who are far more cordial to one another during their operation in Corto Maltese. Deadshot was a jerk with the occasional good moment, whereas Bloodsport is a pretty good guy with the occasional jerk moment. And where Deadshot's skillset is defined by his Improbable Aiming Skills, Bloodsport's skillset showcases a bigger emphasis on him being both a Walking Armory and a Multi-Melee Master who's capable of mowing down entire armies with his superior firepower. And more strikingly, Where Deadshot completed his mission but is still entrapped as Waller's asset, Bloodsport succeeded in obtaining freedom for both himself and the surviving members of his squad via blackmailing Waller with the data collected from Jotunheim. Even their superhero adversaries are contrasting, with Deadshot being a Batman villain who was eventually appended by the Dark Knight during a night out with his daughter while Bloodsport is a Superman villain who put the Man of Steel in the ICU before he was arrested.


I also let out a little cheer at the act that Corto Maltese is mentioned again in live action, since the last time I can remember was during Batman '89.

 

[Nikosandros]

I must say that I cringed a little every time I heard the name of the island. I mean, I'm sure it's intended as a homage to Hugo Pratt, but still an island named after a character in a different fictional universe was somewhat jarring for me.

 

[Argyle King]

Idris was originally pegged to play Deadshot, and the character was allegedly planned to actually be Deadshot in earlier drafts but was changed to a different character to allow Will Smith the chance to return in the future.

In contrast to Deadshot, Both men are elite-level assassins and Notorious Parents with hidden hearts of gold who end up being dragged into Waller's suicide mission for the sake of their children. But whereas Deadshot is the doting father of a cheerful young girl who loves him despite his career as a hired gun, Bloodsport is a terrible father to a juvenile delinquent who are both constantly at each other's throats. Where as Deadshot is motivated into joining the Squad by his need to be back in his daughter's life, Bloodsport personally wants nothing to do with his kid but is coerced into joining the team's roster or else his daughter will intentionally be sent to Belle Reve by Waller to die. Where Deadshot was consistently at odds with Rick Flag during their mission in Midway City and had to overcome their grievances with one another to get the job done, Bloodsport and Flag are old war buddies who are far more cordial to one another during their operation in Corto Maltese. Deadshot was a jerk with the occasional good moment, whereas Bloodsport is a pretty good guy with the occasional jerk moment. And where Deadshot's skillset is defined by his Improbable Aiming Skills, Bloodsport's skillset showcases a bigger emphasis on him being both a Walking Armory and a Multi-Melee Master who's capable of mowing down entire armies with his superior firepower. And more strikingly, Where Deadshot completed his mission but is still entrapped as Waller's asset, Bloodsport succeeded in obtaining freedom for both himself and the surviving members of his squad via blackmailing Waller with the data collected from Jotunheim. Even their superhero adversaries are contrasting, with Deadshot being a Batman villain who was eventually appended by the Dark Knight during a night out with his daughter while Bloodsport is a Superman villain who put the Man of Steel in the ICU before he was arrested.


I also let out a little cheer at the act that Corto Maltese is mentioned again in live action, since the last time I can remember was during Batman '89.

I'm aware there are differences.

I'd be curious to see how many people in the general audience know that, or even realized that it isn't the same character.

You have two movies in a series, named pretty much the same thing, both centered around roles which were written very similarly.

I'm ashamed to admit that, even as a comic fan, I needed to Google to be 100% certain whether or not Idris was playing the character from the first movie or not. It doesn't help that it's not always clear whether or not this movie is a sequel or not.