The Suicide Squad - 2021 version (open spoilers)

Cafe Society
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This movie is out today and is available for at home viewing and in theaters. I saw it at home, which has become my preferred way to see almost everything.

Anyway……yeah, it’s much better than the original. Is it amazing? I’d say….well….no. I’d break this movie down like this:

First 45 minutes: Excellent. Hilarious, awesome. Loved it.

Middle 45-60 minutes: Good. Worse than the opening, though. About equal to Birds of Prey, which I actually thought was OK.

Last 30-40 minutes: Really excellent again. Lots of fun and great stuff all around.

So a bit of a mixed bag. I really liked it, but it isn’t as good as Guardians of the Galaxy 1 or 2. I generally dislike the DC movies, though, and this is by far one of the top ones if not the best.

Spoiler note:

I noticed Milton going with them very early in the “big mission” near the end. I actually thought, “Are we not supposed to notice they have a new guy with them now?” I was very pleased when it is revealed that only Polka-dot-man noticed he was on the mission with them. He was indeed there the whole time but carefully edited around.

I’d recommend it. It really is quite fun despite a clunky middle portion of the movie that kind of sucked the fun away for awhile.

Thoughts?

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Here’s my rambling after one viewing.

→ SPOILER WARNING. ←

I liked this MOVIE better, but I’m not sure I liked the characters better.

There are a lot of characters in this, which cuts down the time spent on each. They become more ‘sketchy’ as a result. In the first movie, Harley Quinn was more complex. She wasn’t just an attractive, quirky woman who was dangerous to child killers and other bad guys. She was dangerous and crazy to everyone. As the SS traveled and worked, she used her background as a psychologist to pick at the others and stir up trouble, just for fun. There was nothing of that in this movie, though I suppose her killing el Presidente, and her speech afterwards, was supposed to be a sign of her growth. Or, maybe they figured she had two movies to fill out her character, and they wanted to use the time elsewhere.

Idris Elba’s Bloodsport was Will Smith’s Deadshot stand-in, as Will couldn’t do the movie due to conflicting obligations. Both characters were loners who eventually came to lead their team, but Will was more interesting as a character. When talking about the mask he wears:

Deadshot: Every time I put this mask on, someone dies.
Harley: So?
Deadshot: I like putting it on.

And he delivered it not in a psycho way, but in more of a, “what’s wrong with me?” way. He struggled a bit with who he was, and he wanted to be a better father to his daughter.

I liked Flag more in the first movie. I don’t think it had to do with his romance with June Moone (a shit character), but more to do with him trying to herd the squad. Everyone was more aligned in this movie, and no one was trying to escape (that wasn’t under heavy enemy fire.)

They did a good job with misdirects, as far as who was going to be killed. This one had more funny moments., like the scene with Weasel jumping out of the airplane. I could have done with more screen-time with that character, as he was supposedly based on Bill the Cat from Bloom County, and I loved that comic in the 80’s. I liked that they brought together some really weird, lame characters - the Ratcatcher(2), Polka-Dot Man, T.D.K. - and that many of them turned out to be more powerful than you think. Of course, a few were even more lame than you’d imagine. TDK’s slapfighting was pretty funny. I think Waller puts some people in the group just to get them killed. Oh, speaking of Waller - in the first movie, she executed six of her employees because they weren’t cleared to know what she had them working on. In this movie, one of her employees clocks her from behind, and no one dies?

Polka-dot man had some humor and pathos. One of the better characters, I thought.
Just remember, King Shark - friends are not food.

Oh, funniest line? WRT Weasel: “We got him to. . .we think he’s agreed to do this.”

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I thought Bloodsport wasn’t just a stand-in, he was 100% Deadshot from the first movie, including recapitulating Deadshot’s redemption arc where he decides to be a better man for his estranged daughter. And King Shark recapitulated Killer Croc. It really seemed like this was intended as a soft reboot/remake of the original, with James Gunn basically saying, “This is the movie the first one should have been in the first place.” And pretty much being right.

My favorite exchange:

My least favorite exchange (and here I’m very loosely paraphrasing):

ETA: I also appreciated that they lampshaded the fact that like half the characters have the exact same “unique set of skills” of being really good at shooting and stabbing people.

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Liked it - ridiculous and fun. Not quite as good as the GotG movies, but still lots of fun. Also tons of blood and gore, so the squeamish should keep that in mind.

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It was the way Peacemaker said ffffuuuuuuck that made that exchange.

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The Milton part kinda took me out of it because I did notice him running in with them, it made zero sense that he would, and I calculated that it’d be for some kind of comic relief.

Jokes would’ve hit harder if I didn’t spot him.

I also hate how they weakened Waller.

Those are my only real complaints. Super fun.

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I didn’t hate it enough to stop watching in the middle, I didn’t love it enough to likely ever watch (or much think about) it ever again.

Also, the shark is so, so much better on Harley Quinn.

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We watched it last night! Fun movie! Harley remains our favorite but Idris is awesome.

I actually read a few comics back in the day about Peacemaker and wonder if the voices happen?

Yes to what everyone said about scenes. I also noticed Milton and was impressed he wanted to help. I like that Polka Dot Man did notice. I also liked PDM both with his abilities and his mommy issues.

I didn’t need the over the top violence/gore mainly because it came off as funny. Although, maybe that was to lessen the violence? Not sure. I personally liked that Weller was softened in this movie and at least didn’t kill her own people. At that point in the first movie, I don’t see how anyone could ever trust her again when her own people get killed but the villains don’t? So, redoing that part made sense to me.

Definitely a better movie than the first one.

What I don’t understand is why does Zack Snyder get his name on everything DC movies?? The man is a great cinematographer, horrible story teller to me.

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How was he credited in this movie? A producer?

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Yes, he has EP credit.

I know that some producer credits are honorary in some way that I don’t understand. I suppose any title could be, for that reason.

His vision of super heroes, fit Watchmen well and I thought that was fine, with him mostly following the comic. He has said in interviews he thinks “heroes” would kill bad guys. As soon as I read that, I realized why he did what he did in Man of Steel and why he’s not good for DC!

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Watchmen is an amazing movie. I’ve heard a lot of blowback against it since its release, but I think it is amazing.

I’ve never seen another good movie from Snyder, though.

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I don’t get the praise for Watchmen, Zack Snyder made an unsatirical retelling of a satirical work.

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Even if they want to pull her back from being a murderous sociopath… she didn’t even fire/arrest the people who physically attacked her and jeopardized national security? Just rubbed her head and stared at them through the blinds like Michael Scott?

Smaller complaint in a movie I enjoyed. But I did not enjoy that.

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@DigitalC Hmm. I don’t know about that for myself. Except for changing a few things, like who the (external) bad guy to unite people was, it seemed an accurate retelling of it. It did show that heroes could never work, which was what I took as the original Watchmen’s point. Snyder seems to think exactly along those lines, so that fit. I could easily be missing something.

@Mahaloth I agree. His recent Army of the Dead makes no sense. He butchered the DC movies. Anything he shows well is offset by lots of bad things.

@planetcory Okay, good points. (Although took me a while to the Office reference.) Something should have been done. The only reason I can figure they did it that way is because Weller was the one killing them. She didn’t hand it off to someone else to do. Maybe it would have been better to disarm the killing system rather than be physical. Otherwise, I’m not sure how else to stop her?

Thanks for the replies!

ETA: fixed typos and clarified things

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I read the book around 1999 or so and then re-read it before the movie came out. I found it to be accurate in tone and story. Not 100% the same(the squid monster was obviously changed), but it worked for me as a movie version.

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Story maybe, but tone I’m not sure. Take Silk Specter, the movie version was literally the type of character the graphic nobel was parodying.

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"Each member was chosen for his or her own completely unique set of abilities.” :grin:

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The after-credits scene seemed to imply what their “punishment” was going to be.

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Still seems pretty light punishment for basically treason.

That said, I’m very much looking forward to that show.

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Harley Quinn is an overused character in general, and her saving grace here is that she’s played by a great actress. The problem is that if she’s NOT doing psychologist shit, I don’t know what she’s in the movie, or how she became a super-soldier kung fu gun-kata master.