There was another double release for HBO Max and the theaters this week, and that movie was The Suicide Squad. A two-hour reboot/sequel with a new director to spice up the story. For the most part it was fast paced and upbeat, except for a little slog towards the middle. They had a star-studded cast to carry the story as well, and they incorporated a twist to keep the audience on their toes. Overall, it was a decent block buster movie. (Spoilers ahead)
The Suicide Squad is the story of a group of convicts/super villains that commit to doing a top-secret mission for the U.S to reduce their prison sentence. The mission is to infiltrate an island off the coast of South America to find information on Operation Starfish and end it. The initial operation has two groups landing on the island in different places. Harley Quinn's group lands, and the fighting immediately starts, whereas the second group lands with no resistance whatsoever. Thus, everyone in Quinn's group gets killed except for her and Colonial Flag, their supervisor. Quinn gets abducted by the dictator’s army, and Flag gets rescued by the rebels. The group with the easy entrance, Bloodsport, King Shark, Peacemaker, and Ratcatcher II, meet up with Flag after accidentally killing many revolutionaries, and they go to get Harley, who ends up breaking out on her own. Now they must all band together to get into the headquarters of Operation Starfish and turn the building to rubble and destroy any remnants of the operation. During this process they accidentally free the giant starfish from space, and it turns into a Godzillaesque fight to destroy a monster.
This movie was made by James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, rather than David Ayer. Ayer's version that came out in 2016 received a ton of hate and garnered almost universal negative reviews. So, this movie although technically a sequel because they keep some of the same characters like Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller, is largely more of a reboot. They bring in a new cast of big names to share the stage and create a way more compelling story. It is also very noticeable that James Gunn was the director. This movie and Guardians of the Galaxy have a very similar feel. A rag tag group put together to help save the world, with a much more comedic tone than other superhero movies. They even have a large space monster they must defeat in this movie just like in Guardians. This is just the much more adult version. Gunn does not shy away from the usage of profanity, nor does he shy away from violence, so much so that there are many people having parts of them sliced off, and there are even two instances of people being ripped in half.
When one of the villains participates in one of these missions, they said that it would reduce their prison sentence by ten years. This seems quite insane that ten years is supposed to be motivating for these people. They are super villains, so literally they are the worst of the worst. They were arrested for multiple murders and massive amounts of destruction. They said that Weasel ate 27 children! So ten years coming off of their sentences would mean next to nothing, they were probably sentenced to hundreds of years, to which they would never be able to complete their sentences in multiple lifetimes. So, if anything the only real motivation they would have to go on one of these missions would have some time away from the prison to feel some sort of freedom again, or go in hoping to die so that they will not have to go back to their cell and die and a long and slow death.
The most disappointing part of the movie was right at the beginning when the first group landed on the beach. The first group definitely had some interesting characters, but Pete Davidson's character and the Weasel seemed like they were going to be great throughout, but this hope was immediately squashed as the Weasel "drowned" before he made it to shore, and Davidson's character was shot in the face after coming out as a double agent. The beginning did succeed in setting the stakes for the movie, not everyone was going to get out alive, and it did not matter if you were a star or a Weasel, but at the end of the day, this movie could have been Oscar worthy if the Weasel had been the star, so the post credit scene of the Weasel coming back to life was a much-needed addition. Having King Shark as one of the squad was an excellent addition to provide comedic relief as well. The animals in this movie all played their parts excellently, especially the main rat that ran around with a little pack and waved to new friends.
There was also a strong distrust of government theme throughout the film. To start out with, the whole program would not go over well with the public, letting massive criminals on the loose again to do a job, even though they are chipped with explosives, seems like something the American public would not go for. Maybe in Europe where prison reform is more liberal this might fly. Then when it came to operation Starfish, it turned out the real goal was not to end the operation, but to get the information that implicated the U.S with this horrific mind controlling experiment. It had serious Cold War vibes, more specifically Vietnam where conspiracy theories run rampant about what the U.S government was experimenting on people. All of this was personified by Viola David's character, who was perfectly content with the giant starfish destroying the whole island if the evidence incriminating the U.S was gone.
This movie was definitely better than the first one, which is not saying much because as mentioned the first one was notably terrible, but this one does not hold up to its animated tv show counterpart, Harley Quinn. In the show, Harley puts together her own little crew of villains, and in the first season they are mainly going up against the Joker, and in the second season they are going against a conglomerate of other villains famous from Batman. The show is comedically genius and at the same time is capable of giving solid social commentary, especially when it comes to gender equality. The Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy pairing is amazing also. They play off each other so well. They have the characters in her crew fleshed out so well, from a Shakespearean Clay Face to an intelligent King Shark with anger issues, and a controversial Dr. Psycho. They play off each other so well, and it occurs in a universe with a drunk and incompetent commissioner Gordon, and an awkward Batman. It is like watching the adult version of the animated Batman series I watched as kid, but much better, and with cursing and gore. I highly recommend watching this!
The Suicide Squad is a decent movie. When they are doing the action sequences, they are great, but when they leave the realm of action, it does not hit the same. I came into it hoping it would be better than Black Widow, but it was not. It did have aspects I enjoyed more, like the less family friendly aspects that give it a grittier gory feel that lends it to a more realistic depiction of violence. Also John Cena does do a much better job in this film than F9, but that is probably because he is closer to playing a wrestling villain like in his previous job. Idris Elba does a great job, but I did not care too much for his character and his abilities, but the rivalry between him and Cena was enjoyable. Margot Robbie did an excellent job as Harley and continues to play the role well, and this was better than Birds of Prey. I would recommend going to see it, it is a fun and enjoyable movie. I give it 2.5 stars.
Other movies:
My Neighbor Totoro is an acclaimed animated movie from Studio Ghibli. It is about a family that is moving into a new house while the mom is ill and in the hospital. It mainly focuses in on the two daughters, and it is hard to tell whether they have very active imaginations or are experiencing these fantasy sequences, but if it makes them happy and takes their mind away from their sick mother, it really does not matter if it is real or not.
A Ghost Story is about a young couple, and the husband dies, and he comes back as a ghost. He must watch as the love of his life moves on both emotionally and literally. Then as new members come into the house, and it is destroyed, it shows how limited humanities timeline is on the Earth. One day it will all be gone. It has a similar theme to that of The Green Knight, that nature will outlast us all, which makes sense because it is the same director.
I did go see The Green Knight again because it is so rich visually and, in its story, telling details, that it was impossible to resist going again. It was just as good the second time, and the two hours fly by in an enjoyable hero’s journey that raises so many questions.
New Rankings:
The Suicide Squad: 2.5 stars
My Neighbor Totoro: 3 Stars
A Ghost Story: 3 Stars
Comments