Charas-Project
Off-Topic => All of all! => Topic started by: Archem on August 04, 2016, 09:14:46 PM
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So after a work meeting today, we had an employee screening of the film. Short version: It's ok. Not great, but not quite as awful as early reviews are saying. If we're using report card grading, it's a C- film.
CLICK HERE TO SKIP SPOILERS (http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=29420.msg391897#msg391897)
Spoilers Follow
Spoilers Follow
Spoilers Follow
Ok, ready for a big walk-through of the movie? It starts off with a highlight reel-style overview of the main cast. It's poorly edited and throws too much in your face for it to really sink in. I get the sense this was a last minute effort to force character understanding in where a previous cut's approach was deemed too long or inefficient. It seems that even the movie feels this way when it introduces the last two people without the same fanfare as everyone else. They seem like throwaway characters meant as death fodder later on in the film. There's some disjointed talk about putting together a taskforce to stop the next Superman should he decide to be a terrorist, and then they start getting the group together.
Now that we have the main cast shown in a hastily put together mess that would have worked well if it weren't forced into 20 minutes of exposition-heavy intro sequence, they start to show off the plot. Did I mention they do the same thing with the antagonist? Some explorer who gets possessed by a witch. They control her by threatening to destroy her heart, which they keep under lock and key. They introduce that in an oddly disjointed fashion, but that's the first half of the movie for you. Well, being that she's the big bad, she does bad guy stuff like release her evil demon brother (which I guess is a thing they forgot to flash over during the intro), and he possesses people in a subway and goes all demon tentacle monster on everything.
Oh, I forgot to mention that there's some military dude who's sleeping with the witch-possessed woman, but only when she's not a witch. Amanda Waller (who is in charge of this whole circus of criminals) secretly matched them up. Not sure how this plays into the plot, but it's her fault. I probably should have said that character's name earlier, but I forgot what it was. Anyway, from here on in, she'll be referred to as "the boss-lady".
(http://tuesdaynightmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/amanda-waller-assault-on-arkham.jpg)
Boss-Lady, as seen on TV
Anyway, Boss-lady has military dude (American Flag or something like that) and witch-girl doing some special forces shenanigans, but witchy decides to just poof out of existence to do that evil brother thing I mentioned earlier. Yeah, I know, this is getting confusing and I'm listing details out of order, but I think it's an authentic interpretation of the film.
(http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/dcanimated/images/1/17/Rick_Flagg.png/revision/latest?cb=20130302215716)
American Flag, as seen on TV
So now that's all happening and everything feels like a slapped-together mess of story-telling, and we're about 45 minutes in. They grab all the antiheroes and put explosives in their necks to control them and give them guns and fly them into the city and tell them to shoot things and... Ok, enough "ands". One of the guys I mentioned as being death fodder (his specialty is being able to climb anything, but not Spider-Man-style. He just has a grappling hook) decides that this is all a con and that there's nothing keeping them from just leaving, so he grapple-hooks away in a comically inefficient manner and gets his head exploded. Called that. Anyway, everyone decides to stop plotting escapes because that's clearly not gonna work. They find some people with guns on the city streets, and Flag is all "let's not fight them, but we should totally chill here and point guns at them for a while" and Will Smith is all "hold up, those guys have weird half-rock, half-bubbly-tar heads! What's that all about?".
(http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/81-startrek.jpg)
Kind of like this, but they're wearing military uniforms and have rifles
So then they get into a big gun fight. Kind of a cool action scene, but somewhat hard to follow, and there are too many characters to keep track of, so they just focus on Deadshot and Harley. Also Boomerang Man or whatever the comic-relief Aussie's name was. He drinks a beer and throws boomerangs.
(http://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/gw/quickmantoy/2-quick.jpg)
AUSSIE!
There's a part where Flag gets dragged off and they save him because if he dies, they all die (neck bombs!), and there's another part where Will Smith stands on a cop car and shoots things for a while. Then they keep going.
Not really able to remember when, but the bad guys steal the witch's heart back and put it in her chest. No more control. I'm just throwing that info in here at random because I realized at the end that I never mentioned it.
So they're supposed to save some VIP and evac, but they never say who the VIP is. The bad guys are also making some kind of super weapon because of course they are. Giant floating debris and electrical storm. You know the type.
(http://1u88jj3r4db2x4txp44yqfj1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/361314-ep1_citadel_000002_super.jpg)
A literal shtstorm, artist's interpretation
Anyway, there's some other dude called "Diablo" who seems like a decent tragic character. He doesn't want to fight anymore because he's super-powerful and wants a life of peace after torching his family by accident.
(http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/dccu/images/d/da/El_Diablo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151101030729)
Actually what he looks like
So Will Smith taunts him during a fight and he torches everything. Really doing a good job of keeping up that passive approach.
(https://conidayvuelta.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/gulf-war-game-boy.jpg)
Actual footage of the carnage
So now everyone's ready to fight like a team. They find the VIP, who happens to be Boss-Lady. No idea why she's there, and the team seems bothered by this fact. Feels like forced drama. Anyway, Boss-Lady has some hard drives wiped and she shoots the people helping her because [TOP SECRET], and they head towards the rooftop to evac. Their chopper is waiting for them, but it's actually manned by The Joker and his crew. See, there was this subplot where The Joker was gonna rescue Harley, and he figures out how to deactivate her bomb. Anyway, everyone's under fire from the chopper's minigun, and Halrey runs out and grabs a rope and they fly off. Boss-Lady tells Deadshot (Will Smith, if that hasn't come together just yet) to kill her and he's free to go, so he's like "Bitch is dead", and then he shoots and misses because I guess he's not a fan of killing criminals or something. So Boss-Lady orders other people to shoot it down, and Harley jumps out to safety, but everyone else goes down with the ship. The Joker didn't jump because there was a bump when he was going to bail, so he didn't bail. Off-screen explosion, The Joker (ostensibly) dies. Harley's all sad now.
So Boss Lady gets in another chopper and tells everyone else to wait for the next one. Well, no next one shows up, but her chopper gets shot down and she gets kidnapped by the rock army.
(http://myggm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/army-rock-band.jpg)
Not pictured: The rock army
So they find the crashed helicopter and stock up on gear. Will Smith finds a [TOP SECRET] folder that details what the mission is. He confronts Flag about it, and he spills the beans. Everyone says "ain't fightin' no demon witch, I'm getting a drink" and goes into this bar for some character development time. They talk about what they did, what they want, and similar things. It's much more effective at telling their backstories than the intro. Flag comes in and breaks the bomb detonator and says "you're free to go*" and starts to leave. Aussie Man bails. Everyone else goes with him. Also, Harley's back. She showed up after the helicopter crash. And Aussie comes back with another beer. Comedy!
*actual quote this time
So they put together a quick plan to use a bomb to blow up the bad guy. Killer Croc goes for a swim with some divers to find a bomb and plant it under where the final battle takes place (?!?!) while everyone else goes to fight. They get there, but the baddies know that they're there, so they do some kind of Jedi mind trick and show everyone what they want most with an offer to make it reality if they join up. Diablo calls it out as fake and that they can't undo what they did wrong (in his case, frying his family to a crisp). They get into a fight with the demon brother, and Diablo turns into some flaming Aztec god and does a pretty good job of fighting the demon dude. They lure him onto the spot where the bomb is, but Diablo's flames give out and he tells them to blow up the bomb anyway. So he and the demon brother both die. No tears shed, I guess he wasn't important enough. Too bad, he was my favorite of the bunch.
The witch makes one last attempt to convince everyone to join her, and only Harley gives in. She wants The Joker returned to life. but instead she takes the ninja-lady's sword and cuts the witch's heart out of her chest. Oh, I didn't mention the ninja-lady? That's ok, she didn't really do anything important. In fact, half the characters didn't really do anything important. So they tell the witch to stop the death machine she made and return control of her body to the woman she's possessing. She declines, Flag crushes her heart, she dies. Flag starts crying because he killed his girlfriend, but then she's okay! Happy ending!
Boss-lady shows up and says everyone's going home. They correct her and say they're going back to jail. They want some sort of thanks for saving the world, so they get ten years taken off of their sentences, Will Smith gets to visit his daughter sometimes, Harley gets an espresso machine, Killer Croc gets a TV and the BET network, and Aussie gets ten years knocked off of three consecutive life sentences. Everyone wins! I mean, except for the two dead guys. They're dead. Oh, and The Joker isn't dead and he busts Harley out of jail. What a twist.
After the initial cast credits, there's a bonus scene teasing a Justice League movie. Waller and Bruce Wayne are negotiating terms for Bruce getting top secret documents (looks like profiles for the Suicide Squad and people associated with them) in exchange for his protection from him and his friends. She asks why he wants the info, he says he likes making friends. He tells her he should shut it down. She tells him he should stop working nights.
THE END
Spoilers End
Spoilers End
Spoilers End
Ok, so basically the early parts are manic and poorly directed. There are rumors that a large chunk of the movie was re-shot after Batman vs. Superman's negative reception, and it really feels that way for the first half of the movie. I'd say it's nearly unwatchable, and I nearly walked out. After it hit the main action, the plot flowed more smoothly, and it felt like a much more enjoyable film. The music integration was kind of weak, and it definitely felt like they wanted some Guardians of the Galaxy of their own. They just failed to execute it well. It didn't feel very much like a super hero movie, either. There weren't many powers being used, and almost everyone had a gun. It was cheesy in all the wrong ways, Harley's bits were very highschool tryhard, and ultimately made her kind of unlikable. The trailers made her the focus, but Deadshot was clearly the focus in the film. Leto's Joker was like a bad Ledger's Joker knockoff. At least they cut back on the gaudy tattoos. He didn't get much screen time, either. That's actually kind of a plus. A lot of the best lines from the trailers didn't make the final cut. Too many bland characters, weak plot twists, pointless moments, etc.
I didn't really hate it, but there was so much more work that needed to be done before this could really have been a good movie. DC is really rushing to force out their Justice League movie before Marvel's Avengers and mixed-universe movies oversaturate the super hero movie market. If they keep up this standard of quality, it will be a lot of money for some really bad film(s).
Discuss!
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Discuss!
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I haven't seen it but I feel like this review is more fulfilling!
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I'm actually really excited to see this! Have always been more into the ensemble superhero movies, than the lone "chosen one" movies.
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wew lad what a review
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Did you guys see this reddit thread where they looked at SS as if it were a tabletop RPG.
https://np.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/4wuhj4/i_figured_out_why_i_hated_suicide_squad_so_much/