BEFORE: I watched this film on HBO Max, and it's going to be reviewed out of order to preserve the chain, which is everything to me. I could have seen this film in the movie theater for free, and maybe I should have, but these days, the movie theater is the last place I want to be, and from what I've seen, I'm not alone. For me, that's because I'm working at a movie theater, and when you work at a movie theater, a great perk is that you can see any movie playing in the chain, any time you want - only the catch is, that means spending an extra two hours at your place of work, and who the heck wants to do THAT? So if you love movies, you may not want to work in a movie theater, because then you may end up hating movies. I have to change jobs so that I can love going to the movie theaters again.
But, for many other people, other factors are involved, like COVID cases are on the rise again, so they may not want to be out in public places, especially since the movie theaters have waived the mask requirements, it's all on the honor system right now. Eating popcorn means taking your mask off, and that's a risk - screw it, everything's a risk right now, that's not going to change any time soon, unless all the unvaccinated people suddenly change their minds about trusting the government and science. Plus, this film's available on HBO Max, so you can watch it at home, or on your computer, or at a friend's home if you don't have that streaming service yourself. So, umm, why exactly would I want to go see it on the big screen, again? Yep, I watched this at home, thanks to Warner Bros. policy of same-day release on streaming, for 30 days, and then probably again in a few months. That's why this one's out of order - I'm guessing it will be some time in the third week of September that I'll post this review, and by then maybe I'm not working at the movie theater any more. Let's hope.
Lloyd Kaufman carries over from "The Last Blockbuster". He's just got a cameo in this film, as a guy in a bar, or so I've heard, but that's my way in. But there are numerous ways I could have gotten here, via Flula Borg from "Trolls World Tour", or via Idris Elba from "Cats" but after some trial and error this seemed to be the preferred linking method, allowing me to get just one more documentary in, one that I really wanted to see, and I'm still just one movie over for the remainder of the year, so cutting just one film may be the last tough decision I'll have to make in 2021.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Suicide Squad" (Movie #2,512), "Birds of Prey" (Movie #3,676)
THE PLOT: Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker and a collection of nutty cons from Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.
AFTER: This film is crazy, bonkers, nuts - but isn't that what comic-book movies SHOULD be? The whole idea behind having super-powers, fighting crazy super-villains, saving the world in unlikely ways, it's all crazy, none of it is possible in the real world, so why not just freaking GO for it? Make it big, make it impossible, make it 99% likely that everybody's going to die or the villain's going to take over the world, and just leave that last little glimmer of hope that somehow the main characters are going to pull the world back from the brink of disaster and ruin, save everybody and then go out and have a drink, or share some shwarma.
This film certainly GOES for it - with an extinction-level threat that could only be defeated by this EXACT mix of villain-heroes, using their powers and skills in an unlikely way, which makes it seem like karma or fate or just the weirdest sort of luck that everything shook down exactly this way. Plus there are super-weird characters, a super-weird villain, and people keep dying in super-weird ways. If there were ever a superhero movie that you could watch while stoned, this is probably it.
The only knock I really have is that the film went out of its way to kill off so many people in so many new, creative ways, and then after so much of that, it kind of made me feel a little bit dirty for enjoying that. Should I be relishing all the death and destruction, even if it is creatively done?
SPOILERS AHEAD after this point - proceed with caution, unless of course you've already seen "The Suicide Squad".
One of the taglines for this film reads, "Don't Get Too Attached" - great advice considering the film's premise, which is that freelance heroes are expendable. The comic book this is based on, and the first film with the "Suicide Squad" title both had a very good premise, to take criminals with super-powers, put them to work saving the world, in exchange for ten years off their prison sentences. Sure, it's a rip-off of "The Dirty Dozen", but in the comic-book world, this could explain how some criminals that Batman and/or Superman stop get back out on the street so soon, plus it saves a comic-book writer the trouble of coming up with new, innovative prison escape sequences every other month. It also allowed for villains, which are often more interesting than hero characters, to take center stage in a story, redeem themselves in the eyes of the fans, but also maintain their status as self-serving individuals trying to get ahead in a fictional world that often needs saving. PLUS, they'll do the dirty jobs, the wetwork that the heroes can't lower themselves to handle, and this way Superman's hands and public remain squeaky clean.
BUT, there's a catch, these missions are dangerous - some or all of the task force members may not survive, so what good is ten years off your prison sentence if they're not alive to enjoy that? AND even if the mission is successful, if it's not done to their supervisor's satisfaction, or if they try to escape when on the mission, their handlers have the option of detonating the explosive device implanted in their skulls. You know, as a safety measure. We see the entire recruitment process as Amanda Waller visits Belle Reve prison, to find the living cannon fodder needed to invade Corto Maltese, a (fictional) Central American island nation. We assume she's putting together the best team possible, finding the exact mix of powers and personalities who can get the dirty job done. Savant, Javelin, Blackguard, Mongal, and three carry-overs from the first "Suicide Squad" movie: Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang and Colonel Rick Flag. This all makes sense, possibly there were team members from the first film who died, or got their prison sentences sufficiently reduced, or simply weren't available (cough) Will Smith (cough).
Honestly, I can see the conundrum here - how does one make a "standalone sequel", that's something of a big contradiction in terms. Either this is a sequel or it's not, but somehow they tried to make this both. Sure, the events of the first film HAPPENED, umm, unless you absolutely hated that film, in which case, they didn't. You don't HAVE to have seen the first one for this to make sense, but it does help, unless you didn't like that film and you want to just start again from scratch, and treat this second film as a soft reboot. That's why they didn't call this one "Suicide Squad 2", however, not doing that probably led some people to think, "Wait, didn't I already SEE this film?" or "Is this a sequel or a remake or what?" Well, what do you WANT it to be, just think of it however you like, just please get out there and see it. Treat this as the sequel to "Birds of Prey" if you want, and let James Gunn make as many films as he wants and call them whatever he wants.
(I think maybe I should go back and re-watch the first "Suicide Squad" film - I remember not being satisfied with it, but maybe I was just having a bad day. Some people I've talked to lately think it's just the bomb, while others agree with me that it was a bit all-over-the-place, unfocused with many things being unclear. Director David Ayer had a lot of things changed and re-worked by the studio after the failure of "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" and the success of Marvel films like "Deadpool". Perhaps someday another cut of "Suicide Squad" will be released, like they did with "Justice League"?)
It's when we find out the superpowers of the other team members, like "T.D.K." and Weasel that we first maybe suspect that something's up, something's not right here. Does Weasel even HAVE any superpowers? His own teammates don't even know if he's a transformed human, or a dog, or maybe a werewolf - that's funny, and it's maybe how weird things would be in a fictional world where people have superpowers, many of which might be very unusual, not always helpful, and frequently misunderstood.
There's a big fake-out happening, and nobody's more shocked to learn about it than the members of the task force themselves. These villains-turned-heroes were arrogant and overly sure of themselves, and governments lie because that's what governments DO. That's a theme that comes up again and again in "The Suicide Squad", and it's a good one. Think about it, would you ever fully trust the people who would put a bomb in your brain and point you at the enemy, with some vague promise of freedom, but only if you survive the mission, against all rational odds? The whole concept is SERIOUSLY effed-up, but in a good way, a way that feels real-ish, like something that the government might actually do, if given the chance. Didn't the government experiment on its own people, at Tuskegee and such, in order to find cures for diseases? Haven't prisoners been used for hard labor, to build the railroads and clear swamplands and clean up highways? So why not treat super-powered prisoners as a resource, all their knowledge and abilities are going to waste if they're sitting in jail cells, plus if they should die - whoopsie - after signing the consent forms, that's one less prisoner to house and feed, right?
Anyway, the good news is that the film found a way to continue on, after losing so many members - Harley Quinn is a survivor, of course, out of necessity. Her character is very popular, her hidden superpower is that she puts asses in movie theater seats. Girls want to be her, guys want to...well, you know. Rick Flag also makes it through to the next level, and the new/old team of Bloodsport, Peacemaker, King Shark, Ratcatcher and Polka-Dot Man is on hand to pick up where the first squad left off. These are all wonderfully imperfect characters, like Bloodsport has a daughter that hates him but is also starting to act out, and Peacemaker is an overly patriotic character who will KILL ANYONE in the name of peace, yet he can't <<quite>> see the logical contradiction in his mantra. And Ratcatcher controls and loves rats, which is quite icky of course, but it's all for the futile love and approval of her (deceased?) father.
But the most screwed-up character of all is probably Polka-Dot Man, whose mother experimented on him and his siblings when he was a child. In other words, she infected him with an inter-dimensional virus that causes him to expel toxic brightly-colored dots from his body, and if he doesn't do this twice a day, he gets very sick and could even die. He's depressed, has mommy issues and is even suicidal - sounds like he'll fit into the squad just fine. Oh, yeah, and there's also King Shark, who's some weird combination of man, shark, and possibly demi-god. Don't try to figure it out, just roll with it, it's not important. Talking shark is funny and cool.
Arguably, this is one of the best uses of Harley Quinn as a character, she not only brings to the table those fighting skills we saw her use in "Birds of Prey" (where everything in the room, even the room itself, is a potential weapon, and she can take down about 100 or 200 assailants in short order) but she also gets her "Hero moment", in case you were under the mistaken belief that Harley is somehow a villain. Actually there's a great turn-around moment for most of the main characters here, which then really makes things pretty fuzzy where good and evil are concerned. If an evil character does good deeds because it serves him or her to do them, or because they're forced to, then is that action good or evil? What if that evil character then is TOLD to walk away from a situation where he or she could be of greater help? Then when that evil character defies and goes off mission, is that doing the right thing for the right reasons? Or is that character just doing the right thing because it's WRONG, as in not part of the mission?
I'm not even going to really get into the big, glorious fight scene (boss level) at the end, because it's SO good, so twisted, so unexpected - again, it's crazy bonkers nuts. But the Squad goes up against a villain that I've only seen in "Justice League" comics, meaning this is a threat that usually requires Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman AND Green Lantern to defeat, at minimum. So the Squad is really punching above their weight, this extinction-level villain is quite literally out of their League - this would be akin to Deadpool taking on Thanos in a Marvel movie. It would be highly improbable, nearly impossible for the Suicide Squad to even survive this battle, let alone win. But perhaps a good writer can always find a way.
A good writer, in either comic books or superhero movies, also finds a way to keep the story going. That's the first rule, never wrap things up, make everyone buy the next issue to find out what happens next. So I hope this isn't the end, I hope we get at least another "Suicide Squad" movie, call it whatever the hell the director wants, I don't care. And in the comic books, the issues that sell the best are always the ones where the heroes die, because another good writer can always find a (semi-)believable way to bring any hero back from the dead, I've seen it happen many, many times. Remember that Arthur Conan Doyle once killed off Sherlock Holmes, then brought him back because killing him off made him popular again, and this process goes even further back, to Greek mythology even. The "Suicide Squad" formula is even simpler, just bring back the team members who lived and supplement their ranks with other weird characters, there's a whole universe full of them.
If I've got any complaint about this movie, it's the fact that the violence is way over the top - the film seems to delight in finding new ways to depict people being decapitated, torn in half, having limbs ripped off, etc. There are much better ways to be creative, I don't find that this qualifies, it just becomes excessive showing-off at some point, and I don't think that it's something to be proud of. Some people may take this as a positive, and I would keep an eye on those people. Just saying.
Oh, and last weekend while I was up in Massachusetts, I re-watched the first "Suicide Squad" film, I carried it up on old-school physical media DVD since streaming options at my parents' house are limited. I liked the original film a little better than I did upon first watching, but still found there were big story problems with the choice of villain and the team's formation also causing their first mission, rather than the other way around. So, upon further review, the original score of 7 still stands.
Also starring Margot Robbie (last seen in "Birds of Prey"), Idris Elba (last seen in "Cats"), John Cena (last heard in "Dolittle"), Joel Kinnaman (last seen in "Suicide Squad"), Viola Davis (last seen in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"), Jai Courtney (last seen in "Unbroken"), Peter Capaldi (last seen in "Smilla's Sense of Snow"), David Dastmalchian (last seen in "A Million Little Pieces"), Daniela Melchior, Michael Rooker (last seen in "Fantasy Island"), Pete Davidson (last seen in "The Jesus Rolls"), Nathan Fillion (last heard in "Cars 3"), Sean Gunn (last seen in "The Giant Mechanical Man"), Flula Borg (last seen in "Trolls World Tour"), Mayling Ng (last seen in "Wonder Woman"), Steve Agee (last seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2"), Stephen Blackehart (ditto), Jennifer Holland, Tinashe Kajese (last seen in "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"), Alice Braga (last heard in "Soul"), Juan Diego Botto, Joaquin Cosio (last heard in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"), Storm Reid (last seen in "A Wrinkle in Time"), Julio Cesar Ruiz, Natala Safran (last seen in "Shazam!"), Jared Leland Gore, Rey Hernandez, Ray Benitez, Geraldo Davila, Mikaela Hoover (last seen in "Playing It Cool"), Lynne Ashe, Maya Le Clark and the voices of Sylvester Stallone (last seen in "Creed II"), Dee Bradley Baker, with cameos from Taika Waititi (last seen in "Jojo Rabbit"), John Ostrander, Pom Klementieff (last seen in "Thunder Force")
RATING: 8 out of 10 glasses of Fernet
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