‘Suicide Squad’ hits theaters this week. Will the film redeem the DC Extended Universe or continue to dig the giant money pit hole for Warner Bros. Pictures? The ultimate anti-hero film had a $175 million budget and is tracking for a $125 million opening weekend.
EJ and Matt break down the best and worst aspects of ‘Suicide Squad.’ The movie isn’t perfect, but it does expand the DCEU.
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Never heard of Matt Sardo? For starters, he made the Kessel Run in less than 11 parsecs. Prior to that, he gave Doc Brown the idea for the flux capacitor and led the Resistance to victory over SkyNet – all while sipping a finely crafted IPA. As a radio host, he’s interviewed celebrities, athletes and everyone in between. He’s covered everything from the Super Bowl to Comic-Con.
Who is EJ Moreno? Is he a trained physician? No. Is he a former Miss Universe contestant? Possibly. But what we know for sure is he’s a writer, filmmaker, and pop culture enthusiast. Since film school, EJ has written & directed several short films. He’s used his passion of filmmaking to become a movie critic for MonkeysFightingRobots.com.
Suicide Squad has memorable moments, most of them powered by its big name stars. Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and Viola Davis all bring charisma and dramatic chops to a film that sorely needs it.
However, all that talent and star power isn’t enough to lift the film much above uneven, at best. Pacing issues plus a lackluster antagonist keep the film from ever truly hitting its stride or maintaining narrative momentum.
But the film’s most important failing is that it’s just not as much wicked fun as it should be. The presence of these characters promises unrestrained, gleeful mayhem, but the final product fails to deliver on that promise.
What’s it about?
In the wake of the events seen in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the U.S. government tackles the problem of how to defend the world against the next great super-powered threat. Defense Department official Amanda Waller (Davis) has a solution, but it’s not one the Pentagon likes.
Waller wants to recruit some of the world’s most dangerous “metahuman” convicts for a group code-named “Task Force X.” This group, led by Special Forces veteran Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, Robocop), would be the ultimate black bag operation. Missions would be top secret, successes would go unrecognized, and failures would be blamed on the group’s members.
And what’s in it for the convicts? Reduced prison time, plus the little bombs implanted in their necks upon their “recruitment” don’t go off.
But just who does Waller have in mind for this team? There’s Floyd Lawton, a.k.a. Deadshot (Smith), a hitman renowned for the fact that he never misses. Then there’s Harley Quinn (Robbie), paramour and partner-in-crime of Gotham City’s Joker (Jared Leto), reportedly even more murderous than her infamous boyfriend.
The group’s more colorful members also include monstrously mutated sewer-dweller Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnyoye-Agbaje), Aussie bank robber Boomerang (Jai Courtney), pyrokinetic gang banger El Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and a bonafide magic-wielding witch simply called Enchantress (Cara Delevingne, Paper Towns).
Sure enough, Waller soon gets her chance to send her team into harm’s way in order to save the world. Question is will they do as they’re told and get the job done, even with their own lives threatened if they don’t comply?
Stars shine brightest
Of Suicide Squad‘s truly impressive collection of talent, it’s Smith, naturally, who delivers in just about every scene. There are few who do ‘effortless cool’ as well as Smith, even when playing a more intense, less likable character.
Yes, Lawton doesn’t get to smile much, and that takes away one of Smith’s best assets on screen. But he does crack wise and kick ass, and Smith has never had trouble bringing those qualities to life in big cinematic moments. Of all of Suicide Squad‘s characters, it’s Smith’s take on Deadshot that could, most likely, carry a stand-alone film.
While Smith has to hide his smile for the most part, Margot Robbie gets to flash hers at every wicked opportunity, and the film is better for it. Robbie doesn’t just “play” Harley — to all appearances, she truly delights in becoming the Squad’s pretty little bundle of crazy.
No doubt, there are nods to the “Batman: The Animated Series” character to Robbie’s take on Harley here — if there weren’t, fans would walk out. But Robbie does her best to make the character her own within what’s expected, and it works, even if on occasion her reads of certain “Harley-isms” feel a little forced.
As for Viola Davis as the steely, ice-water-in-her-veins Amanda Waller? There are few working in film and television today that do “intensity” on the level that Davis does. The casting here could not have been any better.
Can’t give everyone their due
From the get-go, the challenge of Suicide Squad is giving all those personalities with backstories rooted in DC Comics lore their cinematic due.
To his credit, director David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury) approaches that challenge with a solid vision. He stays away from cartoony renditions of the characters and at least tries to give them all depth.
The problem with this approach is that with this many characters, it gets unwieldy. Complicating things further is that for casual audiences, most of the characters aren’t familiar ones. They need introductions on top of narrative beats that highlight internal conflict and complexity.
What results is a Suicide Squad film that feels belabored with baggage. It’s slow to get going, and never hits its stride due to scenes intended to develop character that instead interrupt narrative flow.
Lackluster villains
It’s also important to note that Suicide Squad fails to provide for audiences a compelling antagonist for the “heroes.” Odd as it may sound for a film full of super-villains, the one that should be the scariest of all ends up being the one that’s least interesting of all.
But what of Jared Leto’s much-anticipated take on Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Clown Prince of Crime? Leto without question gives a game effort, but his Joker will certainly suffer from endless comparisons. Suffice to say audiences may find themselves thinking of the late Heath Ledger and his take on Joker while watching Leto, and finding the latter’s work less than inspired.
Worth seeing?
It should go without saying that if you enjoy superhero movies and DC Comics, then Suicide Squad is a must. Cosplayers in particular should find lots to admire and re-create in the film’s striking costume and make-up design. The film also features a soundtrack almost as fun as the one that helped make Guardians of the Galaxy so much fun.
Casual audiences looking for a decent popcorn flick this weekend should find it suitable, though by no means anything ground-breaking. Put another way, it’s no Deadpool.
But don’t be surprised if you hear fanboy and fangirl audiences crowing that Suicide Squad is, in fact, “better” than its DC Cinematic Universe predecessors. “Better” is debatable, but compared to the Zack Snyder-helmed Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad is definitely more fun, for no other reason than the characters are less stolid.
Suicide Squad
Starring Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, Cara Delevingne, Adam Beach, and Karen Fukuhara. Directed by David Ayer.
Running Time: 130 minutes
Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language.
As things come to a close in this issue, the biggest element is a battle between Optimus Prime, Soundwave, and Arcee against Galvatron. It’s nice to see Soundwave and Optimus on the same side, an element which hasn’t been explored before in the IDW publication of Transformers. Unfortunately a more popular Decepticon bites the dust in this issue as an afterthought. Can’t have anything going well at least.
The “All Hail Optimus” story started slow, but eventually gained momentum in the middle and ended with style with this issue. Though wrapping things up nicely, it also alluded to a lot of new elements which will be explored in the next arc. Writer John Barber really did plan everything out extensively and helped to expand the possibility of where the story can go from here.
Artwork
The art team of Andrew Griffith and Josh Burcham really helped to make things look gritty and broken in this issue. This is actually to the issue’s benefit as the battle has been long and hard, meaning no one is going to be in their best condition. The detail work on new landscape of Earth is really impressive (still trying not to give way the BIG spoiler about what happened).
Conclusion
This arc started slow but the last two issues have really helped to cement the importance of it in the overall story. Things will be different from here on out for the Transformers and humanity. They will most likely be explored in the Optimus Prime series which will be out later this year. With any luck, he will hopefully have more going for him than just be a stalwart symbol and actually have a bit more fun. Even Megatron now gets entertaining moments with the crew of the Lost Light.
The Professor and The Madman is an upcoming film about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Mel Gibson is set to star, and now Sean Penn may be hopping on board, according to the Variety report.
In a surprising twist, Mel Gibson will not be playing the madman. Then again, Sean Penn playing the madman isn’t much of a stretch. Gibson is professor James Murray, who began putting together the bones of the Dictionary in the mid 1800s. If Penn joins the film, he will be Dr. William Chester Minor, an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane who submitted over 10,000 entries.
So there you have it, two of the most volatile actors in the modern era of Hollywood possibly starring in a film about the history of a famous dictionary. I can’t imagine anyone had this in their pool.
This also continues to cement Mel Gibson’s comeback. His new directorial effort, Hacksaw Ridge, has an action-packed new trailer, and he even wants to do a sequel to The Passion of The Christ. Penn, meanwhile, is coming off the failure of The Gunman and the extremely weird Rolling Stone interview with El Chapo.
Gibson is on board as producer, with his Apocalypto screenwriter Farhad Safinia taking over as director. I can only imagine what the set of The Professor and The Madman might be like.
David Ayer seemed to be a great fit for Suicide Squad from the jump. His grounded eye for action and willingness to embellish the unremarkable would be a welcome change for the superhero movie; and what better time to bring on Ayer’s sensibilities than a superhero movie about super villains? The only surprise surrounding Ayer’s involvement, then, was Suicide Squad‘s PG-13 rating.
DC and Warner Bros. (and Zack Snyder especially), have been aching – ACHING – to release an R-rated comicverse flick in the theater. They came ever so close with Batman v Superman, settling instead for a super deluxe DVD. If David Ayer can’t get an R-rating, nobody can. This is a visceral action filmmaker, one of the throwbacks to an action genre that seemed long gone before his (and, let us not exclude Joe Carnahan’s) blood-soaked tales of cops and crooks and working-class warriors took us back. Ayer’s action sensibilities belong to the school of Die Hard, not Live Free or Die Hard.
Which is funny, since Ayer’s breakout was the screenplay for The Fast and The Furious in 2001. Of course, that original film looks and feels like a relic of a reality long absent from the mega-franchise. Ayer had written the clumsily-executed submarine thriller U-571 the year before The Fast and The Furious, but it was Fall 2001 where his voice began to take shape. It was Training Day, a grimy street-level story about corrupt cops putting together a precision-like heist, with the help of a clueless, honest newbie to the plainclothes game.
Training Day earned Denzel Washington his Best Actor Oscar, and Ethan Hawke his first nomination. Both deserved. Ayer produced two more cops and bad cops screenplays, Dark Blue and S.W.A.T. (underrated), before finally getting his opportunity to direct. When he had his chance, he did direct another Los Angeles crime drama centering around The Force, but Harsh Times was its own animal through and through. This was Christian Bale, the new Batman for God’s sake, playing a lowlife Iraq war vet with dreams of getting a job with the LAPD, but too caught up with drinking and smoking pot and being a general miscreant on a daily basis to have a legitimate chance.
Harsh Times is a wildly unique film from top to bottom. It follows no direct path from beginning to end, and the detours in the film – from Bale’s romantic detour into Mexico, to the trouble he causes his friend, Mike (Freddy Rodriguez), at home – give it a sort of stop-and-start pacing. Not entirely successful, but inventive and never dull, Harsh Times was an interesting directorial start for the screenwriter who’d told, up to this point, rather standard but mostly terrific tales of cops and corruption. It subverted those archetypes he’d so sharply drawn in Training Day and Dark Blue, putting his characters on the outside looking in.
His next film, another riff on Training Day, is the only one in his catalogue he hasn’t written. Based on a screenplay by legendary crime novelist James Ellroy, Street Kings would be a slight step backward for Ayer; mostly because of the woeful miscasting of Keanu Reeves in the title role. It would be another four years before Ayer would direct again, and the result was End of Watch, one of the greatest police procedural thrillers of the 21st century.
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, End of Watch begins as a day-to-day, patrol beat cop drama. But, in typical David Ayer fashion, the plot thickens once these two officers, two best friends, stumble across a cartel’s operations and discover they’ve been marked for assassination. With a plot like this, it would have been easy for End of Watch to spin out of control, but Ayer goes with the documentary style. It keeps even the more outlandish plot points in check, and it makes certain all the bullets fired throughout the story are honest and felt. It is a success from top to bottom.
Ayer followed up End of Watch with a somewhat underrated film in the quiet comeback filmography of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sabotage. Later that year, he would take his talents to the war torn European countryside. Fury is a story about the journey of a tank platoon in World War II. Brad Pitt led an impressive cast, and Fury is a film whose brutality threatens, at times, to undermine Ayer’s storytelling. This is a violent film, unflinching, and for an obvious reason. But it creeps up ever-so-closely to that line of what is gritty realism and what is exploitative shock value.
Overall, Fury is a solid war picture, and proof that Ayer can step away from his comfort zone of LAPD corruption. And so in 2015 his collection of gritty action, reminiscent of a bygone era, landed him his biggest filmmaking task to date. Suicide Squad is not only David Ayer’s film, it’s part of an entire universe. There is a responsibility for Ayer to not only direct his film, but to keep it in the family. But it also has to be a unique experience; it shouldn’t be anything this terrific action director can’t handle.
Title: Suicide Squad Director: David Ayer Summary: A secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency.
I believe that DC and Warner Bros were in an interesting spot going into Suicide Squad, or at least not in a position they expected. It seemed like the plan was for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to be the ‘sure thing’ while giving Suicide Squad the freedom to do things different and take some risks. However, Batman v Superman might have made back its budget although it was critically panned and did not do as well as DC/WB were hoping. Now the pressure was on Suicide Squad to basically justify the entire DC Cinematic Universe. That is a lot of pressure on a movie banking on a very different concept with a marketing campaign that seemed to owe more to Guardians of the Galaxy than any previous DC property. There has been a cautious optimism following this movie from the moment its trailer leaked from Hall H at Comic-Con in 2015.
Suicide Squad is not the full scale disaster that Batman v Superman was, but due to an extremely lackluster script and some poor aesthetic decisions it does not hold up.
The Suicide Squad
To start off allow me to be clear that while I do prefer Marvel movies I did try to go into this movie with as little of a bias as humanly possible. I enjoyed director/writer David Ayer’s previous movie Fury a lot and I’ve been enjoying the marketing for this movie quite a bit. I went into this one a lot more hopeful than I did going into Batman v Superman and in a lot of ways that makes this failure even worse . I wanted this movie to be good because I want there to be good DC movies but Suicide Squad barely rises into ‘average’ territory. The structure of this script is a complete disaster. There is barely a first act and it’s littered with brief flashbacks to how each member of the team got caught, and then no second act at all. It was like there was an entire reel of the movie missing, only movies aren’t shown on reels anymore. The transition is about as clunky as you can imagine.
The decision to jump into the action diminishes the very thing that makes team-up movies fun; team dynamics. It is the thing that makes movies like this fun, but while the cast has decent chemistry and is obviously having fun none of that is derived from the script. There aren’t any moments where they really bond or even talk to each other, aside from the moment in the bar that is featured in the trailers. By then it’s too late and more than halfway into the movie. The movie moves from set piece to set piece without any of the connective tissue that makes a movie great. The fun of a team-up is watching the clash of various personalities, but for a bunch of sociopaths we don’t really see anything like that. In fact, for a bunch of criminals, we don’t get to see them do anything really fun.
There is also the fact that this movie is rather atrocious toward its female characters. I could write an entire article on this (and I probably will) but to say that this movie fails the women in it would be an understatement. Katana (Karen Fukuhara) is woefully underused and doesn’t really have a point to her being there. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) isn’t given any dimension that might make a morally dubious character like her fun. In fact she is just as bad as the people she is controlling, if not worse, and it just makes her unlikable. Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) is a character I can’t get into without spoiling things but her look of a metal bikini is so over the top and pointless that I had to roll my eyes. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) makes off worst of all. She has no agency aside from the various men in her life and her design is so pointless and over sexualized that, at times, it felt like it was part of a joke I didn’t get. The movie doesn’t address how messed up her relationship with the Joker (Jared Leto) is and, at times, I felt like it was even romanticizing it in a positive way.
Suicide Squad is a movie I could discuss using another one thousand words about all of the ways it disappoints. Leto goes for broke in the performance but he and Robbie feel like they are trying way too hard half the time. There is not a single person worth rooting for here, and while I understand that they are bad guys they aren’t engaging enough to make watching them interesting. The plot makes zero sense, even by comic book standards, and there isn’t a single action scene that I remember fondly less than twelve hours after seeing the movie. While Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was the equivalent of a sucker punch to the face Suicide Squad is a sharp kick to the shins. While one is objectively better than the other, it doesn’t make either of them good.
As reported on Friday, July 29, the first three episode titles for the upcoming Luke Cage series were released. To read that article, click here. The showrunner, Cheo Hodari Coker, claimed that he would release new episode titles every Friday until the show’s premiere date, September 30; to our surprise, however, he dropped the title for episode 4 on Twitter.
Coker is now on track to release each episode title before the show’s premiere date.
To summarize, here are the episode titles we know so far.
Episode 1: Moment of Truth.
Episode 2: Code of The Streets.
Episode 3: Who’s Gonna Take The Weight?
Episode 4: Step In The Arena.
“Luke Cage is a former gang member who is framed for a crime. In prison, he volunteers for a medical experiment that goes awry, giving him super strength and bulletproof skin. Using his newfound powers, Cage escapes and becomes a hero for hire. His archenemy is Willy Stryker, a former childhood friend from Harlem. The two committed petty crimes together, and both fell for the same woman, Reva Connors, which led to their eventual falling out. It was Stryker who framed Cage for a drug deal that sent him to prison.” – Screencrush.
Season one of Luke Cage hits Netflix on Friday, September 30.
Paul Dano has worked with quite a few high profile directors over the years. Paul Thomas Anderson. Steve McQueen. Denis Villeneuve. Bong Joon-Ho. Rian Johnson. Spike Jonze. Richard Linklater. That’s only naming a handful. The 32-year-old actor continuously builds an exceptional resume for himself, and it was only complimented with Swiss Army Man, which currently sits as my favorite film of the year. So he’s ready to take on the next step: the director’s chair. The prolific performer will make his directorial debut with Wildlife, based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Richard Ford.
As Variety notes, the coming-of-age drama centers on a teenage boy who watches his parents’ marriage come apart after they move to Montana. Perhaps not the most riveting synopsis in the world, but Dano provides a sensitivity, patience and observance in his acting that will very likely translate well in his work on the other side of the camera. He adapted the screenplay alongside Zoe Kazan, his real-life partner and co-star in 2012’s Ruby Sparks, which she wrote. Kazan will also executive produce while Dano produces. Also producing are Oren Moverman and Ann Ruark, who both previously worked with Dano on last year’s underseen Love & Mercy. Also attached to produce is Alex Saks of June Pictures.
At this moment, neither Kazan nor Dano are expected to act in the film, and there are currently no actors attached to the project at this time. There’s no production date announced at this time either. More details should come momentarily, however. While it’s impossible to know for sure how this one will turn out, Dano’s past work — along with all the great filmmakers he has worked with — suggests he’s poised to become an exceptionally bright independent filmmaker, one with a great depth of empathy, delicacy and susceptibility that should serve him well in this youthful story. I truly hope for the best.
Steven and Connie track a Gem monster through the wilderness but its tracks lead them to mystery.
SPOILER ALERT
From here on as the season enters its last nine episodes it will be very hard not to talk about these episodes without dropping some kind of spoiler so might as well just spoil them so all the details can be addressed properly. Pearl takes Steven and Connie on their first joint mission to look for corrupt Gems. They do end up finding a pair and to properly investigate the group must split up allow the episode to become centered on Steven and Connie.
The experience allows the creators to display what Steven and Connie have learned through their training. Moments like this help to show the characters have grown and stresses he importance of watching every episode to appreciate the journey. This can be hard at times given the lighter and more comical episodes this season but now it pays off.
With only nine episodes left the drama and action are starting to build. Jasper appearance shows she is working to build an army of corrupted Gems. She is obviously trying to defeat the Crystal Gems and make up for the mistakes she’s made in the past. Defeating them would make put her on back in good graces with Homeworld but with any luck Steven and the rest will be able to stop her before something bad happens.
It does feel weird to have Connie talking about conspiracy theories about society collapsing. Still her cool head and preparation does help to balance out Steven’s goofy antics. Hopefully she will be back a few more times this season. Her efforts have shown she needs to be a part of whatever happens in the upcoming season finale. She doesn’t deserve to be absent from battle like she was with the incident with the Cluster.
Caution: While S.H.I.E.L.D. casting does not directly spoil plot points for season four, the discussion includes many spoilers from the end of Season Three. Casting news also answers a question or two left open-ended last season. Proceed at your own risk.
Ever since SDCC, news has steadily rolled out about season four of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Most of this news relates to casting–and the latest gossip is no exception. The newest confirmed addition to the show is Jason O’Mara (Complications, Justice League Dark). O’Mara joins the cast as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D (Marvel).
The Pros
O’Mara is a talented actor with credits all over the map. From Batman one-shots to television dramas, all the way to the Royal Shakespeare Company and back again, his talents will certainly translate well at S.H.I.E.L.D.
Did You Know Luke Mitchell is Australian?
O’Mara is also Irish, which means he may have long-lost ties to Fitz. That adds competition to the “Dr. Dadcliffe” theories from season three. And yes–we know that not all actors have kept their accent on the show. We also know that Ireland is a different country from Scotland. Neither fact eliminates him from the running, in our opinion.
To the contrary, executive Producers and writers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen confirmed that season four will delve more into Fitz and Simmons’ backstories. In an interview at SDCC, Whedon explained more specifically: “Now that [Fitz and Simmons] are together, the obstacles that usually come when you find someone is the people that come with them and the families. Everything will change.”
The Cons
Let’s address the elephant in the room here: a new, white, male character is added to the show in favor of seeing May, Mack, or Maria Hill in a position of power. Watching a new character take the position of Director instead of these powerhouses feels like the disappointment Snape suffers every year when he’s passed up for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. Again.
We know that May didn’t want to get back into the field circa Season one. Now that Andrew is dead and Quake on the run, many fans were holding out hope that she would take over the agency. Mack took the position of interim director several times, as well. While we saw him in the field with Coulson at the end of season three, there were still theories that he’d take the position officially while his partner is missing.
The possibility that Maria Hill would join the cast on a permanent basis was also among the Director theories. Keeping things in the “family” would downgrade the threat of another betrayal within the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. Adding a new character brings that (now repetitive) threat back up to orange.
Questions Raised by S.H.I.E.L.D. Casting News
According to Marvel’s press release, the new director is a character “whose Marvel roots go back to the 1940s”, which doesn’t give away much. In fact it raises more questions than it answers, considering the only canon director with roots that long is Nick Fury himself. For O’Mara to play Fury, some uncomfortable retconning would have to unfold. We’re guessing Marvel isn’t choosing that route.
This quote also begs the question: are we talking “real” 1940’s, or MCU 1940s? Is O’Mara a brand new descendant of characters from Agent Carter? A Howling Commando? Someone completely new to the universe?
Who else could O’Mara play? Options for his character litter the field of possibility. This leaves us with more questions than answers. What do you think of this S.H.I.E.L.D. casting news?
Ever since SDCC, news has steadily rolled out about season four of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Most of this news relates to casting–and the latest gossip is no exception. The newest confirmed addition to the show is 
Let’s address the elephant in the room here: a new, white, male character is added to the show in favor of seeing May, Mack, or Maria Hill in a position of power. Watching a new character take the position of Director instead of these powerhouses feels like the disappointment Snape suffers every year when he’s passed up for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. Again.
According to Marvel’s press release, the new director is a character “whose Marvel roots go back to the 1940s”, which doesn’t give away much. In fact it raises more questions than it answers, considering the