Comic Book Movies

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, for a blatant Natasha replacement in the MCU, I actually came away really liking Yelena as a character more than I expected to. Captain Marvel aside, I usually find at least one or two characters that I really gravitate towards in MCU movies.

Not really too thrilled about them pitting her against Hawkeye due to false information. I'm hoping that isn't a big plot point of the upcoming Disney+ series and instead it's more low-stakes and somewhat laid back in tone like the Matt Fraction run.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, that part's confusing. I assume they're trying to do Dark Avengers, and Julia Louis Dreyfus will inevitably recruit Abomination, Bullseye, and evil counterparts to Thor and Tony in later installments. Problem is, Yelena wasn't evil in this film, or even hinted as such like they did with Walker, so I don't know what the plans are there.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Deadpool finally makes his grand entrance in the MCU.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, next week The Suicide Squad releases and I'm actually genuinely excited for this movie. I love James Gunn's vision for this movie and how he insists it will be a lot higher stakes than most Marvel or DC comic book movies. This movie essentially seems like it will be a modern grittier version of The Dirty Dozen starring A to D list DC characters with Gunn's trademark sense of humor, and that just seems like it will be an awesome combination.

[Foggle]

I love all of James Gunn's work but The Suicide Squad was mostly off my radar until you reminded me it existed with your post this morning - after looking it up, gotta say I'm sold. I've been watching The Thick of It recently, which is hilarious, and now finding out that Peter Capaldi's going to be a main character, I hope to god he's gonna have some Malcolm Tucker-esque lines. Then I saw a picture of the Weasel, which looks like something straight out of Gunn's Troma days, which is fucking awesome. Finally, I read that he compared Harley's relationship with Bloodsport to Abbott & Costello, and a Margot Robbie/Idris Elba buddy comedy is something I never knew I needed. I never really saw the appeal of Robbie's Harley in the original Suicide Squad film, probably due to the awful script and directing, but I thought she was great in Birds of Prey. I haven't watched any superhero movies since BOP in all honesty, which I mostly checked out for the fight scenes since I heard they got some input from the John Wick guys, and I ended up quite liking it despite its utterly contemptuous treatment of my favorite DC character (Cassandra Cain). Really hope this will live up to Guardians of the Galaxy and Slither for me.

EDIT: Good god yes.

UNILAD sat down with Capaldi ahead of the release of The Suicide Squad, where he plays Gaius Grieves, also known as The Thinker, a super-intelligent inventor with telepathic abilities.

Doctor Who may seem like the most obvious stepping stone to a comic movie, but James Gunn was looking elsewhere. 'He cast me because he'd seen me in In the Loop, the spin-off from The Thick of It,' Capaldi said.

One line sticks out as particularly Tucker-esque: 'Yankie f*cking doodle dandie.' It wasn't written by Gunn – he just told Capaldi to let rip.

'He doesn't really know about Doctor Who or anything, that's why he put me in it. James writes scripts brilliantly, and what you do with James is you shoot all the lines, and he'd say to me... just make some stuff up. It was quite nice to be allowed to make some of that stuff up again. It's always a bit scary though, but that's what he wanted, so I just let Malcolm out again. That's where Malcolm went, he became a supervillain,' he laughed.

[Dr. Insomniac]

James Gunn doesn't know what Doctor Who is? Weird, coming from him.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just got back from the theater. I can safely say that The Suicide Squad is tied with Shazam! as my favorite thing to come out of the entire DCAU, and it's probably one of my favorite comic book movies of the past few years. The tone, humor, and absurdity of the violence just vibe really well with me.

Also, I caught that John Ostrander cameo. You can tell how much James Gunn loves that run from how he pays homage to it in several ways: Bloodsport basically feels like a stand-in for Bronze Tiger in several ways, with a bit of Deadshot's personality mixed in there (while still being his own character), infiltrating Jotunheim is the main objective of the Suicide Squad in the movie (which was the centerpiece of a major moment in Ostrander's run), more characterization is given to some of the supporting members of Belle Reve rather than just on Amanda Waller (including some of them objecting to her methods when they feel that she goes too far), and the conflict at hand was heavily critical of the shadiness of the American government and their hypocrisy in how they treat foreign countries and organizations as enemies for doing the same things that they themselves do (just more discretely). That's just to name a few things, but while I did say that Ostrander/Yale's run was good but not a personal favorite of mine, I think having aspects of it filtered through James Gunn's particular style of story-telling and presentation really made for something that I found to be highly enjoyable.

And yeah, it's actually kind of refreshing to see a movie like this that lives up to it's namesake. Expect plenty of characters to die, including some that you will actually come to like. Not that I need superhero movie to have a body count, but it does really fit this one, and I actually felt the stakes, which lead to some fairly tense moments despite how generally bonkers the tone was most of the time.

I'll definitely want to re-watch it again this weekend.

[Dr. Insomniac]

That flashback scene with Taika, that scene hit me.

Shocked how much of a 180 this is compared to the first film. This movie succeeds at everything that one failed at.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

To be fair, the first movie was clearly very butchered in the editing process. I still don't think that it would have been my type of film, but it's also very clear that David Ayer and his team were trying to make a different movie than what WB at the time forced them to change it into when they decided that they wanted something different.

It seems like they learned their lesson and allowed James Gunn to do his job and go for his vision. I think the result speaks for itself.

And yeah, the secret ingredient to this movie for me was that despite how mean-spirited and over-the-top it could be to many of it's featured characters, there is still an underlying heart and humanity to almost all of them and the movie in general, something which Gunn excels at.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Instead of Starro, the Squad were meant to fight Superman back in the brainstorming phase. And it's something Gunn wants to do for a sequel.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm actually glad that he went with literally anything else than that concept. While I trust in James Gunn as a filmmaker, I've kind of gotten sick of the evil Superman trope by this point.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Watched the movie a second time and I really have to appreciate Gunn's attention to detail. Beyond just being stylized, there are so many meaningful shots and a distinct use of editing to visually convey information and add layers of nuance to the core characters. It's worth paying attention to background details on repeat viewings. Peacemaker in particular is a bit more layered than I would have initially given him credit for. I like how when Bloodsport tells Ratchatcher about his traumatic upbringing with his abusive father, we get a brief shot of a little smirk and chuckle from Peacemaker, which is done in a way that I interpret as him actually being able to relate to what Bloodsport is saying. Likewise, when we see a POV shot from the bus to a couple on the street sharing affection, and then it immediately cuts to a close-up of King Shark's face, we visually get a better understanding of his character and how he wants to be able to relate to others.

There are a ton of instances I could bring up, but TSS makes a great example for why this sort of cinema is not just big dumb fun, as it so often gets labeled as being. Yes, it's primarily bonkers and over-the-top, but underneath the surface there is a lot of heart to the film, and what may come off as big dumb action in appearance is very smartly made and put together.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Oh yeah, I noticed Starro's portrayal as a prisoner who just wanted freedom but went mad and lashed out against humanity mirrors his portrayal back in Batman Beyond.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Spoilers for the whole movie:

Spoiler

"I was happy, floating in space, staring at the stars."

Gunn didn't have to give him that line. He could have just up and let him die a la Ronan from GotG, but that one little sentence before falling dead really highlighted that Starro wasn't the villain of the movie. He was a product of the true villains, which in this case was the US government, but with Waller essentially representing the concept of that as the face of who we are essentially rooting against.

[close]

[Foggle]

I can't believe WB was willing to fund a $185 million Troma film with DC characters but I'm so glad they did. Everything about it was seriously on point, probably the most I've enjoyed a film since John Wick 3. I need more immediately (and Guardians 3). No one does it like Gunn.