Gryphos
Auror
This movie irks me, and I've been trying to rationalise why that is for the past day since I saw it and I think I understand now.
But first, the positives:
I liked Deadshot. Will Smith brought his classic Will Smith charisma and the character was just generally a really liable presence. In addition, my favourite slice of action in the film has to be in the street fight when he gets up on the car and just starts wasting dudes left and right, and the other soldiers just lower their guns like 'yeah, he's handling it, just let him do his thing'.
Captain Boomerang was funny. He had some great comedic moments, like at the bar when Rick Flagg tells them they're free to go and he just hightails out of there with his beer. However, the film kinda falls flat in failing to explain why he comes back in literally the next scene when they're all rolling out to face the final boss. Also, I'm sorry, but why the f*ck is he even on the team? Same for Harley Quinn. Neither of them are metahumans with special abilities; Anything they can do, another member of the team can do better. I mean, technically Deadshot isn't a metahuman either, but he's powerful enough that he may as well be. Literally the only time Boomerang is himself useful is when he uses his boomerang camera to scope out the final boss room. I actually laughed at that bit. But with all this said, he was still an enjoyable character.
Amanda Waller was easily the most interesting character in the film and in a weird way actually made a much better villain than the Enchantress (I'll get to her). She was ruthless, intimidating, and just generally a great character.
The cameos by Batman and Flash were pretty cool and didn't feel forced at all. I mean it makes sense that these super villains would have been captured by superheroes, so that was another thing I quite liked.
The soundtrack was awesome, from the beginning when they played House of the Rising Sun right the way through to the end.
Now for the negatives:
The Enchantress as the villain was so bland and uninteresting it actually hurts. I mean, let's put aside the fact that when she's doing her big bag magic shiz she looks like she's having a goddamn seizure/belly dancing/both at the same time, she was still painfully unoriginal and uninteresting. Oh no! she wants to destroy the world because of course she does. Usually I don't mind this trope when the writers try to give the villain an at least somewhat understandable reason (even if it's usually bullshit), but here there's nothing. Plus, the final fight between her and the squad was f*cking pointless since it turns out she could have just taken away all their weapons from the start. I mean if she could do that, why did she start fighting them? Did she have to charge up her ultimate ability or something? That bit made me laugh, too.
Katana, and Killer Croc (or lack each thereof). I like Katana — she seems cool — but she gets like no development and she doesn't even get time to even shine in a fight scene. I mean come on! She has a f*cking samurai sword that (supposedly) steals souls and you're just going to breeze over that? You're not going to show it in action or anything? Killer Croc was also way underused. Again, I like him for what he is, I loved it when he said, "I'm beautiful", but he never gets to do anything. And the worst part is, there was a perfect opportunity for him to play an important part, when he goes underwater to help the soldiers plant the bomb to kill the boss. What they should have done was have him be the one to plant the bomb and kill the boss; maybe the rest of the soldiers get killed off and he's the only one left and he has to fight his way through a bunch of minions, struggling against mounting odds as more and more minions try to stop him. Hell, you could even add some emotion by giving him some flashbacks to being treated like a monster, giving him the final resolve to prove everyone wrong, push through the minions and save the day by setting off the bomb. That could have been sick! But no, he gets jumped and that one soldier-man sets off the bomb.
But the worst has to be Slipknot. Wtf. I mean, I was suspecting this guy was gonna be the one to die to demonstrate the bomb implants, but I thought he would at least get more than two minutes of screen time. I mean, this is basic storytelling 101: if you want a character's death to have an impact, make the character themself have an impact first. They should have allowed the audience to get to know Slipknot to form at least a basic connection. I mean, they didn't have to make him super duper deep, but they should have given him something. As it is, I don't even know what his deal is as a villain. Apparently he can 'climb anything'. Wooooo, he has a knock-off batclaw, great, but why was he specifically selected to be a part of Taskforce X? Usually you would give this character an action scene to demonstrate his abilities and what he's effective at doing, but the film doesn't even give him a single fight. It's ridiculous.
The entire climax. This was the part I was struggling to rationalise. I really don't like the climax of this film, and that's because it doesn't match the rest of the film. Think of the main action set-pieces of this film excluding the climax (all two of them). They both consisted of the squad taking on a bunch of minions, the first time in the street, the second time in the tower. Then we jump to the final confrontation, and I'm thinking it's going to up the stakes by having a really big, difficult battle with shitloads of minions — maybe these minions are more powerful — and then after they beat them, they take on the boss. Or maybe they take on the boss at the same time a la the cave troll in Fellowship of the Ring, creating a chaotic struggle in which all the squad members get to use their unique skill-sets. The trouble was, here, the fight with Enchantress's brother basically consisted of El Diablo going Super Saiyan and the rest of the squad watching. Imagine if in the Fellowship of the Ring Legolas took on the cave troll while everyone else just stood on the sidelines pumping their fists — that would suck. Don't get me wrong, I liked Diablo fighting the boss, but I just wish there was more going on at the same time. And I've already discussed how dumb the fight with Enchantress was.
The romance between Rick Flagg and June Moone was unconvincing. The characters had no chemistry, mainly because they weren't given any time to show chemistry. The film was just like 'they're in love' and moved on. This is doubly bad because this romance is actually extremely plot relevant, making the film's inability to make it convincing all the more shameful.
Then there was also a bunch of little things that made no sense. For instance, why did Harley have to throw Deadshot the gun so he could shoot the bomb? Throughout the film it was established that Deadshot has guns strapped to his arms. Literally the only purpose of Harley throwing him the gun was so we could get that shot of the bullet chamber switching to 'love', symbolising how Deadshot is doing it for his daughter, yadda-yadda. I like the idea, but since they didn't give any explanation of why he couldn't just use his wrist-guns, it makes no sense.
Also, I didn't buy the bond the squad members all suddenly gained at the climax. Like, Diablo's all like 'I'm not going to lose another family' and I'm sitting there like 'fam, you just met these people'. There was no moment in the film when it clicked that they had become a cohesive team. There was never any cooperation during the action scenes, everyone just did their own thing. So in the end when suddenly they've all become mates it felt really forced.
And this one really annoys me. So basically, Enchantress is defeated when Harley feigns switching to her side so she could get close, before grabbing the sword lying on the ground and quickly cutting out her heart. That's a cool idea with the potential to genuinely shock the viewer. The problem is, the film ruins this moment by, whilst Harley's giving Enchantress the razzle-dazzle, cutting to a shot of the sword lying on the ground. The moment that shot came up, I and probably everyone else in the cinema knew what was about to happen, and all the tension was sucked out of that moment. It was just a horrible filmmaking move, and I don't understand it.
So yeah, while it may seem I hated this film, but that's not necessarily true. While the film suffers from major issues on a macro level, there were small sparks of greatness, whether it be a funny line by Boomerang or that sick scene where Deadshot merks those minions in the street. I'm not a fan of numerical scores, but for what it's worth I would probably give this a 5/10, average, the same score I gave Batman v Superman. Though between the two films I prefer this one.
On the whole, I'm a little disappointed with this film, but not mad I saw it.
But first, the positives:
I liked Deadshot. Will Smith brought his classic Will Smith charisma and the character was just generally a really liable presence. In addition, my favourite slice of action in the film has to be in the street fight when he gets up on the car and just starts wasting dudes left and right, and the other soldiers just lower their guns like 'yeah, he's handling it, just let him do his thing'.
Captain Boomerang was funny. He had some great comedic moments, like at the bar when Rick Flagg tells them they're free to go and he just hightails out of there with his beer. However, the film kinda falls flat in failing to explain why he comes back in literally the next scene when they're all rolling out to face the final boss. Also, I'm sorry, but why the f*ck is he even on the team? Same for Harley Quinn. Neither of them are metahumans with special abilities; Anything they can do, another member of the team can do better. I mean, technically Deadshot isn't a metahuman either, but he's powerful enough that he may as well be. Literally the only time Boomerang is himself useful is when he uses his boomerang camera to scope out the final boss room. I actually laughed at that bit. But with all this said, he was still an enjoyable character.
Amanda Waller was easily the most interesting character in the film and in a weird way actually made a much better villain than the Enchantress (I'll get to her). She was ruthless, intimidating, and just generally a great character.
The cameos by Batman and Flash were pretty cool and didn't feel forced at all. I mean it makes sense that these super villains would have been captured by superheroes, so that was another thing I quite liked.
The soundtrack was awesome, from the beginning when they played House of the Rising Sun right the way through to the end.
Now for the negatives:
The Enchantress as the villain was so bland and uninteresting it actually hurts. I mean, let's put aside the fact that when she's doing her big bag magic shiz she looks like she's having a goddamn seizure/belly dancing/both at the same time, she was still painfully unoriginal and uninteresting. Oh no! she wants to destroy the world because of course she does. Usually I don't mind this trope when the writers try to give the villain an at least somewhat understandable reason (even if it's usually bullshit), but here there's nothing. Plus, the final fight between her and the squad was f*cking pointless since it turns out she could have just taken away all their weapons from the start. I mean if she could do that, why did she start fighting them? Did she have to charge up her ultimate ability or something? That bit made me laugh, too.
Katana, and Killer Croc (or lack each thereof). I like Katana — she seems cool — but she gets like no development and she doesn't even get time to even shine in a fight scene. I mean come on! She has a f*cking samurai sword that (supposedly) steals souls and you're just going to breeze over that? You're not going to show it in action or anything? Killer Croc was also way underused. Again, I like him for what he is, I loved it when he said, "I'm beautiful", but he never gets to do anything. And the worst part is, there was a perfect opportunity for him to play an important part, when he goes underwater to help the soldiers plant the bomb to kill the boss. What they should have done was have him be the one to plant the bomb and kill the boss; maybe the rest of the soldiers get killed off and he's the only one left and he has to fight his way through a bunch of minions, struggling against mounting odds as more and more minions try to stop him. Hell, you could even add some emotion by giving him some flashbacks to being treated like a monster, giving him the final resolve to prove everyone wrong, push through the minions and save the day by setting off the bomb. That could have been sick! But no, he gets jumped and that one soldier-man sets off the bomb.
But the worst has to be Slipknot. Wtf. I mean, I was suspecting this guy was gonna be the one to die to demonstrate the bomb implants, but I thought he would at least get more than two minutes of screen time. I mean, this is basic storytelling 101: if you want a character's death to have an impact, make the character themself have an impact first. They should have allowed the audience to get to know Slipknot to form at least a basic connection. I mean, they didn't have to make him super duper deep, but they should have given him something. As it is, I don't even know what his deal is as a villain. Apparently he can 'climb anything'. Wooooo, he has a knock-off batclaw, great, but why was he specifically selected to be a part of Taskforce X? Usually you would give this character an action scene to demonstrate his abilities and what he's effective at doing, but the film doesn't even give him a single fight. It's ridiculous.
The entire climax. This was the part I was struggling to rationalise. I really don't like the climax of this film, and that's because it doesn't match the rest of the film. Think of the main action set-pieces of this film excluding the climax (all two of them). They both consisted of the squad taking on a bunch of minions, the first time in the street, the second time in the tower. Then we jump to the final confrontation, and I'm thinking it's going to up the stakes by having a really big, difficult battle with shitloads of minions — maybe these minions are more powerful — and then after they beat them, they take on the boss. Or maybe they take on the boss at the same time a la the cave troll in Fellowship of the Ring, creating a chaotic struggle in which all the squad members get to use their unique skill-sets. The trouble was, here, the fight with Enchantress's brother basically consisted of El Diablo going Super Saiyan and the rest of the squad watching. Imagine if in the Fellowship of the Ring Legolas took on the cave troll while everyone else just stood on the sidelines pumping their fists — that would suck. Don't get me wrong, I liked Diablo fighting the boss, but I just wish there was more going on at the same time. And I've already discussed how dumb the fight with Enchantress was.
The romance between Rick Flagg and June Moone was unconvincing. The characters had no chemistry, mainly because they weren't given any time to show chemistry. The film was just like 'they're in love' and moved on. This is doubly bad because this romance is actually extremely plot relevant, making the film's inability to make it convincing all the more shameful.
Then there was also a bunch of little things that made no sense. For instance, why did Harley have to throw Deadshot the gun so he could shoot the bomb? Throughout the film it was established that Deadshot has guns strapped to his arms. Literally the only purpose of Harley throwing him the gun was so we could get that shot of the bullet chamber switching to 'love', symbolising how Deadshot is doing it for his daughter, yadda-yadda. I like the idea, but since they didn't give any explanation of why he couldn't just use his wrist-guns, it makes no sense.
Also, I didn't buy the bond the squad members all suddenly gained at the climax. Like, Diablo's all like 'I'm not going to lose another family' and I'm sitting there like 'fam, you just met these people'. There was no moment in the film when it clicked that they had become a cohesive team. There was never any cooperation during the action scenes, everyone just did their own thing. So in the end when suddenly they've all become mates it felt really forced.
And this one really annoys me. So basically, Enchantress is defeated when Harley feigns switching to her side so she could get close, before grabbing the sword lying on the ground and quickly cutting out her heart. That's a cool idea with the potential to genuinely shock the viewer. The problem is, the film ruins this moment by, whilst Harley's giving Enchantress the razzle-dazzle, cutting to a shot of the sword lying on the ground. The moment that shot came up, I and probably everyone else in the cinema knew what was about to happen, and all the tension was sucked out of that moment. It was just a horrible filmmaking move, and I don't understand it.
So yeah, while it may seem I hated this film, but that's not necessarily true. While the film suffers from major issues on a macro level, there were small sparks of greatness, whether it be a funny line by Boomerang or that sick scene where Deadshot merks those minions in the street. I'm not a fan of numerical scores, but for what it's worth I would probably give this a 5/10, average, the same score I gave Batman v Superman. Though between the two films I prefer this one.
On the whole, I'm a little disappointed with this film, but not mad I saw it.
Sage
Dreamer
