#but one of task force x's most famous characters is harley quinn

[navree]

vicki vale and deathstroke and task force x all set to be in at least one episode of my adventures with superman? one cannot help but wonder.......

[talking-head-productions]

If I Go Back In Time Part 2

I realized that were I to actually pitch the movie, the executives and producers would probably ask about more movies going forward. After all, this is supposed to be a cinematic universe to compete with Marvel. I've given it some thought- firstly, the casting of the heroes will be the same, because as far as I'm concerned they all did okay. Secondly, here's a list of possible films in my version of the DCEU:

Man of Steel 2

Plot: See the old post.

To Be Released: Given I said I'd go back to 2012, earliest release would probably be mid 2014

Marketing Notes: Keep it to a minimum. Maybe 2 trailers and a handful of tv spots. Around 4 minutes of footage total, all of it from the first half of the movie. Lower people's expectations a little so they can be surprised if it's any good.

Wonder Woman

Plot: Mostly the same as the one we got for real, but a few significant changes...

Lois Lane is the one conversing with Diana about the photograph, not Batman.

Ares did not kill all of the gods, they simply withdrew from the world of man once humans got too violent. They're in some pocket dimension version of Mount Olympus, waiting for future movies.

Diana does not think that Danny Houston's character is Ares. But she does think he knows where Ares is, because she has a very black-and-white view of the world right now, and Steve told her that Britain and their allies were the good guys. So obviously Ares is on the side of the 'bad' guys, the Germans.

Towards the middle of the movie, when Charlie the sniper is having his breakdown, Diana takes him aside and tells him that the older Amazons still have nightmares about battles from thousands of years ago. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It tends to help them when their friends are nearby. Now, they're not going to force him to fight, but they do want him to come with them. After all, if he stays, who will sing for them? I just think that having that conversation beforehand would be a bit more respectful of his condition. Also it comes back in the climax, Diana at one point has a gun to the back of her head in the middle of a fight, and Charlie shoots the guy first.

When Ares shows up towards the climax, he's actually a good guy who's been trying to end the war peacefully. Turns out, the mythology Diana was taught was wrong. The gods withdrew towards the end of the reign of the first Amazon queen, Otrera. Otrera according to the real world myths had a fling with Ares, which probably ended badly. Here, she would have lied about the reason for the gods' leaving just because she doesn't like Ares. And turns out, mankind really are just a bunch of warmongering assholes. Sometimes.

The real big bad is Doctor Poison. She uses Diana's discarded sword to stab Ares in the back, poisons Diana to weaken her, then huffs some of her own super-serum gas to make the boss battle a fair(-ish) fight.

When Steve comes up to Diana to tell her about his plan to destroy the plane, she can hear him and actually gives him her blessing. So no more 'hung up on her ex' version! It's just not possible if she told him to do it.

There are a couple bits of set up for the next film. First, at some point underwater ruins are mentioned, and Diana asks if Atlantis has fallen in the war. Steve asks if it actually exists, to which Diana replies, “Last time I knew...” The second part is a mid-credits scene where Lois sends Diana another message, asking her to look at a video. The video is exactly the same as the one we got in BvS, of Aquaman underwater stabbing the camera with his trident. During the clip, we hear a part of what will be Aquaman's theme, same as how WW's theme played in her pre-credits scene.

To Be Released: Probably late 2015, early 2016

Marketing Notes: Nothing is released or announced regarding this film until after MoS 2 has been in theaters for a week. I want people to go absolutely fucking apeshit in theaters when they realize that Wonder Woman of all characters will be the next film. Considering how she'd been regarded by Warner Bros. in the past.

The Aquaman

Plot: It's like a crazy Star Wars/Black Panther/Moana fusion. An Operatic Superhero Political-and-Family Drama based out of a futuristic Polynesian magitek version of Atlantis, with only a few scenes above the water.

To Be Released: Mid to late 2017.

Marketing Notes: Don't have a lot of action in the trailers. There will be action in the movie, including a badass final fight, but it'll be less than most superhero films. Focus on the drama in the trailers to accurately represent the movie.

Knight of Gotham

Plot: This movie will be the smallest scale movie in the franchise. It'll focus in on Batman's detective skills more than anything (though he'll still kick major ass).When the movie begins, all of Batman's more famous foes are locked up in Arkham Asylum. He hasn't been seen much lately. So smaller criminals are starting to think it's safe to operate in Gotham again. Mob boss Don Carmine Falcone wants in on it. So he puts out a hit on Commissioner Gordon, the only non-corrupt official in the city. The first taker is Deadshot (setting him up for you-know-what, but a better version). After that a couple of small-time killers. Then Ra's Al-Ghul shows up and tells Batman that every assassin not a part of the League will likely be heading to Gotham to try and kill James Gordon. However, there's only one to really be concerned about: a man named Victor Zsasz. The rest of the film is a cat-and-mouse game between Batman (plus Jim and Batgirl) and Zsasz, culminating in a boss fight that would rival both John Wick movies put together. At the end, Zsasz is a sore loser and blows up Arkham, releasing the villains for future films. At some point, Batman talked to Deadshot in prison and got him to give up Falcone as the one who put out the hit, so Falcone goes to jail and Deadshot is placed in lesser security, with his name marked under the Task Force X label.

To Be Released: Early to mid 2018.

Marketing Notes: Give a significant amount of focus to Batgirl's involvement. People will love that, so long as there's no hint of anything between her and Bruce (there won't be).

Justice League

Plot: We introduce The Flash and Cyborg as a comedic duo of superheroes from STAR Labs, with a dynamic not too dissimilar from Deadpool and Cable, or maybe Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch. The villain of the film is Abra Kadabra, a Flash villain from the distant future who uses nanomachines to do... a lot of different things. He styles himself after a stage magician. As a character in the film, he wants to shunt the Earth into a pocket dimension (make the whole world... disappear!) in order to save it from future disasters. However, the process would kill most of humanity, which is why the League have to stop him. It takes all five powered heroes to hold him down, while Batman delivers the disabling blow using one of his gadgets.

To Be Released: Day after New Year's, 2019.

Marketing Notes: In the film, Abra Kadabra will use his powers to shape shift into the heroes at multiple points. We can use this to run a “Who can you trust?” tagline, with emphasis on the fights, because this movie is spectacle incarnate. With a simple plot.

Man of Steel 3

Plot: This is the one where Lex Luthor reveals his true nature. The big fight will be Warsuit Lex vs Superman. Kryptonite will be introduced here. Other than that, I'm not sure.

To Be Released: Fall 2019.

Marketing Notes: Fake anti-Superman propaganda clips put out by Lex Corp.

Wonder Woman 2

Plot: Villain will probably be Cheetah, since she's the one of the most popular. Might be good to have Diana team up with Flash, just to bring that fun element in, and maybe some time travel stuff. Possibly bringing Steve Trevor back.

To Be Released: Late spring 2020.

Marketing Notes: If Flash is involved, focus on his and Diana's dynamic.

Gotham Sirens

Plot: Catwoman and Lady Shiva have been partners in thievery for a while now. They're hired by Silver St Cloud to steal a sacred amulet (it's actually magic), and they decide to team up with Arkham escapees Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn for the extra muscle. Ivy has her own plans, however, and it involves using the amulet to turn the whole city into a jungle.The reason they needed the extra muscle to steal the amulet is because it was guarded by a private security firm named Grayson and Sons. One guess to who the survivor of the Siren's attack is. Yeah, this movie introduces Nightwing (he skips the Robin identity). He teams up with Batman, Batgirl, and most likely our two thieves to stop Poison Ivy.

To Be Released: Mid fall 2020. Hitting a rhythm now.

Marketing Notes: One half of the material is about the all-girl villain team, the other half is about the growing Bat Family.

Fall of Justice: Tower of Babel

Plot: After Abra Kadabra's tricks, Batman realized how dangerous the rest of the League were and created weapons to stop them if they ever went bad. Unfortunately, someone (maybe Joker? Who would not be played by Jared Leto- I'm thinking Nicholas Hoult, considering his performance as Nux in Mad Max Fury Road) has stolen those weapons and the League is in genuine danger. If not the Joker, perhaps The Rogues came over from Central City and this is Leonard Snart's origin as Captain Cold (the cold gun is in the weapon cache).

To Be Released: Spring 2021.

Marketing Notes: This'll be the darkest entry in the canon so far. Someone will probably die, though who I don't know. Probably a supporting character, but an important one.

There will of course be more movies, but I'm not sure of the order or most of the details. Here's a really quick list:

Constantine (introduce the weird mythos of Dream and the Endless)

Dark Justice (aka, Justice League Dark- the villain will be Enchantress)

Titans (a second superhero team is started by Nightwing and includes Beast Boy, Starfire, and a couple others, and Deathstroke is the villain)

Crisis on Infinite Earths (eventually)

Fall of Justice: The Crime Syndicate (evil versions of our heroes from another Earth)

Flashpoint (without the major reboot aspect)

An Untitled Green Lantern Film (used to introduce planets like Thanagar and Tamaran, as well as the Manhunters)

Identity Crisis (without the “Doctor Light is a serial rapist” part)

Final Crisis (not the last movie)

Suicide Squad (alternately titled “Task Force X”, with a different villain)

Untitled Justice League Sequel (with the Legion of Doom as the bad guys)

Untitled Titans Sequel (with Brother Blood as the villain)

New Gods (I don't know enough about them to even speculate, but this oughta be cool)

Untitled Man of Steel Sequel (uses “Death of Superman” plot)

The Dark Knight Lives (at some point, probably in a League film, Bruce Wayne retired and Batman was believed to be dead. Now he comes back, because Gotham City truly does need him)

Batman Beyond (so it turns out Bruce needs to retire, too, so he finds a protege to take his place)

Justice League Kingdom Come

Man of Steel: Rising Son (deals with the “multiple heroes trying to be Superman” scenario from the comics, before bringing Kal-El himself back)

Shazam

Green Arrow

Untitled Flash Movie

Untitled Green Lantern Sequel

Untitled Justice League Dark Sequel

Blue and Gold (Blue Beetle and Booster Gold buddy comedy film)

All Female Justice League Film

The final film in the entire universe would be titled Fall of Justice: Blackest Night (the “FoJ” title is applied to all the truly dark entries). This is the finale because it would include every character ever introduced in all the films, at least as a cameo; even the dead ones would return as Black Lanterns.

[undertheinfluencerd]

Every 2016 Character Missing From The Suicide Squad | Screen Rant

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Suicide Squad.

What characters from the 2016 Suicide Squad movie are missing from the The Suicide Squad? The follow-up film by writer/director James Gunn boasts the largest ensemble of DC Comics characters ever gathered for a single film. Despite The Suicide Squad‘s impressive cast, it only brought back four actors and characters from the cast of the original movie.

The first Suicide Squad movie was controversial for a number of reasons. Chief among them were reports of studio interference during filming and editing, with executives at Warner Bros. wanting a lighter, more comedic film in the same vein as Guardians of the Galaxy. This conflicted with the ideas of director David Ayer, whose darker vision did not please fans of the Suicide Squad comics. There was also considerable fan backlash against the film’s take on The Joker (Jared Leto) and the costume worn by Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn.

Related: How The Suicide Squad Still Works As A Sequel To 2016’s Movie

Ironically, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn was hired to helm the The Suicide Squad after Ayer walked away from the project. While the follow-up film has been praised by fans and critics alike, The Suicide Squad‘s box office performance hasn’t matched the first movie’s, due to surging COVID-19 numbers in the United States and a simultaneous release on the HBO Max streaming service. However, some fans are still wondering if Gunn’s film is a true sequel to the first movie or a reboot, given how most of the first movie’s cast did not return for The Suicide Squad. While some of this was according to Gunn’s design, there are other factors at play as well.

Played by Will Smith and described as the most dangerous hitman in the world, Floyd “Deadshot” Lawton was one of the central characters of the 2016 Suicide Squad movie. Lawton is also one of the quintessential Squad members in the comics and James Gunn did ponder bringing him back while working on the script for The Suicide Squad. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts meant Smith couldn’t return as Deadshot, and it was ultimately decided to use a different character with a similar background rather than recast the role. This reportedly led to Idris Elba being cast in the role of Bloodsport, who had a similar skill set to Deadshot, but was notably different as a character.

One character James Gunn had no intention of bringing back for The Suicide Squad was the Clown Prince of Crime, saying that it didn’t make sense for the Joker to return. Ignoring the antipathy audiences felt for Jared Leto’s tattooed and shiny-grilled take on Joker, it beggars belief that Amanda Waller would ever let him loose or depend upon him as a covert operative, even with a bomb in his head. Given that, there was no obvious way to bring him into the story. There was also the matter of Harley Quinn having grown beyond the Joker, and there being no chance of him being anything but a distraction in an ensemble movie featuring her character.

Those who haven’t seen Suicide Squad since it was first in theaters in 2016 may be surprised to recall that David Harbour had a role in it. The popular actor, now famous for playing Jim Hopper on Stranger Things and the Red Guardian in Black Widow, had a minor but important role in Suicide Squad as Dexter Tolliver. A National Security Advisor to the President of the United States, he helped Amanda Waller with selling her idea for turning Belle Reve inmates into Task Force X to the Pentagon. While it might have been possible to bring the character back to discuss the Corto Maltese mission and its importance with Waller in The Suicide Squad, it seems unlikely that Harbour would have been available given his current busy schedule.

Related: All 19 DC Movies Releasing After The Suicide Squad (& When)

The victim of a mutation that gave him a crocodile’s skin, Waylon “Killer Croc” Jones was far gentler and smarter than his bestial frame suggested. Croc was played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who was not in a hurry to return to the role thanks to the intensive makeup work that the part required. It is unknown if Gunn decided to use King Shark instead of Killer Croc because of Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s reluctance to return, but it seems safe to say that it would have been redundant to have two man-eating beast-men in The Suicide Squad.

A powerful pyrokinetic who was racked with guilt after accidentally killing his wife and children with his powers, El Diablo was one of the more conflicted members of the first Suicide Squad team. It was unlikely that he would return for The Suicide Squad, given that he sacrificed himself to defeat Incubus and the Enchantress in the climax of the first film. While such resurrections are not impossible in the world of comics, there was little reason to bring him back for another outing.

Another character always unlikely to return in The Suicide Squad due to their having died in the first film was Slipknot. A master of ropes and knots who was said to be able to climb anything, he was primarily notable as the first person to die on Task Force X’s inaugural mission, after having been tricked in to trying to escape by Captain Boomerang, who used Slipknot to test if Amanda Waller’s claims to have implanted bombs in their necks was a bluff. Unfortunately for Slipknot, it was not.

Acting as the personal bodyguard of Col. Rick Flag, Katana is generally agreed to have been one of the characters most ill-served by Suicide Squad. Played by Karen Fukuhara, it is unknown if Katana was left out of The Suicide Squad because of James Gunn’s desire to focus on supervillains in the follow-up film or because of Fukuhara’s not being available due to her role as Kimiko Miyashiro on The Boys. In either case, Katana and her soul-draining sword would have been incongruous to the more comedic tone of Gunn’s film.

Related: Every DCEU Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

The plot of Suicide Squad centered around the Enchantress and her efforts to free the spirit of her brother, Incubus. The movie ended with both Enchantress and Incubus seemingly destroyed and Enchantress’ host, archeologist June Moone, freed from her control for good. Given that, it is unsurprising that none of them returned for The Suicide Squad.

Both Batman (Ben Affleck) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) had quick cameos in the original Suicide Squad. The two heroes were both shown in flashback scenes, capturing Deadshot and Captain Boomerang respectively. Given how the 2021 movie was firmly focused on the supervillains making up Task Force X, it seems unlikely James Gunn would have brought the Justice League members back in The Suicide Squad, even if Affleck and Miller were not busy with filming the upcoming The Flash movie.

More: Is The Suicide Squad Better Than The Original Movie?

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[demidon117]

Suicide Squad Review

***Author’s Note: So, this is a review I wrote about Suicide Squad in a week long fury binge. IT IS LONG AND IT IS NEGATIVE. If you liked Suicide Squad, great! Don’t let me keep you from enjoying the things you like, these are just my angry, personal feelings about a movie. This is a seven-page review; like I said it’s long; if you read the whole thing, and agreed with it, give me some notes! Maybe follow? If this gets attention then I’ll post more film reviews here. Thanks for reading!*** Suicide Squad. Where do I begin?

   Well, first, this movie leaves me with such an irrational fury, I needed at least an hour of ranting and raving before I could sit down to write this. The lack of understanding of the original characters is astounding, its attempts at trying to be an all-out action movie and superhero team up are laughable, and its manipulation of emotions to try and get a response out of the viewer is sickening. This movie doesn’t only fail as a superhero team-up movie, it also fails as an action movie, which is inexcusable since we have movies that have already done this correctly. But, enough being angry, let’s get into the reasons why this movie fails so spectacularly. 
    Amanda Waller wants to create an off-the-book, black-ops squad of the worst of the worst to do tasks that no one else wants to do. So, she hires Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Killer Croc, Diablo, Captain Boomerang, Katana, Enchantress, and a team of Navy SEALs, all the while the Joker tries to save Harley and Enchantress’s brother saves her. Do you see the problem here? There are way too many characters in this stupid movie. It’s obvious what this movie wanted to be, it wanted to be the Anti-Guardians of the Galaxy. It wanted to be dark and gritty and prove that DC could produce the same kind of movies Marvel could and give us a big superhero team-up. Except, that Marvel devoted several movies establishing characters before throwing them all together in a big blockbuster, and Marvel also knows how to devote time to showing these characters as relatable people. Suicide Squad tries to establish even more characters than the Avengers or Guardians did and do it all in two hours. But, hey, what about X-Men? They had a lot of characters and that movie was good. Yes, it was, but that movie already had the team established and didn’t give us background on every character in the movie. It focused on Rogue, Wolverine, and Magneto and that was it, and it was enough. This movie tries to develop every. Single. Character. And it doesn’t work in the slightest and it’s manipulative and disgusting. Half of the characters don’t even need to be in the movie. We don’t need Enchantress’s brother, Killer Croc, Captain Boomerang, or the Joker. Hell, I’m not even sure we needed Rick Flag and his group of Navy SEALs. The movie is so saturated with terrible characters trying to take the spotlight that it’s maddening. The only characters that were really interesting and had any depth at all were Katana, Diablo, Harley, and Deadshot. Those four could carry a movie and it probably would’ve been fine. But, I’ll get to that soon enough.


    The next problem is the villain they’ve got to fight. The character, Enchantress is is inhabiting the body of a scientist who’s in love with Navy SEAL Rick Flag, the leader of the Suicide Squad and basically the bodyguard/parole officer of Enchantress. Enchantress is some old god witch who was trapped in a doll, along with her brother Incubus. She escapes from Flag and frees her brother and the two of them try to take over/destroy the world for reasons. Do you see how complicated that is? In a movie where they’ve got Harley and the Joker trying to love it up, Deadshot trying to take care of his daughter, and a dozen other plot lines that don’t matter. The villain is too complicated for a movie like this, and she’s too powerful. The Suicide Squad isn’t a group of superheroes. There are only two Meta-Humans in the team, the rest are just highly skilled people. They’re a strike force, not a superhero team. Enchantress is a powerful goddess type character and her brother is equally powerful, if not more. This is not the job for a bunch of side villains. Especially when they go out of their way to show the Flash and Batman in the movie. A villain of these stakes needs to be saved for the Justice League movie. I mean, it’s such a powerful villain, ANOTHER city has been completely destroyed and abandoned, the aftermath yet again saved for another movie. When will these stupid movies address the destruction without destroying a city? All this death and destruction is becoming meaningless, and I hate to say it, but boring as well.

   So, it fails as a superhero movie, what about an action movie? No. In fact, that part is even worse. The movie takes two hours, and it’s split up into two halves, the first half establishes the characters and the second has them fighting. If you don’t know, this is a terrible idea. Firstly, the first half of the movie moves at a mind-numbing pace. I could take in what they were saying just fine, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t care about any of these characters because it didn’t give me time to care. It just kept going and going without giving you time to breathe. It introduces the main characters fine, I suppose, but then it tries to establish the dozen necessary plot lines. Let me tell you something, Fast Five had a lot of characters, and it had to establish a lot, but it didn’t do it in the span of just an hour. Sure, some of the characters were returning from previous movies, but people can sit down and watch Fast Five and enjoy it without seeing the previous four movies. Then, there’s Hardcore Henry, another great action movie, that keeps the plot moving at a comfortable pace and it would stop to have serious character moments and have a deep scene or two. “But you can’t compare those movies!” Some may cry, “Those aren’t genre movies!”

   That doesn’t matter. Suicide Squad desperately wants to wow you as an action movie without caring at all to make it coherent or exciting. The second half of the movie moves at a snail’s pace compared to the first half. It kept dragging on in muddled blackness. The fights were boring because there was too much going on. Yeah, that’s right, there was too much fighting in the fight scenes, so much in fact, that it sucked all of the fun out of the air. There were too many people fighting, I couldn’t tell who was supposed to be impressive or not. Am I supposed to focus on Harley? Katana? Croc? Deadshot? Because lord knows it sure as hell ain’t Captain Boomerang. He throws, like, two boomerangs in the entire movie. Two. And his damn name is Captain Boomerang. Not to mention, most of the fight scenes in this movie are just people walking around shooting guns. It’s boring to just watch people walk around shooting guns. It could be impressive if it just happened once or twice, but it happens every time there’s a fight scene. The SEALs in this movie are so efficient that they could’ve carried the movie, it’s like they wanted to be Battlefield LA. So the movie, at the big climactic battle scene takes an hour to play through and it’s boring as sin. There are hardly any super powers in this movie about a comic book, y’know, the thing these characters are known for? “But, what about the end? There are super powers then.”

   Oh yeah, that. Spoilers here, so skip to the next paragraph to miss it. Though, I’m not sure why you’d want to. Anyway, at the end of the movie, the characters end up fighting Incubus, Enchantress’s brother. Anyway, they’re getting the snot kicked out of them, and the whole movie, Diablo is building up to something, saying he’s holding back, and thus far, he’s been impressive, so what could he be holding back? Well, the fact that he turns into a giant flaming Aztec skeleton, and I’ll be perfectly honest, it was amazing. He shows up speaking Spanish in a demonic voice and just throwing fire at the Incubus and punches him and it’s awesome. And then he runs out of juice and his pinned to the ground by, well that’s okay, they’ll save him right? No. They don’t. Despite the fact that he’s weakened the thing and that Katana already showed that she could cut off hands and that they obviously had enough time to save him because they took the time to debate it, they use a high powered explosive to kill Diablo and Incubus. But, they kept Captain Boomerang, because “Hey! Wacky Australian antics!” So, one of the two characters I cared about died, thus ruining any chance I had to watch the second movie.

   Anyway, the superpowers are kind of cool and the effects are impressive, but it’s hardly seen in the actual fights and it’s just disappointing. Like, I get it, you want to show how dark, edgy, and serious these characters are because they use lethal force, but seriously, it’s so boring to watch because it’s just shooting guns. Katana who could’ve been the most fun to watch, and would’ve been incredibly popular among those sword wielding weebs, is hardly seen because Will Smith and Margot Robbie are the most famous people in this movie. And the movie knows that because they get the most lines, the most screen time, and the most development and it sucks. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with most critics in that they were fantastic. Will Smith brings a depth to Deadshot most people didn’t know, even though his backstory and motivations are stock and generic, and Margot Robbie does a great job as Harley, I honestly can think of anything she does wrong, it’s all the fault of David Ayer for ruining the character. Like, who wears underwear to a war-zone? I’d even accept a stupid skirt. And I wouldn’t say there were bad performances, per se, just bad characters, so it made the performances hard to care about. Well, one exception, Jared Leto as the Joker is one of the worst things I’ve seen in the history of the universe.

   I usually like Leto, I think he’s a pretty good actor. He was good in Mr. Nobody and Requiem for a Dream. He did a good job of being a douche bag in Fight Club, though, I’m beginning to think that wasn’t all acting…

   Anyway, his portrayal of the character was just all wrong. His laugh, his mannerisms, his antics while the movie was being filmed, it’s just… Stupid. It’s easily the worst Joker performance I’ve ever seen. Especially when we’re coming off the heels of Heath Ledger’s legendary performance and Mark Hamill’s iconic voice and laugh. There’s so much inspiration on how to do the character right, and the fact that this movie got it so wrong, it makes me feel ill. And I’m all for taking the character into your own, but this portrayal is just so wrong. Leto just doesn’t have the necessary charm or intimidation to ground such a character. Worst of all, he’s not funny. Say what you will about The Joker, but he was funny. He’d crack jokes, he’d play pranks, yeah he’d kill you, but he’d still try to have fun. This Joker tries to be more realistic as a gang leader, kind of how Heath Ledger made his Joker more realistic as an avatar of chaos. Leto is able to make the Joker erratic for sure, but it’s so stupid. There’s never any reason as to why people follow him. Ledger promised people a revolution, Hamill ruled them through fear, Jack Nicholson was already a gang leader when he became The Joker. Leto? Well, he’s erratic. All we see is that he knows how to use guns, like every other character in this movie. So, why is he in charge? There’s never a moment where we see why he’s in charge, only that people follow him for some reason. Finally, my biggest problem with this entire movie, the worst thing that happens, the thing that makes me so damn angry about it, is how it plays up the romance of Harley Quinn and The Joker. 
    Let me be clear, in case you don’t understand, the Joker is the evilest creature ever put to paper. He is not sympathetic, he is not caring, and he is not someone to be put into a relationship with someone like Harley Quinn. Their relationship is not loving and romantic, it is abusive. From her conception, Harley was meant to show just how heartless the Joker can be. He would hit her, berate her, and use her as a human shield, but she followed him because she had Stockholm Syndrome. She was tricked into thinking she was in love with him. And the Joker knew that. So he’d drag her along and play along with her delusions, so long as it benefited him. The current run of the Batman comics shows the Joker being so monstrous to Harley it’s honestly hard to read. The Joker and Harley are not a loving couple. So, whenever this movie shows The Joker caring for Harley in any way, it makes me sick to my stomach. It’s because of this stupid movie that people started romanticizing the two again. This part of the movie is so big and important to the story that I can say this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. The Joker does not love Harley, he just can’t and just won’t.

    Finally, there’s a bunch of superficial garbage that I hate about this movie.  The music is so irritating. It feels like they wanted to do what Quinten Tarantino does with having a soundtrack of recognizable songs that flow with the story. Except they don’t flow with the story in the least bit and are way too recognizable. It really feels like they had a list of popular songs and just slapped them in during the late stages of editing. Listen, music is shockingly important to movies, watch a movie on mute and you’ll realize how important backing tracks can be, even during quiet scenes. You can have popular songs in your movie and have them work, Tarantino does it, dozens of other action movies do it, but they do it sparingly. This movie feels like an iTunes playlist was shoved in. It’s so irritating and it pulls me out of the film each and every time a new song comes on, and it sucks because the original score is honestly pretty good. That’s one of the few things I’ll give to DC movies, the original score is usually pretty good. I can’t hum any of the melodies, but I remember a scene where Diablo shoots fire for the first time in the city, and the thing that struck me the most, was the music, it was loud and dramatic and perfectly encompassed the shock, horror, and amazement we needed to feel at that moment. It’s just such a shame they had to drown out all of it with annoyingly recognizable music.

 Then there’s the editing. IT’S SO DAMN DARK. No, not the story and subject matter, the actual brightness in the movie was too dark, so any of the fighting scenes in the movie were practically impossible to see. I don’t know if it was the Amazon Video version, but I had to adjust the gamma on my screen to watch the film. I’ve never had to do that before. Then, during the scenes where they were introducing the characters, they had these neon graffiti effects show up and had caricatures of the characters. It was actually kind of cool, if not trendy, which is actually bad, so I guess this compliment doesn’t work, but whatever. It would’ve been nice if that color was peppered throughout the rest of the movie because the rest was so muddled in blackness that I couldn’t tell if this was a horror movie or a superhero action romp.

   I remember right before this movie was released, they actually had to go back and reshoot some scenes to make it funnier. And I thought, “Great, it’d be nice to laugh unironically,” But, guess what, it wasn’t funny. It was obvious they added scenes of Captain Boomerang and his gross fetish with a pink unicorn because it was shown twice and completely forgotten about. This stupid unicorn was important enough to bring into a war-zone, but as soon as he dropped it, it was forgotten. Then, when they showed people getting evacuated (which was an obvious attempt at trying to show us “Hey! We learned from Man of Steel!”) there was a girl walking around with her friends in party dresses and said something like “This is the worst birthday ever.”

   Why? Why would you add that? It wasn’t funny, thousands of people are dying/dead, and you’re going to take time out of your two-hour movie to shove in a line like that? No. That’s not okay. It’s not funny, it’s not amusing, it’s insulting and completely ruins the immersion. I was never more aware I was watching a stupid movie than right there and then.

   NOT TO MENTION, the first half of the movie just feels like extended trailers all smashed into each other. There’s undeniable whiplash when they enter the city. Actually, they had two different editing studios work on this film. Like, DC just didn’t know what to do, so they had two different studios work on it, and instead of thoughtfully using the edits to make a good, coherent plot, they literally smashed the two different versions of the film together to make some disgusting half-trailer-half-cinematic monstrosity. Honestly, this would probably explain the piss poor pacing of the first half.

   So, I’ve been ripping at this movie, being angry and ranting, but not giving any real ways to try and fix this movie. And yes. There are ways to make this movie work. And yes, there are ways to make it work. Keep in mind, this is all coming from my own story choices. Were I in charge of the movie, this is how I’d write it. 

    The first thing to change is the villain. The Suicide Squad is a hit squad, meant to do secret operations you don’t want people to ever hear about, or to take down a target that only super-villains could take down. This Enchantress character, as I’ve said, is too powerful for these characters to take down. So, instead of them fighting Enchantress, have them go after the Joker. I’m not kidding. This would set up a lot of moment of conflict for Harley and would give Margot Robbie something to reach for other than edgy scene girl. The flashbacks into her and the Joker’s past would have more meaning and show how manipulative he is into tricking her into loving him. This would also set up a good relationship between Harley and Deadshot. They had undeniable chemistry together, as I expected of Will Smith and Margot Robbie. I’ll admit it, I wanted Deadshot and Harley together. Sue me.
    The next thing would be to cut out most of the characters in the Suicide Squad. All you need are Deadshot, Harley, Katana, and Diablo. Why? Well, for one, these are the only characters in this stupid movie that have any decent backstories, and for two, they all have incredible potential to make good characters. Send those four after the Joker and it’d add up to something pretty tense. Hell, you could even keep Batman in the movie like the animated feature they made. Then, you stop using that horrible soundtrack. The original score was good enough, don’t keep throwing in pop songs. It’s not fun and it’s distracting as hell. Then you use ONE studio to do the editing, and I’d say that’d add up to a pretty enjoyable film.

   I just can’t believe DC ruined another movie like this. If I were them, I’d immediately drop the rest of the plans they had for future movies because there’s no way they can salvage this universe after Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad. This movie was just poor decision after poor decision, and instead of making a movie that’s so bad it’s good, like The Room or xXx, this film is just bad enough to be infuriating.