The Movie Thread Reloaded

[Lurkndog]

To me, The Suicide Squad (2021) asks the question "How grotesque can we make superheroes before the audience starts to tune out?" A question which, I warn you, it answers in excruciating detail.

I think after seeing the movie, you will have a pretty good idea where to draw that line.

From here on out, when a character in the DC Universe says "I've seen some weird shit," you will think of this movie.

It's not a badly made movie, it's just one I found difficult to enjoy.

[HappyDaze]

To me, The Suicide Squad (2021) asks the question "How grotesque can we make superheroes before the audience starts to tune out?" A question which, I warn you, it answers in excruciating detail.

I think after seeing the movie, you will have a pretty good idea where to draw that line.

From here on out, when a character in the DC Universe says "I've seen some weird shit," you will think of this movie.

It's not a badly made movie, it's just one I found difficult to enjoy.

I liked the interactions between IE and JC, but felt that the movie pays too much attention to MR's HQ in a "GM's girlfriend" sort of way after watching interviews.

[Bedrockbrendan]

Finally watched Friends of Eddie Coyle. Great Boston crime film. Very slow paced even for the early 70s. I think it really boils down to whether you enjoy hanging out with these characters. I loved the dialogue. Found it to be quite authentic in terms of being a Boston film. Some of the accents fall a bit short, but everything else looked more real to me (some Boston movies spend a lot of time giving views and shots people who live here wouldn't even see most of the time: like the view of the state house in the departed---which was great but pretty alien to me). This looked and felt like the places I drive around. Very interesting ending as well. Like watching a slow moving train crash: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-8piv9-10b7d7a

[Lurkndog]

I liked the interactions between IE and JC, but felt that the movie pays too much attention to MR's HQ in a "GM's girlfriend" sort of way after watching interviews.

I thought Idris Elba was a huge upgrade from Will Smith, and his HR Giger helmet was pretty cool.  His ability to unfold a packet of gum into an antitank rifle a la Iron Man 2 was cool looking but preposterous, but at least it was his own thing.

Margot Robbie has still got it, but I tend to agree with your about the "GM's girlfriend" feel. Yes, she should succeed wildly a lot of the time, but she should also fail wildly a lot of the time, and it would be every bit as entertaining. She's the wild card, not the ace.

[Pat]

Margot Robbie has still got it, but I tend to agree with your about the "GM's girlfriend" feel. Yes, she should succeed wildly a lot of the time, but she should also fail wildly a lot of the time, and it would be every bit as entertaining. She's the wild card, not the ace.

The Colossal Screw-ups of Harley Quinn would make a great movie. Focus on all the times things went south, in spectacular ways.

[S'mon]

I liked the interactions between IE and JC, but felt that the movie pays too much attention to MR's HQ in a "GM's girlfriend" sort of way after watching interviews.

I thought Idris Elba was a huge upgrade from Will Smith, and his HR Giger helmet was pretty cool.  His ability to unfold a packet of gum into an antitank rifle a la Iron Man 2 was cool looking but preposterous, but at least it was his own thing.

Margot Robbie has still got it, but I tend to agree with your about the "GM's girlfriend" feel. Yes, she should succeed wildly a lot of the time, but she should also fail wildly a lot of the time, and it would be every bit as entertaining. She's the wild card, not the ace.

I loved The Suicide Squad. Classic James Gunn.

The Harley Quinn solo stuff did feel a lot like a private session between GM and GM's Girlfriend - I could just imagine the look on the poor neckbeard's face when she (post-coitus) promptly blows away his poor GM's-Expy character.

It's certainly not explicitly anti-woke, and Gunn's politics are clearly Left-Liberal, but he equally clearly hates Deep State Democrats just as much as he hates Gun-Ho Republicans, so I was ok with that. And he's a fan of dank memes, I kept seeing weird stuff and thinking "Wait, is that a reference to ...surely not?!"

The actual plot is a mix of Action Movie themes, notably The Expendables - only done much much much better* - with a bit of Where Eagles Dare. I thought it worked fine for a black comedy, where plausibility takes a back seat to snappy one-liners and groteseque situations.

*As a world-builder nerd I pay attention to stuff like the population figures of the crappy Latin dictatorships and how well they could support the military resources shown, the hordes of fanatical mooks, their hardware etc. The Suicide Squad gave the banana republic's capital city a population in the 'millions'; in The Expendables AIR it was said to be 6,000!

[HappyDaze]

Rented the Snake Eyes movie last night. Action scenes are fun, and the acting is fine (although the Baroness seems to struggle at keeping a consistent accent). However, the story features way more magic and monsters than I expected. Sure, they had some of that in the old cartoons, so it's not entirely unprecedented, but it still felt weird.

[Lurkndog]

I think The Dirty Dozen was the primary movie influence on the Suicide Squad comic book.

[Omega]

Rented the Snake Eyes movie last night. Action scenes are fun, and the acting is fine (although the Baroness seems to struggle at keeping a consistent accent). However, the story features way more magic and monsters than I expected. Sure, they had some of that in the old cartoons, so it's not entirely unprecedented, but it still felt weird.

I did not like it simply because its A: another damn origin story. B: Snake Eyes without the mask? And talking? Its like making the turtles in TMNT all look different. It rather absolutely misses the point.

[HappyDaze]

Rented the Snake Eyes movie last night. Action scenes are fun, and the acting is fine (although the Baroness seems to struggle at keeping a consistent accent). However, the story features way more magic and monsters than I expected. Sure, they had some of that in the old cartoons, so it's not entirely unprecedented, but it still felt weird.

I did not like it simply because its A: another damn origin story. B: Snake Eyes without the mask? And talking? Its like making the turtles in TMNT all look different. It rather absolutely misses the point.

I kept.expecting him to get his face and vocal cords messed up before the end of the film, but...nope. That was a letdown.

[Shrieking Banshee]

I kept.expecting him to get his face and vocal cords messed up before the end of the film, but...nope. That was a letdown.

The actor probably demanded facetime, or the writers thought you can't be expressive with a character that wears a mask. Not everybody can be cool like Karl Urban.

[Ghostmaker]

I've read that working in a mask can be genuinely tricky as it requires a certain amount of over-exaggeration so your body language can transmit what your face normally would. It also requires some specific camera work.

[HappyDaze]

I've read that working in a mask can be genuinely tricky as it requires a certain amount of over-exaggeration so your body language can transmit what your face normally would. It also requires some specific camera work.

I wonder if that's similar to the over-exaggeration of facial expressions to replace vocal tone seen in those using sign language? I have a friend that teaches sign, and she says that some people just don't really have the face for it (not expressive enough).

[hedgehobbit]

I've read that working in a mask can be genuinely tricky as it requires a certain amount of over-exaggeration so your body language can transmit what your face normally would. It also requires some specific camera work.

It has worked for characters like Vader, Rorschach, and Deadpool. But for Snake Eyes, part of the appeal of the character is that you don't know what he's thinking or feeling. The producers of the movie could have leaned into that and made Snake Eyes silent through the majority of the film, say infiltrating an enemy compound, and interspersed that with short, targeted flashbacks to explain the character and situation.

But that would have been a risky move. I guess what defines Hollywood today is making the safe choice, but failing anyway.

[Ghostmaker]

I've read that working in a mask can be genuinely tricky as it requires a certain amount of over-exaggeration so your body language can transmit what your face normally would. It also requires some specific camera work.

It has worked for characters like Vader, Rorschach, and Deadpool. But for Snake Eyes, part of the appeal of the character is that you don't know what he's thinking or feeling. The producers of the movie could have leaned into that and made Snake Eyes silent through the majority of the film, say infiltrating an enemy compound, and interspersed that with short, targeted flashbacks to explain the character and situation.

But that would have been a risky move. I guess what defines Hollywood today is making the safe choice, but failing anyway.

There are ways to emote that don't even require vocalization, let alone have a visible face.

But then, like you said, it would've been risky as well as tricky to pull off.