So... I saw Suicide Squad and I actually really liked it but mostly because I expected it to really suck and was pleasantly surprised at how much less than completely sucky it was. So hurrah for relativism. Sadly the negative reviews are spot on about the film, though some are a little nitpicky. On the other hand, the positive fan response isn't completely unjustified either, though maybe a little in denial. For someone who is already a fan, there are some legitimately likeable things in this film, but isn't necessarily what you were expecting from watching the trailers. The right components are there (some of them anyway), but they maybe could've been assembled together better. "How it Should Have Ended" has a great review on YouTube. I thought I would riff on that a little because it got me thinking: What is this movie really about and what should a movie like this be about? How do you say to a movie fairly, "You were supposed to be about something other than this," and be right. No one was disappointed that Saving Private Ryan didn't explore the divisive themes of slavery vs states' rights vs federal government that the Civil War provokes, because it wasn't about that war. Nobody says to Back to the Future that the romance is under-cooked and the drama is hyperbolic because it's a fun buddy adventure series, not HBO. But people will complain that the new Star Trek isn't "cerebral" or "socially relevant" enough or that it's too "action-packed" and has too many lens flares (for the record, I love the new Star Trek Beyond, but we'll talk about that another time). People also complain about Star Wars, the same way, "It's not like [fill in the blank] enough." So as much as I could write a blog about the origin of fan expectations and whether they are valid or not, instead I'm going to explore the concept of Theme in story. I believe that every good story has a theme or two and whether or not you are satisfied at the end is dependent upon whether that theme was coherent and properly depicted from start to finish. If there is a problem with Suicide Squad, it is that there is no coherent theme. There are hints of a theme here and there, and echoes of accepted genre tropes we're used to seeing elsewhere so much that we almost don't question them here, but nothing internally consistent. This could be the byproduct of too many changes to the film in post-production or differing opinions on final edits of the film. Or just lazy writing. So here is what I think the theme should've been... Suicide Squad: Embrace your Villainy.
We were promised a film all about villains. They have to be villains and their villainy is their fundamental virtue, the one quality that makes them succeed where a hero would fail. Otherwise it's a film about how a bunch of villains become heroes and that's a different premise. So how do you make villains relatable? And how do you make villainy a virtue you can root for? You create a metaphor: Your dark side (criminal and murderous and insane, though it might be) is a metaphor for your true nature. That's something everyone can relate to, especially in today's society. Accept yourself, essentially. If you embrace your true nature, you may find something heroic about it, and if you suppress your true nature you will find it expressing itself in negative ways (spoiler: Enchantress, for example). So the story would involve the Squad having to chose to make what would normally be the bad-guy decision and have it turn out to be the only thing that would win the day. They must confront and accept and embrace who they are individually in order to overcome the obstacles of the plot. Let's examine how each character's emotional arc could be made to reinforce this theme, without upsetting the basic plot of the film. Harley Quinn and the Joker: A lot of people have a lot of strong feelings in regards to these two but they mostly agree the acting and portrayal was top notch. I have always loved Jared Leto but Margo Robbie was career defining here. I consider these two the best part of the film and the closest we came to actually depicting the theme I described of embracing your dark side. Many critics felt the Joker scenes were extraneous cameos that distracted from the film's core. But the Joker is a key subplot and his relationship with Harley is central to the theme of the film (my theme, anyway). The reason is because the Joker does embrace his dark side and teaches Harley Quinn to follow suit. His pursuit of her throughout the film would be a subplot of someone willing to completely indulge their darkest nature to pursue their desires at total cost to others. Harley would pine for him because her current "team" is weak and pathetic by comparison and he's the only one who doesn't hold back. He represents the king of embracing your crazy evil self, a true force of nature. It would then follow that Harley, the crazy one, ends up being the one to teach the others how to do this. We would open the movie with Quinn as psychologist going to meet Joker, her new patient at Arkham Asylum, for the first time. "Why so uptight?" he'd ask her. "Let your hair down, tell a joke, have a laugh with me." She is repressed and prudish and self-restraining and seems uncomfortable with herself. Joker starts to counsel her instead of the other way around, revealing through flashbacks her time in boarding school where they disciplined all her spunk until it was suppressed. "I would set you free like a bird, a ravenous vulture!" That's where he expresses his fundamental nature to her and we see the hint of curiosity and desire in her eyes. She wants to be free, like him. We would skip ahead to see their earliest days together like lovers, as she helps break him out of Arkham and they hit the town. We would see them confront Batman and how she gets captured. The rest of the film would include a recurring series of flashbacks of how he set her free and why she went for it. It would be a series of lessons: he'd create a scenario for her to cut loose, such as having her kill someone for the first time, or torture someone. Betrayal, blackmail, etc. Each time, it looks like on the surface he is creating a monster, but in reality, she is loving it. And loving him for showing the way. And he loves her because it works. No one has ever followed his path quite like her, before. We could then juxtapose these flashbacks with present days scenes of Joker trying to replace her and growing dissatisfied with others. She was one of a kind. And that's why he sets out to get her back. I wouldn't change much about Quinn's scenes or portrayal, but I might make a small tweak. The film contextualizes her as unstable and crazy but it's okay because it's sexy. I would retain this element in terms of how the other characters perceive her, but in how the audience perceives her, I would make it more apparent that she is not unpredictable. She is deliberate in her insanity as an outlet for her autonomy and empowerment. She embraces herself in a way that only seems insane. Women will relate to this as an analogy for how they are often misunderstood by men as emotionally unpredictable or unstable, when in fact the solution is to "own yourself" and "be free" to be yourself. Her insanity becomes her empowerment which she holds onto even in prison. It is her central virtue. And it is only through her that the others are able to be empowered. When she sees them being hesitant or beating up on themselves, she is the one to encourage them to be themselves. In the climax, when Harley sees her perfect life with Jared Leto as part of the Enchantress' spell, she starts to get sick to her stomach. In the illusion, she would then get depressed and commit suicide because her life is so boring and repressed to her, and this is what would set her free from the spell. She is the first to get free and helps the others. Deadshot first, and then El Diablo. Yeah, it's dark and kind of strange but wasn't that sort of what we were promised in the trailers? Dark and disturbing and crazy? When they all go back to prison at the end, she would be okay with it. "Aren't you sad about losing your Puddin?" Deadshot would ask her. "Nope," she answers simply. "I've got you guys now!" which would be a cute version of the team building you expect in a team movie, but in actuality it implies that now that they have learned to accept their criminal natures, they are acceptable to her. When the Joker surprisingly returns for her in the twist ending, to whisk her back to their life of romance and anarchy, she would of course go with him, but there would be just a hint of hesitation as she leaves. She'll miss these guys, leaving us hope for her return in time for the sequel. Also potential drama in any Joker/Harley Quinn spinoff or Batman film appearances. Deadshot: Biggest missed opportunity in my opinion. Will Smith played basically himself with a beard and that was cool I guess. Because: Will Smith. But what would've been cooler than him being a so-called mercenary assassin who really just wants to be home with his daughter? An actual mercenary assassin who secretly loves killing more than he loves his daughter. Or does he? We would never know. It would go like this: In one of his opening scenes, he is waiting to make the kill until he gets paid. "Don't you know how much time I put into setting up this kill? I spent weeks setting this up. I skipped my daughter's recital twice!" The client refuses, "Forget it, you ain't worth it!" he says at the last second. Deadshot being himself, was all excited to make the kill and so he does it anyway because he can't help himself. "Awe forget it, you can owe me." He's a killer who loves being good at killing. He can't waste a perfectly planned assasination scheme over something as banal as money. This is why he's broke and can't win custody of his child. When he is with her out shopping, he isn't father of the year as depicted, he's detached. Cold. The daughter calls him out on it, "Mom told me you're a killer. She told me you kill for money. I know that's what your thinking about right now, isn't it?" "No, sweety, that's ridiculous," he tries to say. Will Smith is good enough as an actor that he could play this ambiguously so we never know for sure if her accusations are correct. "You are!" she repeats. Then pointing to some lawyer on a bench, she asks, "Was it him? Were you thinking about walking up and pointing a pistol to his forehead?" This is a tease and he can't resist the bait, and reveals himself in the process, "I would never do it like that, in front of all these people. You gotta get a rooftop and catch him when he's alone so no one sees the trajectory and--" The daughter screams, "I knew it!" and runs away from him, into a back alley. This is where Batman confronts Deadshot. "It's time to come in," Batman says in his gravelly voice. Deadshot pulls a gun out and aims at Batman. The daughter rushes into Batman's arms. She stands defiantly in front of Batman and says, "If you really want to be my father, then give yourself in. Stop being a killer, and be a hero like Batman!" "Do you have any idea how much he's worth?" Deathshot tries to argue with her. "I could get you that dress you wanted, a hundred of 'em!" It's a choice: surrender and save his daughter, or risk her life to possibly kill Batman. He hesitates, but then chooses to try to kill Batman. Batman blocks the bullet with his cape, saving the girl and himself. When the girl runs, it distracts Deadshot, "No, come back!" he yells just as Batman hits him and knocks him out cold. Deadshot is now in prison as a result of his revealing choice. All day and night he bemoans how he needs to get back to his daughter. How he needs to get out to see her. But instead of good behavior, he gets into fights with the guards and we would see them constantly adding time to his sentence. He can't help himself. Then Amanda Waller offers him a way out. She offers custody and all that family stuff. He hesitates. She mentions off-handedly, "And we'll need you to kill. A lot." He caves and says yes. We are left to wonder if he was going to say yes all along... or if he's really still in it just for the killing. When they finally go on mission, in the city, and they encounter the minions of the Enchantress, none of the Navy Seals or special Forces will fight them, because it would be clear from the get-go that these are US citizens. "But these are civilians!" they'd cry out. But Deadshot doesn't care. When they get ambushed by them, he leads the charge and fights them off without hesitation. "Never stopped me before!" he answers. It's a perfect example of a job a criminal can do, where no other hero or soldier could. You have to be cold, and for once in his life, Deadshot's coldness and precision and love of killing makes him a hero. In the bar scene between Acts II and III, he could confess to the others over a whiskey, "I love my daughter, but I would still shoot Batman, again, if given a chance. I'm no hero." Harley Quinn then tells him, "You can be my hero!" In the ending climax, when Enchantress tries to cast a spell on them or hypnotize them or whatever it is, Deadshot sees his daughter. He sees her in his vision and in it he is a regular business man and father because this is what Enchantress thinks he wants. That's how he is able to break the spell, because as the vision continues, he's quickly dissatisfied and unhappy in that world. He breaks free and when Enchantress tries again, right at the climax, he is about to shoot her and Enchantress puts an image of his daughter in between them. To shoot Enchantress, he has to "shoot" his daughter. Enchantress taunts him, "I know you aren't really as cold as you pretend. You're a family man at heart. You want to be the hero." The fact that this would cause him any hesitation at all reveals that there is at least some truth in it, and he does in fact love his daughter. But for the first time, he realizes: to be the hero he has to be okay with being the villain. Maybe Harley Quinn says something that reminds him, "Do it Deadshot! You're the killer! So kill her already!" And Deadshot takes the shot, shooting the image of his daughter but mortally wounding Enchantress and saving the day. Epilogue: I would not change a thing about his "visitations" with his daughter at the end, where he jokes about using trigonometry to complete a kill. That would fit this character arc better here than it did in the regular version. El Diablo: El Diablo is the third key character to this theme of embracing your dark side. He adds some variety in the fact that it was his embracing of his dark side that cost him his family. This adds a moral lesson to the audience: don't completely embrace your dark side. Not actually. Rather learn to harness it. He would be the main opponent to Harley Quinn's antics about indulgence. He would be the least willing to be a part of this team because he spends the whole film avoiding his powers. Harley Quinn would always tease him and try to provoke him but it would make sense that as Deadshot comes to terms with his own usefulness as a murderer, that he would also contribute to pushing El Diablo over the edge. "I was just trying to get you there," as Deadshot says in the film. This actually becomes his way of inviting him into this new realm of embracing your darkest villainy as a twisted means of heroism. In the end, when confronted by the Enchantress' spell, he would see a version of himself with his family alive, of course. This is exactly what he wants, more so than the others. When Harley (who frees herself first) tries to set him free, she yells in his ear, "They're dead you murderer! And we will be too if you don't get your head back in the game!" But when he hears this, the reason it works is that he realizes maybe he can find redemption by finally embracing his powers and his dark side (the fact that he always did like using them) and maybe redeem himself in a heroic death. In other words, go out fighting and maybe he can be with them on the other side. That would make more sense out of his sudden decision to cut-loose and turn into a fire demon to defeat the Enchantress' brother. It makes way more sense than some forced notion of family (proof the filmmakers had a poor grasp of what their themes were supposed to be). This sub-theme of redemption would compliment the main theme quite well, and give the more mainstream members of the audience something more traditional to grab onto. Killer Croc: I think he was given approximately the right amount of screen time, albeit not much. He was a well played secondary character. I also think he comes very close to fitting my theme already, though I doubt it was the filmmaker's intent. He is someone mistreated for being who he is. Someone who is who he is because of the way people mistreated him, but he never shies away from it. He is always proud of himself, and this is obvious in the bar scene when he says, "What are you talking about, I'm beautiful?" The implication is that unlike the others, he's not afraid to be who he is. It is already evident at every stage of the film. If he has any hesitation, it is less about accepting himself and more about trusting others to accept him as well. He's used to being abused and mistreated. Someone during the recruitment phase of the movie, Waller would say, "I need a team that can do what the heroes can't, in order to get a job done." Deadshot would say, "You want us to be your suicide squad?" Waller would reply, "I want you to be monsters." Croc would reply with a shrug, "I've been treated like a monster my whole life. If I can get BET and a few years off my sentence, sign me up." Harley Quinn would then pat him on the back and say, "You have a very healthy sense of identity." She would say it for laughs, but it would also be true because she used to be a psychologist. Harley is the first to recognize that his refusal to think badly about himself is good and appreciate it as a type of inner beauty. She latches onto him kinda like to a pet dog, maybe. Which is condescending at first, and he doesn't immediately reciprocate. It would be comic relief perhaps, but by the end of the film we realize she really does like him because he knows how to like himself and he's willing to let them like him. And now we like him too. Boomerang: Boomerang is the only one who seems like a real criminal at heart. I really liked Jai Courtney's portrayal actually(not something you hear often). He's the only one who acts like a real criminal and not an anti-hero wannabe. In his intro, when he kills his partner to keep the money, it should be because the guy insults a My Little Pony lunch box on one of the banker's desks. "Can you believe someone would be into something so childish?" Blam! Then he steals the lunchbox. But he keeps it hidden. Indeed, the later depictions of his unicorn, funny though they may be, are evidence that he is ashamed of himself because he always keeps it hidden. I would have the guard (played hilariously by Ike Barinholtz from The Mindy Project) taunt Boomerang in jail by dangling a rare My Little Pony collectible of some sort. When Harley Quinn makes a speech in the bar scene to El Diablo about "owning" it and "we're the bad guys" and "stop denying it like we're ever going to be anything but crazy criminals!" (in my version). Boomerang would be the one to agree with her. He'd say, "Right on," or some other bro-style affirmative. "I know who I am!" He thinks he is in touch with his dark side, which is true as a criminal, but untrue in the broader metaphor of self-acceptance. Deadshot would then tease him and say, "That why you keep that unicorn under your jacket?" Boomerang would then get angry and that's why he'd storm out on them, now that he's free. Only in my version, he doesn't just reappear for the requisite team-walking-into-battle shot. He has no motive for that. He would reappear a few minutes later, being chased by monsters, totally by coincidence and against his will. Going solo doesn't work out for him, and self-preservation dictates that he join back up for the duration. That way we get him back, but he stays in character. He just didn't realize their plan is to confront the Enchantress. "Wait, what?! Are you guys crazy?" Harley would say, "Duh! I thought you knew that already." His emotional arc comes full circle when at the end, we see him back in prison with Ike Barinholtz, the comedy-relief guard, and the two are actually trading rare My Little Pony collectibles. Turns out they both love them and they now have a great bromance together (comedy gold, amiright?) Slipknot: Don't get me started on this guy! What a waste of Adam Beach, a great Native American actor who is so underrated. I get that the movie is overstuffed with underdeveloped characters and somebody had to bite the bullet to reinforce the plot. But it could've been handled better. For starters, give him a real intro and backstory like the others, so we don't see it coming a mile away. You can keep it brief. No one expects anyone to have as much screen time as Will Smith or Margot Robbie anyway. One good scene goes a long way. There is also plenty of room to make is death relevant to the overarching theme of embracing your dark side as an act of heroism. The solution: he refuses to embrace his dark side. If his dark side is that he likes to use ropes to hang people and stuff, and he's an escape artist (as would be evidenced in his flashback origin) then the purpose of him being on the team is to contribute to their escape from tough situations. Having him die during his failed escape attempt is anathema to his character, like having Deadshot die by missing a target. It's worse because it's Boomerang's idea, which makes sense for Boomerang, but not for Slipknot. After Boomerang attempts to team up with him for an escape, he agrees, of course, but when the moment comes, he betrays Boomerang, revealing that not only is he not a team player, he is not to be trusted. Which in reality, shouldn't be that surprising. Boomerang abandons his escape attempt when Flag threatens him, of course, because he is a coward and he doesn't want his brain to explode. Slipknot then lives long enough to get some action when they first confront the monsters in the city. Before Deadshot has his big revelation about how he can be useful as a murderer in a way the other special forces can't, there is a moment where they are ordered to retreat. Slipknot is commanded to coordinate an escape for them. The scene would have to be in a more contained environment than a back alley, something complicated to get out of that would require the skills of an escape artist like him. Maybe they got trapped accidentally. Whatever. But instead of following orders, he refuses. You see, his "sin" is that he refuses to embrace his dark side. He won't use his skill. He becomes functionally useless to the team (and the plot as a result) and contradicts the theme. Therefore, it's a good time to kill him. "Why should I help any of you live, so you can threaten to kill me later?" Killer Croc gets pissed at his refusal and shoves him into the attacking monsters just as Flag detonates his brain-bomb, killing some monsters and creating an exit for the team. That's when Harley Quinn could say something to El Diablo like, "See what happens when you hold out on us?" because he too, would've been holding back at this stage in the film. See, isn't that more interesting? Katana: Katana is a throwaway character, squeezed in to round out the squad. I would treat her like Killer Croc, in that she is comfortable with who she is, more or less. Someone would say, "Why doesn't she get a brain-bomb put inside her?" and Flag would say something thematically spot on like, "Because unlike you clowns, she knows how to harness her inner murderer for good." Harley would then say, "I object to the pejorative use of the word clown." And Boomerang would try to repeat the word "pejorative" unsuccessfully, "Puh-puh-preservative?" On a more personal level, maybe Katana is resistant to working with these criminals, like Rick Flag, because she thinks she is better than them. At some point she does some cool killing stuff and Harley says to her, "Neat trick, can you teach me that?" Katana replies, "You criminals are crazy." Harley responds with a surprising, "Thanks, and here I thought you weren't noticing." By the end, Katana realizes not so much that she is like them, but rather they are like her, and they are on even footing. By accepting the rest of the Suicide Squad as her equal, she accepts that part of herself that is also dark. At the end of the film, there would be a scene where Waller says she can go now, but she chooses to stay with the team voluntarily. Rick Flag: Obviously Flag is the Captain America type, the goody-toe-shoes of the bunch. I like Joel Kinnaman alot and I like how he played him differently than Chris Evans in the Avengers films. He's hard and tough like a real life special forces agent who has seen and done some questionable things to be successful. I would've played up this grayness in him by showing an intro or origin flashback that depicts him more like a soldier in a Vietnam style environment, killing civilians to get the job done, and then pretending to be the hero to the public's adoration. He would have to be hard and cold to keep doing those kinds of jobs and rise to the top of the special forces ranks, and this would eat away at him. Inside, he knows he is as evil as these criminals he is in charge of and that's why he hates being involved with them. He's in denial of his true self. Waller only gets him to go along with her scheme by having Enchantress seduce him. June Moone is only able to do so because beneath her up-tight civilian persona, there is a darkness he is attracted to. I would include an early scene of them having trouble in the bedroom. My version would be rated R anyway, but not because I think there needs to be any sex or nudity per se. Rather, the scene would depict how unsuccessful their physical relationship is. He is repressing his darker self. She is repressing the Enchantress inside her. Both have libido problems as a result. Flag comes to terms with who is really is after the rest of the squad realizes Waller is the most evil of them all. They see her kill her subordinates at the height of Act II and they see that Rick Flag is okay with it. He's okay with it because he is following orders. He's done it before. But no one has ever seen that side of him before. He always hid it from the public. But now he knows that they know who he is. Deadshot might say, "You were just like me all along." And Harley Quinn might say, "And here you were pretending to be a boy-scout, shame on you for pretending!" When he joins them in the bar to have a drink, it is symbolic of his willingness to meet them at their level. They are all the same now. He has embraced his dark side. When Enchantress puts a spell on him, Harley Quinn has to help him get free (after freeing Deadshot and El Diablo). He is envisioning a normal life with June Moone. Harley says something like, "Oh knock it off, already! You know she's hotter in the green outfit anyway!" Flag is then able to come free when he realizes he does kinda prefer the evil version. This is possible in thanks because he is now able to like the dark version of himself better than the good version he was pretending to be for the public. I would include an epilogue type scene at the end showing how much fun they have together in the bedroom now, both able to embrace themselves. It doesn't have to be gratuitous, but it should show how much healthier their relationship is, albeit kinda kinky in its own way. June Moone/Enchantress: This one is tricky to fit my theme because in the real film, Enchantress does get to embrace her nature and she is made out to be the bad guy as a result. Suffice to say, these are two characters, really, but for the sake of the film, and the theme, they need to be written coherently as if they were one. Two sides of the same person. In June Moone's opening scene she would have an archaeological partner who cautions here not to proceed. She would say something like, "You coward, don't you want to have any fun?" This reveals that her true self is reckless and adventurous before she stumbles upon the ancient relic. It consumes her and takes over and this freaks her out. She forever after regrets being adventurous or loose. Whenever the Enchantress comes and goes, she panics and wants to suppress it. This is a metaphor for suppressing her darker self. Flag is complicit in this suppression as well. He thinks he's doing the right thing, early in the film, by helping her suppress it, just as he tries to suppress the truth about himself. It's that very act of suppression which spurs Enchantress to "act out", as it were. The Enchantress becomes a sort of Tyler Durden figure for June Moone. June Moone hates being under the control of Amanda Waller, though, so she whispers the name of Enchantress to do something about it for her. I actually liked the way the big-bad villain of the film came from within the team. But in order for the theme to remain intact to the end of the film, it must follow the rules implied within the theme. When someone embraces their dark side, it is good, and when they suppress it, it is bad. Therefore, Enchantress isn't evil, June Moone's suppression of her is what is evil. The Enchantress' plot, therefore, once she is free, is to set everyone else in the city free (in her own dark way). She starts with her brother. Once free, he asks, "What will we do now that we are both free?" and she says, "Go, and do what you do best." He says, "These people are slaves. They let machines turn them into worms without a mind of their own." She responds with a new idea, "Then I will build my own machine to set them free!" He then collects people from the city while she converts them into vile monsters, just like in the regular version. The difference from the real movie is that in my version she basically sets their baser evil nature free, and this is why they are "monsters". Are they dead already? Who cares. Most hero movies need the zombies/monsters to be basically "dead already" so that it's okay to kill them. The Suicide Squad doesn't have those qualms, so the film is free to be darker and allow for the possibility that they are killing innocent civilians. At the same time, maybe they are not really innocent, as the Enchantress would explain, "I am simply letting their darkness rise to the surface. The worse a slave they were, the more free they become!" That could be why they are all black and burnt looking. The implication is that we are all suppressing a wild side and the worse the suppression, the more a monster they become when she converts them. There is no way to defeat Enchantress then. To "beat" her would contradict the theme. Therefore, they have to find a way to embrace her. Not to free June Moone from the Enchantress but to somehow reach June Moone deep inside and encourage her to integrate Enchantress rather than suppress her. And Flag is the one who is able to do it. Sure, due to plot and circumstances, Deadshot would first have to shoot Enchantress (as I mentioned above), then Harley Quinn has to slice her up with Katana's sword and cut away her heart. The sword represents Katana's ability to reconcile her dark side since it is an evil sword and she doesn't hesitate to use it for good. But after all that, eventually Flag has to call out to June Moone and tell her to stop trying to repress the Enchantress. "It's okay, June! I'll get you free!" She calls back somehow, "We're connected now! I can't get rid of her! I can't control her!" To which Flag replies, "You don't need to!" June Moone says something like, "The good girl you wanted is gone." Flag says, "Maybe I like you better this way. Maybe I..." and he takes a long pause and steps right up to Enchantress, "Maybe I love you this way." He then holds out the heart and kisses Enchantress, rather than June Moone, showing that he accepts her, even her dark side. The scene would fill with green light blinding everyone and when the light fades, it's June Moone in his arms that he is kissing. And when they separate, her eyes flash green. There is a little Enchantress still inside her, and she grins. The heart of Enchantress is now in June's hands for the first time. She has control of "herself". Flag's eyes flare back at her. He likes it. You can see a romantic spark in them that was dull and lifeless in their earlier scenes. Harley thinks it's all cute and romantic and cheers for them, "Such a beautiful couple!" They haven't exactly defeated the Enchantress like a traditional villain. But this isn't a traditional super hero film. It's the opposite. What they did is welcome Enchantress (now integrated with June Moone) onto the team. They welcomed her as she really is, rather than how they wanted her to be, rather than a slave. After all, thematically speaking (and I can't speak for the comic book history here) June Moone and Enchantress are the same character for the purposes of the film. This also fits a potential secondary theme of recruitment. It's a recruiting movie, and it already starts with stories of how they all got captured/recruited and it ends when they have put the whole team together in it's final form. Guardians of the Galaxy and the Star Trek reboot did something similar, ending the film with a grand depiction of the team in its final form for the first time. This is not a strong theme in and of itself, but it can compliment the main theme and offer greater weight to the conclusion. Amanda Waller: Badass Amanda Waller is the real bad guy in this film, but because she embraces her core nature from start to finish, the film has to end with her victory. And it does, basically. There should be a scene at the end, right after Joker and Harley Quinn get away, where Waller sits down with a man cloaked in shadow who reviews the confidential file on what took place. The man says he is pleased. "This was all your idea?" he asks. Waller answers, "From start to finish." The man says, "So now that their test is complete, you think they're ready for a real mission?" "I do," she answers. After some hesitation, he then says, "You have your funding then. I want you to do what Batman never could. Kill the Joker." And she answers with a rueful smile, "Thank you, Mr. President." Boom! Mic drop. Cut to credits. People will be begging for a sequel. Especially when Ben Afleck says in the mid-credit scene something almost opposite, "Shut down your friends or my friends will do it for you." You know a confrontation is brewing, and you would watch any DC movie to see when and where. Suicide Squad Sequel: Continuing the same theme: How can the Suicide Squad confront Joker if he is the epitome of what they have now embraced? The start out trying to catch him. They want to get Harley back. Along the way, they are confronted with public awareness of their existence. This confuses them as they briefly seen as heroes, and they like the attention. This causes them to turn away from their villainous nature. Deadshot tries to not kill anyone, Rick Flag plays the American Hero role. Killer Croc even takes on a role similar to The Thing in Fantastic Four. But the more mainstream they become, they less success they have in catching Joker and Harley Quinn. Harley Quinn sees them basking in the mainstream fake-ness and refuses to go with them. "You're not the friends I remember!" The Joker, meanwhile, isn't merely on the loose, as he appears, he is systematically exposing politicians and leaders. He seems like he is killing them at random but it turns out he is simultaneously combating corruption while advancing his own criminal syndicate. As the Suicide Squad realizes the evil conspiracy he has uncovered, they realize they shouldn't be trying to stop Joker(and protect the corrupt politicians) they should be helping him. Especially since his targets are sorta the people pulling the Suicide Squad's strings. In order to free themselves of their corrupt overlords, the Suicide Squad must let Joker teach them all over again how to embrace their darker natures in order to take down the President of the United States (hence why he wanted to kill the Joker, remember!) In so doing, Batman and the Justice League shows up, like a force of nature, and there is a big confrontation. The Justice League assumes Suicide Squad is behind this conspiracy of evil. Of course the Justice League defeats them immediately, but Joker and Waller get away. While the Suicide Squad is in prison under the watch of Justice League, Waller and Joker create a diversion and free them (something intergalactic in nature but fake). Turns out, Waller wants them to uncover the real conspiracy and stop the president as well for her own reasons, but they'll be branded as traitors and villains if they do. "Sounds like fun!" Harley Quinn says and everyone agrees it's the sort of suicide mission only they are capable of, and there's no point trying to be anything other than villains anymore anyway They embrace themselves. Then they confront and stop the President from whatever nefarious plot he was about to do. It would have to be something to do with suppressing the people, maybe a national scale brainwashing scheme to make them compliant and docile and suppress their true nature. By the time the Justice League shows up, the situation is resolved and the Squad has already returned to hiding. The President is caught and he turns out to be an alien or something crazy. Doesn't matter. The point is, Harley departs with the Suicide Squad who are now rogue and independent agents under the purview of Amanda Waller. Criminals officially, but no longer under lock down. They have a secret base, now. Waller gets a big promotion and takes advantage of the situation in such a way that she clearly planned it from the beginning. Harley still visits the Joker on the side and he keeps doing his solo act as a gangster. Waller says she can't control the Bat, but she won't pursue him... So long as they keep doing each other favors like this... And in the end, they all learned how to embrace their darker nature once again and solidify the themes they established the first time around (in my version anyway). Mid-credits scene: Superman hands a dossier to Batman and says, "It needs to be done, but we can't be seen doing it." And Batman says, "Maybe Waller's team can do it..." Last Thoughts on Theme: You see, with a clear theme, your story almost writes itself. And without it, your story will look like a jumbled mess. People will come away saying, "I don't really get it. What was it all about?" And you might say that they don't understand your artistic style, or it's too subtle for them. But odds are, you didn't build your story around your theme, and even though you might know your theme in your head clear as day, if the story doesn't depict it, then how will the reader ever figure it out?
2 Comments
12/1/2016 06:01:35 pm
That was a pretty lengthy review and analysis. I thought it was really cool to read another review about Suicide Squad because I also wrote a review on my own blog. It's true that Suicide Squad didn't embrace an overall theme. I thought it was a fun action movie with several strong characters, but DC movies are just lacking substance for some reason. Interesting read.
Reply
C William Perkins
12/1/2016 06:17:38 pm
Yeah, I read yours too, believe it or not. Thanks for finishing, I know this one dragged out a little long.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Captain's Blog
|