The Suicide Squad - Cheap Thoughts

In many ways the greater context of this franchise is exhausting, mostly because every time a new film in the DC Extended Universe is released, people feel they need the entire backstory of someone’s viewing experience of this series and their opinions on every prior instalment. Particularly due to the infighting of DC Fans on whether they are Team Snyderverse or Team Good Movies. That statement probably gives enough context as is, but just to clarify, First Suicide Squad: Bad, this Suicide Squad: Good.

This certainly has more in common with Director James Gunn’s earlier films rather than his family friendly blockbusters in Guardians of the Galaxy. There is a dark and gory edge to his comedy, yet what this film lacks and all the better for it is the cynicism found in films such as Super or Slither. It’s an element that always held Gunn back as a storyteller, this desire to appear self-aware yet also contemptuous with any kind of vulnerability or sincerity that creates a barrier between himself and his audience that has only harmed his earlier works as time has gone on. It was somewhere around Guardians that Gunn grew as a director and overcame this desire to appear cool over earnest.

The Suicide Squad is a blend of Gunn’s style old and new to create the perfect fusion of both. It is a film that is violent and farcical yet offers up its characters trauma and desires with no shame or mockery. Now even then this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, the brutality of many scenes is enough to turn away those who seek exclusively light & earnest entertainment, yet for many others it is going to be that refreshing cocktail of a comic book film that will show the bloody mess of people’s heads exploding while also daring to try and make you care about a man named ‘Polka-Dot Man’ as he attempts to overcome his personal distress and tragic backstory, and by gum if it doesn’t succeed.

In fact there could be an argument made for every character to walk away being the fan favourite. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is as entertaining as always, Joel Kinnemon’s Rick Flag holds the award for most improved character by actually being given a personality that can work off other characters, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher II acts as the heart of the film as she steals yours, and of course Sylvester Stallone’s King Shark is just a big stupid talking shark, what more could you ask for? Like a true ensemble no one character steals the show and in a film that specialises in the morally questionable, but personality driven, gimmick-heavy crew that is the titular squad, the endless combination of these characters makes for a delightful squad to follow for 2 hours.

Or if none of those does anything for ya, a giant psychic starfish from space named Starro the Conqueror is quite possibly the greatest fictional character of all time? So it’s got that going for it.

-Danny

Space Jam: A New Legacy - Cheap Thoughts

It’s easy to criticise Space Jam: A New Legacy. It’s easy to criticise it’s predecessor Space Jam. It’s easy to say both are soulless money makers that exist just for the sake of a marketing scheme that exists to prey on your nostalgia while offering nothing creative or entertaining in the slightest. It is all these things and more BUT…No there is no but. They are awful. They are awful films and if you are nostalgic for Space Jam, for the love of God watch better films. Space Jam was not good in the 90s, it is not good now. It was a horrible representation of the Looney Tunes, it lacked any kind of comedy or creative storytelling, the production value was lacklustre and the fact that Michael Jordan can say his move to baseball was not the stupidest decision he made with his career should say a lot.

Yet somehow, Space Jam: A New Legacy is all of those things and yet somehow worse. It is a hypocrisy disguising itself as a movie. A story that’s inciting incident is LeBron James disparaging Warner Bros attempts to lazily produce a multitude of films based on pre-existing Ips generated by an algorithm, yet then the rest of the film is exactly this ridiculous premise unfolded completely unironically. All this film exists to be is to remind you of how many franchises Warner Bros owns, throw in as many as possible regardless of context or purpose. Have a seen where LeBron James and Bugs Bunny travel into the DC Universe, visually presented as the Animated Series from the 2000s, yet with both music from 1970’s Superman: The Movie and the 1960’s Batman Television Series because it’s not about being consistent, it’s just about what people remember. Throw in baffling cameos from Rick & Morty, Mad Max: Fury Road and Casablanca while you’re at it because tone doesn’t matter! People will recognise them! That is all! You remember a thing! That means this is good! Don’t forget during the big final basketball scene to throw in Pennywise the Clown, The Conjuring monsters and The Droogs from A Clockwork Orange and even more so for some baffling reason give them all courtside tickets and throw Fred Flintstone in row 20 for some reason!

The final match itself having no consistency or even effort into actually presenting anything close to an actual match, the points are made up, people are given power ups at random, there is no actual drama, it’s all a farce! The movie in a nutshell. No consistency or effort to be found within a single pixel of this film.

Now there are plenty out there who claim that this movie is fine, it’s just 2 hours of mindless entertainment and if you expect more then you’re thinking too hard about it. Once again, these people need to be reminded that you are worth more! Demand actual effort in your films! Especially in your kids’ films! These being offered to children is no excuse for them to slack off! The Looney Tunes was not built on people giving the bare minimum! It was built on creativity, talent and endeavoured to give audiences something they wouldn’t expect. Everyone involved in this film should be ashamed of themselves, they’ve created one of the laziest and most pathetic motion pictures to come out in a very long time, it’s disgusting how bad this film is, if you enjoyed it, good news, you can go and watch any other film and you’ll have a great time, there’s nowhere to go but up.

-Danny

Black Widow - Cheap Thoughts

Natasha Romanoff had a slow start to being a character, didn’t she? No one would argue there was much there in her initial appearance in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers still treated her as someone separate from the other teammates, her only real connection being to Hawkeye who was physically away from the team for the majority of the movie. It wasn’t until Captain America: The Winter Soldier where efforts were made to establish a legitimate personality and relationships with her fellow Avengers and would progress from there. Yet there’s a moment in Avengers: Endgame that never sat right, that being her claim of The Avengers being like her family, a moment that doesn’t sit right because the only evidence of that being the case is because this film series never established any life for her outside of this team, but that doesn’t default to her having them as a family.

Now we have her solo film which offers up more context to her character as a whole. A midquel taking place after Captain America: Civil War but prior to Avengers: Infinity War (If you don’t keep up with the continuity of this series this must all sound like terrible gibberish). The story follows the fraudulent found family of Natasha’s past from her history of working for the red room, a Russian black ops organisation that trains assassins from birth. Working with what would be her final thematic conclusion from her final appearance in Endgame, expanding on this idea of family is absolutely the best direction they could have taken this, in order to give more weight to the idea and thus improving her appearances in other films by giving greater context, the exact purpose of any prequel film to fulfil.

Beyond that there is the return of the red room as we the audience are given further information on the organisation in an attempt to tie up further loose ends in her story. The inclusion of Florence Pugh as Yelana the newly established younger sister to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff truly works as the centre of the film. The youngest of this fraudulent family, she is the last to let go of the lie they lived, being so young and indoctrinated since birth it was her only reality, to quickly have it torn away from her before maturing enough to understand the fiction was living. Johansson herself isn’t given much of a challenge to work with, though that doesn’t seem the purpose of the piece, this from her perspective is the epilogue, to give her a final victory lap and shine in the spotlight. Tie up whatever remaining loose ends exist for her character with the standard story beats & tone with conveyor belt action sequences that leave little to be desired. The promise that comes from a stylised opening credits goes unfulfilled as everything else in the film’s production offers up the usual Marvel dish, which is certainly filling, and many won’t mind it and even still enjoy it after having it served up for the 24^th time in a row.

At the end of the day, for all fans of Black Widow the character this is sure to be a delight, for all fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe this is another solid entry in the franchise, and for those who are done and dusted with this franchise—well, you stopped reading a long time ago because of course you don’t care about Black Widow.

-Danny