Preferred Suicide Squad

I liked the second one way more. I don't carry a torch against the first but I actually really liked this one.

About the only character I knew going in was Harley Quinn. That was the best part. New faces broken down quick. I feel like I know them now, even the ones from the first movie and the ones who died on the beach. Most of the characters were killed off, a la suicide squad, revealing the depths of how far Amanda Waller is willing to go.

Everyone worked for me. Rat girl was great. Stallone had maybe one too many funny moments as the Shark, but he works. Elba's gruff and realistically threatening. His outfit's a trip. Cena is great, he's built for roles like this. It plays to his strengths. Joel Kinnaman is memorable this time. It's pretty dark that he was on Amanda Waller's B-Team. Did she want to get rid of him?

Besides Elba, they're all perfect fits for the squad. They're all fucked up. Polka Dot Man would relish killing his own mother, Peace-Maker has extremely strong opinions and no moral compass, Harley Quinn's Harley Quinn. They're all perfect fits for people who'd consent to an explosion device inside their heads. Only Elba isn't messed up enough to relish it. The key to his heart is love, making him the moral compass of the team.

It was kind of weird it turned into a man v nature film. Peculiar villain, peculiar monster. I thought it worked better until it spoke. Before it revealed itself sentient, it worked better as an entity that was neither good or bad. There's a lot of characters in this movie. It didn't need another one. It's fine, I just thought it worked better as a force of nature than something with a moral compass of its own.

Harley Quinn works for me. She does have an arc within and arc within a movie. It's odd but I like what I see so it works. Bleeding flowers is a nice touch, as was killing their president. I liked the subversion with Harley and the javelin and that the real solution came from Rat Girl. 3rd world problems require 3rd world solutions. It was a nice touch.

Will Smith did well in the first one, about as well as he could without being Margot Robbie. It's not that Will Smith can't pull off tough. He can. I think he's so naturally likable he has difficulty doing "bad". He's a good dude and it shows in almost all of his movies. He did a good job for a miscast actor. His charisma helped the first movie because I didn't think he had chemistry with his character.

Overall some of their banter and brighter optics reminded me a bit of the cartoons. I didn't like the darker tone of the first movie. They're colorful characters and work great when they shine. The darker tone of the first movie covered some of that up, in my opinion. I enjoyed Suicide Squad in the theater but haven't seen it since. I would watch The Suicide Squad again and it's only been two days.

Well, here's to good watching.

PS: Nice to see Alice Braga in something. Her part's a little cliched but she does it well. I like seeing her. Peter Capaldi too. They're both actors I like seeing rewarded.