The Suicide Squad Review

Synopsis
Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) sends Task Force X, aka the Suicide Squad, on a mission to country of Corto Maltese, to destroy a secretive experiment there known only as “Project Starfish.”

Review
When the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) first started, Warner Brothers tried a darker feel, similar to the successful Dark Knight trilogy, to build their interconnected cinematic universe. However, after a string of arguable failures, WB has given the creative forces behind their latest films more creative freedom to tell their stories featuring DC’s superheroes without being concerned with the connectivity with other DC films. Director James Gunn takes full advantage of this new approach, injecting The Suicide Squad with a flamboyancy not seen in any previous DCEU film.

In an online featurette, Gunn comments that WB gave him permission to kill any character he wanted, which he clearly took to heart. The movie opens with guns blazing (literally), killing multiple characters, setting the tone for the rest of the film and driving home that no character is safe. By the end, you will be surprised who does and, more particularly, who doesn’t make it to the end of the film. While I do enjoy the overarching characters and plots in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it is refreshing to see superhero movies that tell the story they want to tell, without being concerned with building that shared universe.

Gunn is no stranger to creating stories around quirky and dysfunctional teams, he is the man behind The Guardians of the Galaxy films after all, and that experience fits perfectly into The Suicide Squad. It’s clear that Gunn went wild with his ideas, especially after being given the go-ahead to hold nothing back. The whole movie is filled to the brim with humor, insanity, violence, excitement, and heart.

And at the heart of the film are Ratcatcher 2, played by Daniela Melchior, and Bloodsport, played by Idris Elba. Melchior brings a softness to a film that is filled with brutality and ferocity. This is her first major film and I am excited to see what projects she picks up from here because she was great in this film. Elba is always a dependable actor so it should be no surprise that he carries the film along side Melchior. Margot Robbie was born to play Harley Quinn and I’ve already said as much in my Birds of Prey review so I’m not going to go any more into her fantastic portrayal of the character. John Cena is another of my favorite additions to the team. He plays Peacemaker with such a deadpan attitude that somehow works perfectly with Elba’s Bloodsport that their scenes together make some of the best and most humorous of the movie.

I thought The Suicide Squad was GREAT 😀 While it introduces many new characters, the core ones are given the room they need to develop and make you feel for them. This film is James Gunn unleashed and he subverts much of what is expected in a superhero feature. Overall, there is an emotional depth that I wasn’t expecting, and it’s that depth that really makes this movie stand out in the DCEU.

Favorite Quote
Bloodsport: No one likes a show off.
Peacemaker: They do if what you’re showing off is dope as fuck.

Trailer

Cast & Crew
James Dunn – Director / Writer
John Murphy – Composer

Viola Davis – Amanda Waller
Joel Kinnaman – Colonel Rick Flag
Margot Robbie – Harley Quinn
Idris Elba – Bloodsport
John Cena – Peacemaker
Daniela Melchior – Ratcatcher 2
David Dastmalchian – Polka-Dot Man
Sylvester Stallone – King Shark
Jai Courtney – Captain Boomerang
Michael Rooker – Savant
Nathan Fillion – TDK
Flula Borg – Javelin
Pete Davidson – Blackguard
Mayling Ng – Mongal
Sean Gunn – Weasel / Calendar Man
Steve Agee – John Economos / On-Set King Shark
Tinashe Kajese – Flo Crawley
Jennifer Holland – Emilia Harcourt
Peter Capaldi – Thinker
Juan Diego Botto – Presidente General Silvio Luna
Joaquin Cosio – Mayor General Mateo Suarez

Movie Quote of the Week – 3/30/18

Answer to MWL 3/28/18: Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) – Pacific Rim

Today… Today, at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we have chosen not only to believe in ourselves but in each other. Today there is not a man nor woman in here that shall stand alone. Not today. Today we face the monsters that are at our door and bring the fight to them! Today we are cancelling the apocalypse! – Stacker Pentecost

Thanks for everyone’s submission and one tour of the Jaeger base to the following people for answering correctly:

Spike’s Mom (Roseann’s Musings)
Kim (Tranquil Dreams)
Carson
Curt (The Hypersonic55’s Realm of Reviews and Other Stuff)

Zootopia Review

Synopsis
Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin (voice)) is a small bunny with big dreams of becoming the first bunny police officer of Zootopia. When she makes it onto the force, she is assigned parking ticket duty. Aspiring for bigger things, she takes a missing mammal case, which is leads to a much bigger conspiracy.

Review
I would consider myself a Disney fanatic. However, I will admit that Zootopia wasn’t very high on my things to see. I would have seen it in theaters for sure, but not opening night if my buddies weren’t going (yes, I’m just now getting to this, but I’ve been preoccupied lately). I’m glad they asked me to tag along because missing this film would have been a very big mistake. Zootopia is one of Disney’s best movies to be released in years, and that’s saying a lot considering their quality lately.

Every Disney movie has some sort of message incorporated into the story. Zootopia has two: don’t be afraid to follow your dreams and don’t judge someone on what they look like. The former is pretty typical Disney. The latter is a little different. When making movies dealing with racism, filmmakers have to be careful not to make the message heavy-handed or too preachy. That never happens in this film. It is brought across in a way is easy for the younger audience to understand but it can still be appreciated by the older audience. Both messages weave together flawlessly.

Anthropomorphic animals are nothing new, especially from Disney, but the world is more fully developed than anything before. There are different regions for the different environments, such as the rain forest or arctic, there are different sizes for things like doors, vehicles, and food. Everything is well thought out and done in a way that makes sense. It’s a unique set up that isn’t really seen in other movies.

To go along with the different environments, the animation is very colorful. The jungle environment has deep greens that make the vivid flowers stand out; the city itself is very vibrant, really popping. As Judy is traversing the city, the film has the perfect opportunity to show of how amazing computer animation has come since Toy Story. The inhabitants of Zootopia are just as rich as the city they inhabit. I loved many of the character designs. Seeing so many animals brought to life, walking around on two legs and living in a civilized manner was very fun to watch.

Not since The Lego Movie have I laugh that hard or as much at an animated movie. It had a high laughs-per-minute count. Jason Bateman may have had helped that quite a bit since he is most often in comedy films but it had some clever writing, too. There were many pop culture references, like The Godfather and Breaking Bad, that are sure to please fans of those franchises as well.

I think what really had me hooked on this movie, though, was that it is a buddy cop movie at its core. Although one of them isn’t technically a cop, Judy and Nick were working together to solve a case, so that is pretty much the same thing, right? Like all good buddy movies, Judy and Nick have very different personalities which make them such a good pair.

I thought Zootopia was GREAT :-D. Between the character design, design of the city itself, and the vibrant colors, this movie has some of the best animation to date (I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot lately…). Not only are the characters well fleshed out but the city of Zootopia is as well. However, what really sets it above other films is how it deals with a delicate topic like racism with such finesse and tenderness. I can’t think of any other movie that can compare to Zootopia, and Disney once again hit it out of the park.

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Byron Howard – Director / Story
Rich Moore – Director / Story
Jared Bush – Co-Director / Story / Screenplay
Phil Johnston – Story / Screenplay
Michael Giacchino – Composer

Ginnifer Goodwin – Judy Hopps (voice)
Jason Bateman – Nick Wilde (voice)
Idris Elba – Chief Bogo (voice)
Jenny Slate – Bellwether (voice)
Nate Torrence – Clawhauser (voice)
Bonnie Hunt – Bonnie Hopps (voice)
Don Lake – Stu Hopps (voice)
Tommy Chong – Yax (voice)
JK Simmons – Mayor Lionheart (voice)
Octavia Spencer – Mrs. Otterton (voice)
Alan Tadyk – Duke Weaselton (voice)
Shakira – Gazelle (voice)
Raymond S. Persi – Flash (voice)
Maurice LaMarche – Mr. Big (voice)

Lightning Review: Prometheus

This review was originally posted for MovieRob‘s space-themed genre grandeur.

Synopsis
Archeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover clues to mankind’s origin and takes a ship and crew to an alien planet, thanks to the Weyland Corporation. At their destination, they find more than they expected, and may end up causing the destruction of the Earth.

Review
Prometheus exists in the same universe as the Alien movies and acts as a pseudo-prequel, supposedly hoping to answer the questions about the origins of the xenomorphs. However, in the end, it creates more questions than it answers. It follows a very similar format and pacing as Alien (not surprising since they both come from the mind of Ridley Scott). We meet the crew of Prometheus as they come out of stasis. Then they go to the planet’s surface, where they enter an alien structure. All of a sudden, the crew must fight for their lives against an alien creature. It’s almost exactly the same as the aforementioned Alien, but it lacks the atmosphere that made the 1979 film a classic.

That’s not to say it isn’t entertaining, it just offers a slightly different experience given their similarities. Micheal Fassbender is the highlight of the film. He plays David, an android very similar to Ash in Alien. He is creepy but sophisticated at the same time. Noomi Rapace is the Sigourney Weaver of this film, proving that women can kick just as much alien ass as the men can. The first two acts are mostly set-up and exploring the environment and catacombs. It’s fairly slow until the last third, then it really picks up once the alien is revealed. At times it seems to attempt the horror aspect of Alien, but it feels out of place compared to the rest of the film. Prometheus is an enjoyable film, but if it’s goal was to clear things up about where the xenomorphs came from, it fails. But hey, at least it looks pretty, right?

Rating
3.5/5

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Ridley Scott – Director
Jon Spaihts – Writer
Damon Lindelof – Writer
Marc Streitenfeld – Composer

Noomi Rapace – Elizabeth Shaw
Logan Marshall-Green – Charlie Holloway
Michael Fassbender – David
Charlize Theron – Meredith Vickers
Idris Elba – Janek
Sean Harris – Fifield
Rafe Spall – Millburn
Benedict Wong – Ravel
Emun Elliott – Chance
Kate Dickie – Ford
Guy Pearce – Peter Weyland
Ian Whyte – Last Engineer

Thor: The Dark World Review

Synopsis
In the aftermath of Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) treachery, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to Asgard after bringing peace across the Nine Realms. However, Malakith (Christopher Eccleston) and the Dark Elves return after a 5,000 year slumber. They plan to use The Aether, a force older than the Universe itself, to destroy the cosmos and return everything to darkness. Thor must face an enemy that even his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) can’t withstand, in order to save everything, and everyone, he loves.

Review

Marvel Studios told some great stories in their Phase One slate of movies, culminating in the grand and marvelous The Avengers. But they are really hitting their stride in their Phase Two movies. Thor: The Dark World took cues from The Avengers and is funny yet serious, without becoming comical (in the bad way).

Probably what I like best about Thor 2 is that it develops so many of the characters, particularly Loki. Despite finding out his true heritage as a Frost Giant in Thor, and attacking Earth in The Avengers, we learn there are still people he cares about. Loki has become one of (if not the) best villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is a multifaceted character that is hard to trust but easy to love.

Anything that comes out of Kat Dennings mouth in this movie is comedy gold. I don’t think she said anything that I didn’t at least chuckle at, let alone laugh out loud. Stellan Skarsgård plays a crazy Erik Selvig perfectly. I think I missed the explanation of why he went coo-coo (It was from his manipulation at the hands of Loki in The Avengers, fyi), but it was an interesting turn for the character that Skarsgård pulled off. Easily, though, the best performance of the film belongs to Tom Hiddleston. It is hard to image anyone else in the role nowadays. Hiddleston has come to embody the character so well.

The action this time is bigger than it was in Thor. The scale of it is somewhere between Thor and The Avengers. Instead of just Asgard, now all of the Nine Realms are in trouble, culminating in a showdown between Thor and Malakith in London. The final showdown looks fantastic. The special effects are well done, especially considering the fight bounces between Earth and the different Realms.

Like all Marvel Studio movies, this film as a scene to set up a future film. So don’t forget to watch all the way to the end of the credits, because there is both a mid-credits and post-credits scene (Now Marvel is just getting obnoxious). The mid-credits scene can be compared to the post-credits scene in Iron Man. In Iron Man, it showed the course the movies would take in Phase One. Here, it shows the story arch the movies could take potentially up to Avengers 3.

Thor: The Dark World continues to build off previous Marvel films, while also standing alone. Tom Hiddleston has completely become the character of Loki, who gets some great character development. Great comedic timing by several actors and bigger action, really giving gravity to the threat, keeps Marvel’s Phase Two moving along strong.

Rating
4/5

Also check out my reviews for the other films in Marvel’s Phase 2: Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man.

Lightning Review: The Losers

Synopsis
When a special-ops group is double-crossed, they go after the rogue CIA agent Max (Jason Patric) who left them out to dry. Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Jensen (Chris Evans), Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short), and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada) meet Aisha (Zoe Saldana), who offers to help the team get revenge, but she has her own reasons for going after Max.

Review
With a strong cast, The Losers had great potential, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite meet all the expectations.  The strongest component of The Losers is the dialog between the characters and the way they played off each other, especially in one-on-one situations. Evans’ was the comedic backbone of the cast, just like when he played Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four, and his performance was the best of the film. I was a little let down by Elba’s performance. Normally he is a pretty strong actor, even in his supporting roles, but it just wasn’t there this time around. They tried to make Patric’s villain comical, but Patric didn’t have the chops to pull it off. However, he did have a funny jab at the cliché where the villain nods his head and the henchmen seems to know exactly what he wants. The Losers is a fun movie that has a strong comedic foundation with Evans, but the rest of the cast can’t stand with him, hindering what could have been an awesome action comedy.

Rating
3/5