The Suicide Squad Film Follies

Please, DC, just one Joker dance sequence. It's all I ask.

jokerdoesthefutterwacken.gif

Harley Quinn's not really more obscure than Hawkeye, is she? is she even less known than the Suicide Squad itself? her being in this movie is the least of its problem, if it's even a problem at all.

She is by far the most famous thing about it (apart from Mr J) - croupier's universe where 90s kids TV consumption makes you a nerdlinger is utterly bizarre.

Even among comic nerds, Suicide Squad used to be more of a cult favourite than a big seller. But AFAIK a version of them has been introduced in the Arrow TV series (I quit watching it, so I haven't seen episodes featuring them), which might've raised their profile? Though I've no idea how popular Arrow is...

But yeah, Joker and Harley Quinn are way more well-known than any other SS members; the whole point of the series was to use mostly C-list villains, so any of them could be killed for real, which you obviously can't do with someone like Joker.

Though ironically enough, the SS comic itself made some of its characters (like Deadshot) popular enough that they were guaranteed not to die.

And I think the same is gonna happen with this movie: among the characters you have two popular Batman villains, one semi-popular Batman villain, one semi-popular Batman ally, a few characters who have become popular because of the Suicide Squad comics... and a couple of guys almost no one has ever heard of. So it's not hard to guess which of them are going to die.

The ones played by Adam Beach and Jay Hernandez....

waiting for teen heart-throb jared leto to shamelessly plug his band as the soundtrack

don't let it be a missed opportunity, jare

i still can't believe the Dallas Buyers Club sdtk had a 30 Seconds To Mars song on it. like, it doesn't get worse than that.

just since people still seem confused, my point isn't that Harley Quinn and Robin are obscure parts of the batverse, but that they're almost oppositional to the one that was just in theaters a couple years ago. When you're trying to compete with a franchise as huge as marvel, where making $200m globally like Watchmen and Green Lantern did qualifies you as a bomb, because Marvel's working at the 700m-1.2billion level, dramatically changing the batstory - not with a new batmovie, but within a superman sequel and a suicide squad movie, seems at odds with getting EVERYBODY on board.

but really these choices are symbolic of the bigger problem that DC just doesn't have a goddamn clue

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I cannot wait for the inevitable book about the behind the scenes shenanigans currently taking place at DC/WB. You know there are people on the inside who are just as perplexed as the rest of us by the decisions currently being made.

i liked the explanation floated that they simply don't have a kevin feige - someone superinformed and respectful of the marvel legacy that speaks also speaks franchise producer-ese. Instead, Warner Bros - already in a weird bakesale mode that leads to movies with 100m budgets where Johnny Depp lives in an iPad - is throwing everything against the wall in film and tv, hoping SOMETHING sticks the way Nolan did.

It's been this way for ages - they scrapped an unrelated George Miller run Justice League movie with Armie Hammer as Batman when Nolan's movies grew legs. But the new wrinkle on the problem is thanks to Marvel's "here's how we're going to make a couple billion over the next five years" fanfare, Warner Bros shareholders want THEIR superheroverse to point at the bleachers. So they announce a flash movie that has nothing to do with the flash TV show. They've got Supergirl set to air AT THE SAME HOUR as Gotham, which may benefit CBS or Fox in terms of bragging rights but clearly not WB.

The good news for fans of cinematic art is that people like David Ayer and Zack Snyder are getting WAY more free reign than Marvel hands do, because DC is hungry for a visionary. The bad news is that I just said David Ayer and Zack Snyder.

the alternate reality where george miller is christopher nolan in terms of influencing the dc cinematic universe sure looks sweet now, doesn't it

oh and

croupier's universe where 90s kids TV consumption makes you a nerdlinger is utterly bizarre.

nerdlingers are people who assume things have a massive global audience BECAUSE it was on 90s kids tv. for instance, "i know mad max" doesn't make you a nerdlinger. "HOW CAN THE SEQUEL TO A RECENT HIT WITH ALL THE ORIGINAL STARS DO BETTER THAN THE SEQUEL TO AN 80S CULT SERIES WITH NONE?" makes you a nerdlinger.

admittedly, i didn't bother making that clarification previously, but how was i to know an ilxor would take offense at being called a nerdlinger

How dare you make such assertions in a thread dedicated to the Suicide Squad film.

I've seen the "no Kevin Feige" thing responded to with "WB/DC's Kevin Feige is Geoff Johns" - the problem there is that Johns is widely loathed and somewhat responsible for DC not even knowing what the fuck they're doing in comic-land.

tbf if Nolan and Bale WANTED to continue their Batman, i'm sure D.C. would be delighted to have them. but like Raimi and Maguire, they wanted to quit while they were ahead, so we get Affleck Batman and Leto Joker and whoever the hell is Spiderman next time around.

The dude who came up with "Red Lanterns are red because ANGER, Yellow Lanterns are yellow because FEAR" might be aces with respect to certain projects but he probably isn't the guy you want running a billion dollar movie franchise.

raimi didn't quit while he was ahead - he and sony broke up because he wanted spider man 4 to be a 300m movie where john malkovich played a flying cueball in green. don't get me wrong, I would have loved it, but I understand why they split.

i know they asked nolan to be the DCU's guiding hand in movieland, but he passed. smartly.

lol just realized i could have been describing the vulture or mysterio. I meant the vulture.

haha, i was immediately wondering which one you meant...

Raimi had a perfect line on Silver Age Spidey. It's funny that the post Raimi spider-flicks have continued to lean so heavily on 60s baddies and done them so badly.

i going to shy away from criticizing Johns on the movies because I have to see any evidence that he's done... anything. i don't think anyone at DC/WB has the level of power/control/corporate faith that Feige has gotten from Marvel

and whoever the hell is Spiderman next time around.

― some dude, Tuesday, 19 May 2015 19:40 (17 minutes ago) Permalink
let's pause for a moment to ponder a james franco as spiderman performance art piece/film/experience/proto-interactive visual 3D art

shia lebouef IS miles morales IN

FP

jaden smith clearly the only sane choice to play miles morales

FP again

mission accomplished

paging djp: Jaden Smith Confirmed As Static Shock By Tyler James Williams

Haha I was literally coming here to post that :)

great news travels fast i guess

if dc thinks this highly of forces behind After Earth i've got my fingers crossed for M. Night Shyamalan's Sandman

i really liked the static comics; would be curious to see a milestone resurrection
no opinion on jaden in the role

Just clued in today to the fact that this is the film they're shooting in Toronto--don't know how much of it will be shot here.

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/portion-of-yonge-street-to-be-closed-for-hollywood-blockbuster-movie-shoot-1.2389668

What the FUCK

Now it's been confirmed that a teased Harley Quinn storyline was dropped from Arrow because of her appearance in this movie (which would also explain why certain other characters have been sidelined or killed off). Which doesn't explain why the parallel Flashes are being allowed to happen.

bit harder to sideline the title character than a supporting one - be interesting to see if anything becomes off-limits in the tv show when plans for the movie become clearer.

wonder who the villain for the movie will be, given that the tv show has already introduced a bunch of classic flash rogues and looks set to bring in more next season.

Man, eff this movie.

Honestly I'm quite ready to hate-watch this sucker, X-Men: Origins: Wolverine-style

I'll probably watch it but I'm bummed at what it COULD have been. Like, the Joker and Batman don't need to be anywhere near this movie, and that's the least of what's annoying about it.

I'm predicting a cult classic a la Con Air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLLQK9la6Go

finally a comic book movie that proves they're not just for kids

hollywood: please stop gary jules-ing all the songs

Will this one finally reveal how Batman became Batman? Or how Superman became Batman? Or how Batman became Spiderman?

"we're some kind of suicide squad cross-leveraged corporate intellectual property clusterfuck"