Category: Comics

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Forget Rotten Tomatoes, Suicide Squad Is A Lot Of Fun!

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Going in to Suicide Squad I read a lot of reviews, and most of them were terrible.  Their unrelenting negativity washed over me.  I was heartbroken.  I had been looking forward to this movie for months, but I steeled for the worse and went anyway with my lovely wife, and you know what?  I enjoyed myself quite a bit.  No Suicide Squad is not perfect, and yes it did feel like two different movies at times: one a dark over the top action comedy, no doubt being pushed by DC, and the other a more standard David Ayer (the director) grimy street crime drama, but I liked both of those movies.

The setup for Suicide Squad is that US government is worried that the next ‘Superman’ may not be a good guy, so they greenlight a project being run by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to have the bad guys be forced to work off their long prison sentences by saving the world.  Not to mention they have bombs in their necks, so if they don’t behave their commander Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) has a button to take a little off the top.

The biggest issue with this movie’s plot is the pacing.  There are so many new characters to introduce that in the beginning Suicide Squad can’t seem to focus for more than a few minutes, but once those introductions are finished and the premise becomes clear the movie kicks it in to high gear.  Sure the big bad’s plan in this film didn’t make a lot of sense, but not to a movie breaking level like everyone seems to be saying it is.

What elevated this movie for me were the amazing performances.  Suicide Squad is an ensemble movie, so the ensemble had to do their parts, and man did they ever.  Viola Davis owned Amanda Waller.  She was every bit the imposing morally gray A.R.G.U.S. director comic book fans have come to know and love.  Will Smith and Margot Robbie likewise nailed their roles as Deadshot and Harley Quinn.  I also need to give special attention to Jay Hernandez as El Diablo.  It would have been very easy for him to get lost in this movie, but he made El Diablo the emotional center of this film.

One role that is going to be a divisive for a lot of fans is Jared Leto’s Joker.  In the comics and the cartoon he always keeps affections for Harley Quinn under wraps.  You tended to get the feeling in the comics that their ‘romance’ was fairly one sided with Harley being infatuated with the Clown Prince, but the Joker couldn’t be forced to care about Harley’s well being or feelings.  Not so in Suicide Squad.  The Joker is just as infatuated with Harley as she is with him.  Not to mention Leto’s Joker seems like he is high all the time.  He doesn’t seem to be the razor sharp and calculating villain most people expect.  I liked this different take, but I can understand why more than a few people are upset.

If you have been excited to see Suicide Squad, but the bad reviews have put you off, you should still go see it anyway.  While there are a lot of things they could have done better it was still a ton of fun, and a great way to see a good representation of a lot of fan favorite characters.  I hope the Squad gets to come back because I can’t wait to see where they take these characters next.  It would be a shame if the Suicide Squad was a one and done franchise.  It has amazing potential.

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Preacher Is Weird Show!

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Preacher is such a weird show!  I am not sure what to think of it.  It is definitely different than the comic book, but you can tell it shares the same DNA.  The first episode introduces us to all the main players and their odd and bloody world, but I am not sure where it goes from here.  Jesse got the ‘word of God’, but instead of heading out on a road trip he is staying put, so I am not sure what can happen to him in the middle of nowhere Texas.  I guess we will find out.

To Seth Rogan’s credit, he and his crew managed to make something completely unlike anything else that is on TV.  Not to mention DC Comic’s infiltration of every TV network in America seems to be right on track.  If Preacher can keep hitting these strange notes every week, AMC might have another hit on its hands.  They also might just have a strange show based on an odd comic book.

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It’s Happening!!!!

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So the CW made a couple of announcements yesterday: One, that the Archie comics based Riverdale was getting a full series order.  Not that surprising.  Pretty people in high school was the CW’s life blood.  Now they can bring the past forward thanks to the show being based on a comic book, so, you know, the CW’s new life blood.  On that note the big news: SUPERGIRL IS COMING TO THE CW!!!!!! That is right the rumors were true and the Girl of Steel is changing networks.

I am not sure how that is going to work out with budgets and whatnot.  The show may loose a couple of cast members, and I am scared to think what the special effects are going to look like, but the more Flash/Supergirl crossovers the better!  With The Flash, Supergirl, and Arrow the CW with have a legit Justice Society on their hands.  Not to mention all the heroes they got on Legends of Tomorrow.  It looks like the CW might be the only channel I watch from now on.

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The Golden Jerk From The Future May Be Coming To The Big Screen!

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With everyone complaining that DC’s movies aren’t any fun, Warner Brothers may have found the perfect solution, if Birth.Movies.Death is to be believed: Booster Gold.  For those of you that don’t know, Booster is a character from the future that wanted to be a superhero, so he buys a bunch of advanced tech and travels to the past.  He expects that everyone is just going to love him and his heroics, but instead they find him an insufferable self-absorbed jerk.  Which is fair because he is.

If you were looking to add some fun to your movie line up, a movie about a jerky wise cracking time traveler would be a good start, and to make things better it looks like they are looking at the creator of The Flash and Supergirl TV shows, Greg Berlanti, to direct.  A guy who knows a thing or two about making comic book characters fun.  Though he did write The Green Lantern, so I will file this under cautious optimism.

Obviously the next few movies are going to be crucial for DC, so if Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman flop, I doubt we will see this movie develop pass the preproduction stage, but at least they are going for a good character and a director who understands the universe to put things right.

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Why Hasn’t Season 2 Of Supergirl Been Announced? Money!

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Supergirl had quite the year.  It started off slow and way to cheesy, but it ended up being my favorite superhero show.  However, despite solid but not great ratings CBS has not yet decided to pick up the show for a second season because they feel it is too expensive, and they want Warner Brothers to slash the budget.  Of course with the current budget the special effects on Supergirl have still been dodgy at times, so Warner Brothers doesn’t want make them any worse.

The Wrap is saying that if Warner Brothers does have to cut the budget that they would want to move the show to the CW were they would have more control over the future of the series, and so they could further integrate the Girl of Steel in to the Arrowverse.  Though both sides like the show on a major network, so getting it renewed on CBS is still plan ‘A’.

I honestly don’t care either way as long as Supergirl comes back next year.  While I like the higher production values CBS’s money brings to the table, The Flash crossover proved how much fun it would be to have Kara in the Arrowverse.  Maybe there could be some sort of Crisis on say multiple Earths to make her a permanent Earth One resident?  The end of May is quickly approaching, so we will not have to wait too much longer to find out Supergirl’s fate.