Suicide Squad is the third and latest installment in the DC Extended Universe, a cinematic universe that can't seem to catch a break this year, or really since it's conception. After a small incident called Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice occurred back in March, Suicide Squad seemed to be the last hope for the DCEU to stop digging itself even further into the ground. Compared to Dawn Of Justice, Suicide Squad looked to a fun alternative to the disaster we saw back in March. However, with the many shake-up's in Warner and DC in the aftermath of Dawn Of Justice, Suicide Squad was effected. So, flash forward to now. Is Suicide Squad the saving grace the DCEU needs to stop itself from continuing to be a cinematic universe of mediocrity? Well, yes and no. Suicide Squad is by far the best film in DCEU, but that's still not saying a lot. Suicide Squad was a disappointment, and similar to the previous entry, one hell of a mess but nowhere the mess Dawn Of Justice was. Despite it's phenomenal acting, it's great soundtrack, and being entertaining as hell, the film lacks in the plot department, it's awful editing, deceptive marketing, and limited appearance Joker despite being overhyped by the film's marketing campaign.

THE GOOD 

The acting in the film was fantastic. Will Smith was great as Deadshot, Viola Davis was badass as Amanda Waller as well as Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg. Margot Robbie was phenomenal as Harley Quinn. It was unbelievable how good she was. She nailed every aspect of character. I can't wait to see more of her in future films. Jared Leto was amazing as the Joker and proved himself to be a worthy successor to the late Heath Ledger. It's shame many of his scenes were cut out of the film. I can't wait to him in more films as well. Jai Courtney was hilarious as Captain Boomerang, as well as Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc (although I thought his CG was awful). Jay Hernandez was great as El Diablo. All of Batman's scenes was GREAT. Ben Affleck proves once again to be a phenomenal Batman. I loved Flash's cameo as well, which actually came as a surprise to be as I thought it was only a rumor that he was in the film. After seeing the Justice Leauge trailer, I think Ezra Miller's going to be a great Flash. And we finally have DCEU film that doesn't have an unnecessary darky, gloomy, and humorless tone. Suicide Squad at times can be hilarious and for the first time in the DCEU, the jokes land. The tone of Suicide Squad is a nice change of pace from the previous installments. Despite it's problems, Suicide Squad is still incredibly entertaining and fun where it's needed (however it's not fun all the way through). On a side note, the soundtrack for the film was great. I love twenty one pilots's "Heathens", Skrillex & Rick Ross's "Purple Lamborghini", and Panic! At The Disco's cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".

THE BAD

The plot for the film is rather weak and nothing really that special.  The film starts off strong in the first act but fizzes out by the second act. The film's editing as awful and cuts at the worst times and completely screws up the plot and plays music in scenes where the song doesn't really fit. The releastionship between the Joker and Harley Quinn was off putting here. Since when did the Joker start caring about Harley? Since when as he actually been in love with her? The releastionship between the Joker and Harley Quinn as orgininated in Batman: The Animated Series is that Harley is is in love and obsessed with the Joker. The Joker doesn't care about her and simply uses her for his schemes and is often abusive towards her. Now, no one really wants to see that last part on screen, but the Joker isn't in love with Harley and never has been. On an additional note, why the hell does Harley still have a phone to communicate with the Joker? You'd figure the police would've confiscated that. Speaking of the Joker, he's barely in this film, despite being so hyped up by the film's marketing. He has more screentime in Skrillex and Rick Ross's "Purple Lamborghini" music video than he probably did in the entire film. Jared Leto later on revealed that many of his scenes were cut from the film, which is a shame considering how great his Joker is. Killer Croc's CG was awful, but it doesn't take too much away from the character as I still found him funny. One of the main problems with the film is how much they under use the team members. The only team members who seem to be of any use are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and eventually El Diablo. Slipknot is killed after being on screen for less than 30 seconds, while Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, and Katana are only useful for one or more scenes, beyond that there just comic relief (except Katana).

Enchantress was an awful villain who couldn't stop doing the twist and shimmy everytime she spoke. An element of Dawn Of Justice hit Enchantress here with the "this is hilarious but it's suppose to be serious" scenario. Enchantress doing the shimmy every time she spoke was hilarious. Enchantress's motives are never really explained either. It never explained why her and brother want to wipe out mankind other than the fact that humans don't bow down to them anymore and trapped them in a statue. There's no clear motive. At least in Dawn Of Justice, Lex Luthor had somewhat of a motive to turn Batman and Superman against each other. Enchantress has none. 

One of the worst things about Suicide Squad was it's deceptive marketing. I'm not going to go out and attempt to sue Warner and DC like that one redditor but I do agree, there was a lot of good stuff in the trailers that were cut out from the film. For example, where the hell was that awesome water scene from the trailer ("I'll have water." "That's a good idea honey")? Why was that cut out? As I mentioned earlier, Jared Leto stated many of scenes were cut out from the film. Apparently enough scenes were shot for an entire Joker movie according to Leto (which sounds pretty awesome to me). Why were these cut out? Especially since the film's marketing hype up the Joker so much and made it look like in the trailer that HE was the villain. Remember that scene in the trailer where the squad hears the Joker's laughter, Harley says "Oh no" and Deadshot says "Not good!"? That's nowhere to be found. Now, I kind of get why this was cut out (I mean, why would Harley be scared of The Joker approaching, unless they would've taken influence from Mad Love and have a briefly reformed Dr. Harleen Quinzel) but still. 

The worse thing for me is that Suicide Squad doesn't work as PG-13 film and would've worked a lot better as an R rated film, seeing that this a film about supervillains. With opening scenes of very proactive behavior from Harley Quinn (plus the strip club scene), some of the language I'm surprised you could away with PG-13, and the violence was definitely enough for an R rating. The film was definitely held back by the PG-13 rating and and just couldn't really make it work with the rating. Hey, but maybe we'll get another R-rated ultimate cut, because like with Dawn Of Justice, Suicide Squad needs an extended cut (in fact, Man Of Steel probably could've used one too). I see this becoming a trend in the DCEU and that's not a good thing. It shows you that DC and Warner can't get the film right the first time, and even the ultimate cut still doesn't entirely make things better (I heard the ultimate edition of Dawn Of Justice only fixes half of the film's problems).

FINAL THOUGHTS

Although Suicide Squad was disappointing and isn't exactly the savior the DCEU needed, I will say the critics are being a little too harsh on the film. As I said earlier, it's the best film in the DCEU, it's miles upon miles better than Dawn Of Justice, and it's not bad enough to join the list of the worst superhero movies of all time list, but it's still not a good film. It's not abysmal like how critics are describing it as but it's not good. Like with Dawn Of Justice, there's a good movie somewhere in there. You just have dig past the very noticeable studio interference, awful editing, and the weak story to find it. Unlike Dawn Of Justice, I do see myself watching Suicide Squad again, but as something on TV when nothing else is on or picking it up on DVD when it's on sale. *Sigh*. Well Wonder Woman, it's up to you. Save. This. Cinematic. Universe. I really don't want sit through another DC film that's a rushed attempt to compete with Marvel with the ending result of a film that's either awful, mediocre, or merely OK. But anyway, can't wait for that extended ultimate cut DC, because it's bound to happen at this point. Let's hope that can actually fix this film. Or only fix half of it's problems. Get it together you guys. 

FINAL RATING

6.5/10

OK

Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice is the second film in the DC Extended Universe, and I don't even know where to begin on this one. First things first, I should probably state that I'm Marvel fan. It's what I grew up with and I've always loved their characters more. However, I don't hate DC at all. I'm a huge fan of the DC Animated Universe (or the Timmverse or Diniverse as some call it) as well variety of their other animated series (Teen Titans, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and The Bold, Young Justice, etc), I've collected a ton of DC Comics, loved Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan's Batman films, the list goes on. I didn't want Batman v. Superman to fail. I was hoping it would be better than Man Of Steel (which, I thought Man Of Steel was OK). Our very own Christian Jusino (the DC officinato of CGYT) was excited to see the film, and managed to solidly convince everyone to give the film a chance and see it. And we did, and I wish we didn't. Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice was shockingly bad. Now, Batman v. Superman isn't worthy of joining the list of the worst comic book movies of all time. Anyone who places on a list next to Schumacher's Batman films, Catwoman, Supergirl, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, FAN4STIC, etc. is insane. But it's still not a good film. Batman v. Superman is one hell of a mess complete with an incoherent plot, a unnecessary dark, gloomy, and humorless tone, a complete misunderstanding of our two title heroes.

THE GOOD

Ben Affleck proved everyone wrong with his portrayal of Batman. Affleck is the best Batman we've ever seen on screen. Almost everything about Affleck's Batman was great. His Bruce Wayne felt like Bruce Wayne. Henry Cavill once again was great as Superman. Gal Gadot was phenomenal as Wonder Woman (even though she spends nearly the entire movie as Diana Prince). Jeremy Iron's is the best Alfred we've seen on screen, and it's a shame he didn't get enough screentime. The visual effects in the film were undeniably stellar . If there's one thing Synder can deliver, it's the visual effects. Every scene with Batman fighting was spectacular. The new Batmobile is badass. The entire car chase scene was absolutely stunning. The plot regarding the mass public indifference view on Superman, I thought was a good idea, but would've been executed a lot better if we're just a sequel to Man Of Steel. I enjoyed the scenes in the Daily Planet as well as Clark Kent trying to convince Perry White that they should be covering Batman instead of just focusing on local news. I also enjoyed the banter between Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne (until Lex Luthor showed up). The fight between Batman and Superman, while short was awesome. See the two duke it out on screen was stunning. The fight sequence between Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman taking on Doomsday was fantastic as well (despite Doomsday's bad CGI).

THE BAD

Oh boy. Where do I begin. The entire first half of the movie is complete garbage. The pacing is awful and there is absolutely no plot progression. Nothing happens. The overall plot is completely incoherent. It constantly bounces from sub-plot to sub-plot and constantly leaves you confused. Jesse Eisenberg was awful as Lex Luthor. I don't care if he was Lex himself or Lex's son, he was infuriatingly awful. I'm not saying Jesse Eisenberg is a bad actor but dear god was that a miscast on DC and Warner's part. Every scene Lex was in I just wanted to be over immediately. Once again, the unnecessary dark, gloomy, humorless tone that plagued Man Of Steel is back for Batman v. Superman. And once again, it just doesn't work for our lead characters. It still doesn't work for Superman, nor does it work for Wonder Woman. The only character it works for is Batman, because he's a dark character. Now there are some jokes in the movie but they either don't land or only worth half a chuckle. And there's parts of the film that's suppose to completely serious but end up being absolutely hilarious. Yes, I'm talking about the Martha scene. We all cracked up upon seeing that.  DC fans will not hear the end of the scene for a very long time, no matter how much they try and defend it. Doomsday (although the battle is pretty awesome) could've been cut entirely and his CG was awful. He didn't need to be here. Remember when I said earlier about how the public indifference view on Superman would've a great idea if was executed properly? This storyline would've been great if Dawn Of Justice was a sole sequel to Man Of Steel and not crammed in with three other storylines. The movies drags on at times and feels like it has multiple endings. Every time you think the movie is going to end, there's another scene. Also the Justice Leauge is set up through an email. With everyone's logos on the attachments. Nuff said. 

One of the biggest problems with Dawn Of Justice was the misunderstanding of the two title characters. Superman, the man who once stood for hope and optimism, is a complete dick in this movie, which was why I was all for Batman just killing him. Superman constantly mopes arounds and complains about his job as if it were a chore and constantly wonders why he even bothers to continue on. That doesn't sound like Superman. On top of being a dick, Superman is also a gigantic hypocrite in this movie. He threatens Batman to hang it up because he disapproves of his dark brand of justice and criticizes him for collateral damage he causes. Let's not forget Superman obliterated his entire city at the end of Man Of Steel. As for Batman, he kills. A lot. Let's stop right here. We all know Batman has a famous no killing policy. Yes it been broken before? Yes. Has he killed in other movies before? Yes. But it's never been on this large of a scale before. Dream sequence or not, he was gunning people down. I get that the DCEU Batman is based of Frank Miller's version where he's supposed be more violent, but this leads to many unanswered questions. Such as if Batman is killing criminals, then why the hell is the Joker still alive? Or really any of his villains. In a further action out of character, Batman doesn't really attempt to find out what Superman is actually about, he immediately goes by the idiotic logic that "If there's even a 1% chance he's our enemy, we have to take it as an absolute certainty" and attempts to take on Superman, and believes that 1% chance of Superman plotting against the earth. That scene where the two first meet, could've been them talking things out, attempting to find out what they're both about, but no. It wouldn't really be Batman v. Superman then unless that scene ended in an argument between the two (which also could've worked).

The biggest downfall of Dawn Of Justice was the fact that this was a massive catch-up movie, which is why the Justice Leauge is set up through an email and this movie bites off a lot more than can chew. The problem with DC is that they're trying so hard to catch up with Marvel that they're not putting quality in their films. Batman v. Superman could've easily been two or three films but instead in was crammed into one in an attempt to get to Justice Leauge faster. I don't why DC is so concerned with catching up with Marvel. They're five years ahead and 13 films deep. It's going to be a while before DC actually catches up to Marvel. By efficiently overloading the movies just to try to get to where they are is foolish on their end, which is Dawn Of Justice was so bad. DC fans can say all they want about how they can't copy Marvel's format of having standalone movies first building up to a team up film. This is the only way for a successful cinematic universe that doesn't feel rushed. DC needs to go back to their mentality back in the early 2000's, where they weren't concerned with competing with Marvel, but putting out a good film for their fans and themselves after the survived suicide attempt that was Batman & Robin, which is a reason why Nolan's trilogy prevailed. He wasn't concerned with what Marvel was doing at the time. I don't care how long it takes, as long as we get a good movie in the end like with Nolan's trilogy, I'd be fine. But not a rushed attempt to catch up and compete with Marvel.

Batman: The Killing Joke is the latest entry in the DC Universe Animated Originals series. It's an adaptation of Alan Moore's famous graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. The hype for this film was real. With The Killing Joke's leacy, Kevin Conroy back as the Bat and Mark Hamill stepping out his Joker retirement to voice the clown prince of crime in this adaption, all on top of an R rating. So much hype that Warner Bros. teamed up with Fathom Events for a one night only theater screening. Staff member Chris and I went to this screening at our Carmike (first Fathom event either of us has ever been to). I was excited to see this famous graphic novel adapted to the big screen, excited to to one night show for really any special film, and also it's nice to see a 2D animated feature on the big screen. There's a lot of backlash against the film currently for the added prologue and a scene in that prologue but does that really destroy the entire film? Batman: The Killing Joke is a great film with or without the prologue. It's action packed, it's jokes land, beautifully animated, and stellar voice work from the actors.

THE GOOD

In my opinion, the prologue is no where near as bad as how people are describing it online. I enjoyed the added on opening story with Paris Franz, the nephew of one of the biggest crime lords in Gotham Francesco Franz, who has an obsession with Batgirl. Was it necessary? No, but I still enjoyed it. This part of film didn't destroy the entire film for me. As for the second half of the film, it is a beat for beat take of the graphic novel. The faithfulness the the graphic novel is absolutely stunning. The animation was great and once again the voice work from the actors were stellar. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill kill it as always as Batman and the Joker. Tara Strong was great as Batgirl, as was John DiMaggio, Ray Wise, etc.

THE BAD

Despite enjoying the first half, it adds nothing to graphic novel portion of the film, and was unnecessary. It also doesn't exactly blend well the actual Killing Joke portion of the film. It feels like a completely seperate film (a film that could've been great for another DCAU/Batman: The Animated Series film, still for the older audience though). And yeah, the sex scene was unnecessary. Didn't need to be there. 

As a side note, the main controversy surrounds the releastionship between Batman and Batgirl. I feel like a lot people are acting a romantic releastionship between the two has never happened before. It has. In the DCAU (DC Animated Universe, also known as the Timmverse or the Diniverse), the two had a romantic releastionship later on. It's talked about in Batman Beyond, and there's a scene in Batman: Mystery Of The Batwoman that implies their releastionship, which is why I said earlier this first half if expanded would've been great for the DCAU. Now, this is just one universe, and in the comics the two share a father/daughter relationship, but let's not keep pretending that this has never happened before.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Killing Joke isn't the best entry in the DC Universe Animated Originals series (Batman: Under The Red Hood is the best one in my opinion) and this a still a great adaption despite its prologue not meshing well with the adaption. But it's still a damn good Batman flick and I encourage you to all see it. I hope DC teams up with Fathom more often in the future. DC also seriously needs to get some of their animation writers behind their live actions. It's would probably improve the DCEU a whole lot.

FINAL RATING