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Suicide Squad 2 & Peacemaker
Well, apparently I have absolutely *no* ability to write things up properly these days, so rather than just sitting on mentally half-formed posts about things I've read or watched lately, I'll go ahead and toss off something short.
So I watched Suicide Squad 2 (the James Gunn one) and Peacemaker (the spinoff show), and really liked them! Peacemaker is a lot like Punisher in that it very much should not be as sweet and charming as it is, based on the premise (which in this case is essentially "what if Captain America was a right-wing dickhead who was sent to prison and forced to assassinate people for the government"), but it totally is sweet and charming and absolutely my favorite kind of "ragtag bunch of messed-up misfits form a disaster of a found family" sort of narrative.
Suicide Squad 2 is less charming and way more violent, although surprisingly critical of the US prison system and foreign policy (in a way the spinoff isn't). It's 100% a Vietnam war movie in general ethos and style, perhaps the grimiest superhero movie I've ever seen; the characters spend most of their time filthy, bloody, and sweaty, and the overall visual look made me think a lot of 1970s war movies. The only character in it who really gets an arc is Idris Elba, but his was really enjoyable. That being said, it was a big, bombastic, occasionally funny, weirdly paced, sometimes unexpected and sometimes bizarre superhero movie. It did genuinely surprise me a number of times.
Pretty big spoiler: Especially after the bloodbath of an opening scene, I had no idea who was going to live or die, which was really enjoyable. Except for one I was reasonably confident about.
Me: So Peacemaker definitely lives, since there's a whole spinoff show about him.
Peacemaker: *dies*
Me: .... wait.
The show was, overall, much more to my taste, with its smaller-scale plot, ragtag band of badass normals cast, and general ethos of recovery and redemption. Scioscribe summed it up beautifully: I saw someone describe it as being like [James Gunn] watched his own movie, found the antagonist unexpectedly sympathetic, and decided to write woobie found family fic for him.
This is one million percent accurate.
It's very, very James Gunn - sweet, funny, violent, heartstring-tugging, occasionally in extremely poor taste, but overall its heart is in the right place both emotionally and politically. Several different characters get really neat redemption or coming-into-themselves-as-a-person arcs, our audience-insert "everyperson" character is a Black lesbian, and John Cena has exactly the right sort of puppy dog eyes to make you feel for a character who should be awful but instead makes you want someone to give him a hug. (Possibly after punching him in the face.) I feel like the show was sympathetic to Chris's better qualities and general horrible life, while not letting him off the hook for his worse ones.
Leota is my BABY and I want h/c fic about her and Chris, and can't believe there's literally none. (The fandom in general is completely dominated by a pairing that it turns out I really dislike. Of all the pairings in the main cast, fandom, you had to pick THAT ONE? And there's next to no gen fic about the ensemble, which I would have expected to be the main thing. I went in thinking it would be a tiny fandom with some nice gen fic, and instead I found there's a medium-small fandom that's 90% the Worst Pairing. My life, so hard, etc.)
Also, I had heard ahead of time that there was a CGI eagle.
Me beforehand: meh, CGI eagle whomst
Me, one episode in: I would die for the CGI eagle.
So yeah, that was fun, and I'm not at all sure how likely a season 2 is, but I would be there with bells on if it happens.
Spoilers are fine in the comments!
So I watched Suicide Squad 2 (the James Gunn one) and Peacemaker (the spinoff show), and really liked them! Peacemaker is a lot like Punisher in that it very much should not be as sweet and charming as it is, based on the premise (which in this case is essentially "what if Captain America was a right-wing dickhead who was sent to prison and forced to assassinate people for the government"), but it totally is sweet and charming and absolutely my favorite kind of "ragtag bunch of messed-up misfits form a disaster of a found family" sort of narrative.
Suicide Squad 2 is less charming and way more violent, although surprisingly critical of the US prison system and foreign policy (in a way the spinoff isn't). It's 100% a Vietnam war movie in general ethos and style, perhaps the grimiest superhero movie I've ever seen; the characters spend most of their time filthy, bloody, and sweaty, and the overall visual look made me think a lot of 1970s war movies. The only character in it who really gets an arc is Idris Elba, but his was really enjoyable. That being said, it was a big, bombastic, occasionally funny, weirdly paced, sometimes unexpected and sometimes bizarre superhero movie. It did genuinely surprise me a number of times.
Pretty big spoiler: Especially after the bloodbath of an opening scene, I had no idea who was going to live or die, which was really enjoyable. Except for one I was reasonably confident about.
Me: So Peacemaker definitely lives, since there's a whole spinoff show about him.
Peacemaker: *dies*
Me: .... wait.
The show was, overall, much more to my taste, with its smaller-scale plot, ragtag band of badass normals cast, and general ethos of recovery and redemption. Scioscribe summed it up beautifully: I saw someone describe it as being like [James Gunn] watched his own movie, found the antagonist unexpectedly sympathetic, and decided to write woobie found family fic for him.
This is one million percent accurate.
It's very, very James Gunn - sweet, funny, violent, heartstring-tugging, occasionally in extremely poor taste, but overall its heart is in the right place both emotionally and politically. Several different characters get really neat redemption or coming-into-themselves-as-a-person arcs, our audience-insert "everyperson" character is a Black lesbian, and John Cena has exactly the right sort of puppy dog eyes to make you feel for a character who should be awful but instead makes you want someone to give him a hug. (Possibly after punching him in the face.) I feel like the show was sympathetic to Chris's better qualities and general horrible life, while not letting him off the hook for his worse ones.
Leota is my BABY and I want h/c fic about her and Chris, and can't believe there's literally none. (The fandom in general is completely dominated by a pairing that it turns out I really dislike. Of all the pairings in the main cast, fandom, you had to pick THAT ONE? And there's next to no gen fic about the ensemble, which I would have expected to be the main thing. I went in thinking it would be a tiny fandom with some nice gen fic, and instead I found there's a medium-small fandom that's 90% the Worst Pairing. My life, so hard, etc.)
Also, I had heard ahead of time that there was a CGI eagle.
Me beforehand: meh, CGI eagle whomst
Me, one episode in: I would die for the CGI eagle.
So yeah, that was fun, and I'm not at all sure how likely a season 2 is, but I would be there with bells on if it happens.
Spoilers are fine in the comments!