Suicide Squad

[The Dark Knight]

Equality can be real. After all, the Western world has made great strides in the last couple of decades where women are allowed to prosper, despite what feminists will have you believe. But there is something wrong when there are people out there who claim to champion for women's rights and complain endlessly about violence and sexual objectification in film, TV, video games, comics...but stay silent when there are women who actually suffer from oppression and terror in other parts of the globe. It pisses me off, as do fanboys who still complain about Batman killing on screen, despite the fact the only WB live action film where he never killed anyone was B&R. The difference, of course, is the former is far more socially relevant and important to the world than some petty pop cultural non-controversy.

Excuse me for my socio-political rant, if you can call it that. I'm pissed off.

To be clear, when I say equality is a lie, I mean it's never accepted by the other side. When we have equal treatment they cry that they're being bullied. Feminism is a complete and utter joke. Women in Western countries can go live in a middle eastern country if they feel so 'oppressed'. They lack a coherent message. What are they marching for? They are vile hypocrites swearing like sailors, talking about blowing things up. These people have gone completely feral in recent times and as I said before, we are basically witnessing their complete ruination. They are melting down before our very eyes. They have no place whatsoever in the modern world. They are irrelevant dinosaurs with INCOMPATIBLE ideas for the here and now. Every day their sooky protests embarass their cause and strengthen the resistance AGAINST them. Old school protesters who actually walked the peace and love talk would be ashamed of them too.

[thecolorsblend]

Equality is a lie. People complain when things are too equal. Then the 'isms' are predictably thrown out, hoping at least one of these baseless slurs will stick. The filmmakers were gutless to water down The Joker, a fictional character. I truly believe political correctness is shattering because it's being challenged every day. The public can see how hypocritical and hysterical things are, and are rightly turning their back on it. Even if it's just private discussions in their living rooms - OR the privacy of a polling place.

There's a principle which describes what you're referring to here.

Preference cascade is what you call it when the public realizes they all think the same way about something after a long period of time believing they were all in the minority opinion.

It takes many forms and sometimes is triggered by a single event. A good example of preference cascade is the 1980 US Presidential election. A lot of the late September-mid October polls showed Carter winning handily. And then the debate happened. Something about "There you go again" made people realize they weren't the only ones who thought Carter was weak sauce.

To be clear, the outcome of the election did not change. People simply started being honest with the pollsters. Reagan was always going to win. The polls simply wouldn't have showed that. The debate happened so late that the public polls didn't fully reflect the preference cascade. But Carter's internal polls did. Pat Cadell talks to this day about how the tsunami "came out of nowhere". Well, it didn't. It was always there. It was just wasn't measurable. Until it became measurable, that is.

PC culture is another one. I'm not advocating a set of policy positions or introducing politics as a subject. Just making a point. But there's no denying that President Trump's campaign hasn't virtually dismantled the PC culture machine. I wouldn't be the first to point that out. And again, I'm not trying to discuss politics; only describing a phenomenon.

The reason Trump was able to make so much headway was because everybody was equally sick of PC culture but they all thought they were the only ones. Seeing Trump, and more importantly his vast support, made them realize Trump was only saying what a crapton of people were already thinking.

These are just examples but they show the public sharing a consensus about something without realizing it. But when the realization comes, it's as if "things changed overnight". But not really. It was always like this. People simply didn't realize most people agreed with them.

That is a preference cascade.

[The Laughing Fish]

So has anyone heard of this stupid rumour about Mel Gibson being considered to direct the sequel?

[The Joker]

Well, Mel's confirmed the talks now.

Personally, I don't see him getting too excited about doing the sequel, unless it's more about wanting to work with the cast than the actual material, or is some sort of attempt to further get back under the hysterical liberal Hollywood's good graces ....

Mel's a great director. If he decides to do this, that's a rather nice feather in the DCEU's cap.

[Silver Nemesis]

I hope he doesn't do it. I consider Mel one of the finest filmmakers of his generation and I don't want to see him waste his time and talent making a sequel to a train wreck of a film like Suicide Squad. Not when he has several more interesting and unique projects already in development. Gibson makes hard-R historical epics for a mature audience, and there's usually a deeply personal dimension to the subject matter that attracts him. He also tends to spend a long time prepping his movies, researching the source material thoroughly and making sure the script is just right before proceeding with production. I can't see him toeing the company line and rushing a film out for some deadline Warner Bros promised their investors before he was even hired. Ayer was only given six weeks to write the Suicide Squad script, and even then the studio butchered his film in postproduction (I know Ayer claims the final cut was his preferred edit, but he's too talented a filmmaker for me to believe that). Getting someone like Gibson to make SS2 would be like hiring David Lean to make a sequel to Moonraker.

However... if Mel does sign on to do this, and if Warner Bros is serious about bringing in A-list Oscar-calibre auteurs like Gibson, George Miller and Ridley Scott, then the studio needs to change its whole approach to how it handles directors. Don't rush them. Don't re-edit their movies in post production to try and reorient the tone towards the latest trend. Don't cut them down to PG-13 if the material lends itself to an R-rating. Don't begin casting lead roles before the director's been hired or the screenplay even written. Stop cramming in cameos from other heroes just to plug upcoming movies (this is getting tiresome in the MCU as well). Gibson's got a great understanding of plot, character and narrative structure, so just let him make a Mel Gibson film that happens to be part of the DCEU, not a DCEU film that happens to be directed by Mel Gibson. The same applies if they sign up Miller or Scott. Basically give these directors the same time and creative freedom that Nolan had when he made TDK and TDKR.

Now if they signed Gibson up to make an R-rated Batman movie, with total creative freedom, then that would be something to get excited about. And I expect the rumours about Affleck quitting the role would soon disappear.

[The Laughing Fish]

I don't think creative freedom guarantees success, TDK and TDKR were horribly overrated, awful messes that make Suicide Squad look like the first Avengers movie. I thought Suicide Squad was akin to Avengers: Age of Ultron: some good characters here and there but it's otherwise a very average movie.

I don't think Gibson is right for this sort of genre anyway. After all, he has expressed its distaste for it in the past, particularly with his recent disparaging comments against BvS, and the MCU in particular:

Gibson laments what he sees as the "violence without conscience" of many modern films. "To talk about the violence question, look at any Marvel movie," he says, dismissively. "They're more violent than anything that I've done, but [in my movies,] you give a s--- about the characters, which makes it matter more. That's all I'll say."

It's not his thing. He'd be better off staying with drama, which he thrives at.

[OutRiddled]

I don't think creative freedom guarantees success, TDK and TDKR were horribly overrated, awful messes that make Suicide Squad look like the first Avengers movie. I thought Suicide Squad was akin to Avengers: Age of Ultron: some good characters here and there but it's otherwise a very average movie.

Suicide Squad is much better than Age of Ultron.  Age of Ultron is more like a video game.  At least Suicide Squad has fun and interesting characters.

[The Laughing Fish]

Suicide Squad is much better than Age of Ultron.  Age of Ultron is more like a video game.  At least Suicide Squad has fun and interesting characters.

Very well. I thought SS and AOU both had some underwhelming, generic villains mixed together with characters actually worth watching i.e. Harley Quinn, Deadshot, El Diablo, Hulk, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow.

That's actually the first time I've seen anyone describe AOU feeling like a video game, I've seen a few people use that word to SS. Personally, I don't find the term to be demeaning at all; in fact, there are lots of video games with compelling stories nowadays, so to me, people are unintentionally giving the film a compliment. 

[OutRiddled]

That's actually the first time I've seen anyone describe AOU feeling like a video game, I've seen a few people use that word to SS. Personally, I don't find the term to be demeaning at all; in fact, there are lots of video games with compelling stories nowadays, so to me, people are unintentionally giving the film a compliment. 

I actually love the Arkham games and think that's the best versions of some of those characters.  But a video game is a video game, and is only fun if you're playing it.  When you're watching a movie, and it's just cgi battle after cgi battle, it's like watching someone else play a video game.  Suicide Squad had a bit of that, but much less than the overrated Avengers movies. 

[The Laughing Fish]

A new unreleased photo of the Joker was released a week or so ago.



His facial expression reminds me of my reaction when I realised most of his scenes were cut out from the film.