>The Modern Allegories of Suicide Squad: Cynicism and redemption in the comic-book wars.
>Think metaphorically. The war between fans of DC Comics and Marvel Comics is almost as vicious as that between Republicans and Democrats. The current controversy over Suicide Squad — Marvel kids are going on the Internet to attack any proposed DC narrative, with the intention of dooming its box-office prospects — makes a useful analogy to the fracas in our political arena. It looks as if the two sides will never get together. Both parties need to see what they have in common, and to work to understand the precariousness of our shared history and future, instead of turning difference of opinion, style, and “tone” into hostility. Suicide Squad (aptly named, considering America’s current self-destructive divisions) takes that battle further by dramatizing — fantasizing — the unification that even the president has given up on.
>U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) realizes the world faces an “insuperable” threat. Ordinary law-enforcement and military forces won’t do; Waller needs soldiers who are crazily efficient at chaos, malevolence, and fearlessness. So she coerces a group of convicts — supervillains — to fight for mankind. Picking from “the worst of the worst,” Waller enlists sniper Deadshot (Will Smith), psychotic psychiatrist Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), thief Boomerang (Jai Courtney), mutant Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and flame-throwing gangbanger Diablo (Jay Hernandez). This ethnically diverse crew represents the ultimate adolescent fantasy of rebellion — bad guys who are good at heart.
Luis Johnson
I love this guy.
Christian Powell
>But the Marvel kids aren’t railing against DC because Suicide Squad gets the genre wrong; they object to the opposition’s very existence — and to its ideology.
>Yes, even comic-book franchises promote ideology. This may come as a shock to consumers still stuck on the idea that Hollywood wants to entertain more than indoctrinate. Even normally sophisticated folks who are unschooled in recognizing hegemony or realizing how the culture system functions today prove susceptible to the lure of apparently innocuous entertainment. They hold onto adolescent consumerist gullibility, and this is the ideology that Suicide Squad’s producer, Zack Snyder, is up against.
>Snyder, who directed the reboots Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, confounds comic-book fans with his voluptuous, dramatic visual style, which is so unlike Marvel’s trashy, violent sarcasm. He’s a fantasist, but he’s also a moralist, and this comes through in Suicide Squad, produced by Snyder but directed by David Ayer. Ayer’s social sensibility (seen in Brad Pitt’s World War II movie, Fury, and in End of Watch, a rare cop movie with a credible sense of ethnic camaraderie) is compatible with Snyder’s. They both approach a childish genre like adults — and that’s what annoys the Marvel kids, whose bad rap on Suicide Squad has already gone viral.
Caleb Lewis
>If DC is the conservative comic-book universe to Marvel’s pseudo-progressivism, it couldn’t be more unpopular among kids who enjoyed the ludicrous platitudes of Avengers: Age of Ultron. And DC couldn’t have a better leader than Snyder, who even gives supervillains a human scale. (“Getting people to go against their own best interests is what I do for a living,” boasts the devious Waller.) They all struggle with the ambivalence of people who suffer life’s unfairness: Deadshot follows his young daughter’s entreaties; Harley’s love for the reprobate Joker (Jared Leto) makes her a manic-depressive tease; and Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag is pressured into the Squad to save his demon-possessed lover, June Moone (Cara Delevingne).
>These comic-book characters are interesting in ways that abandon the nihilism Christopher Nolan brought to the previous Batman franchise, which merely continued Tarantino’s jokey, sadistic film noir. Snyder and Ayer are temperamentally opposed to such agnosticism and so find themselves competing against the most popular (commercial) aspects of the superhero genre. Yet they’re also more skilled filmmakers. Each Squad member’s backstory is introduced with a pop-song signature (Kanye West’s volatile “Black Skinhead” makes Deadshot’s the most powerful). This recalls Snyder’s surreal Sucker Punch, a memorable quasi-musical that should have gone all the way into epic karaoke. He also inserts the Smiley Face motif from his Watchmen film as a comment on comic anarchy (the perversion of noir). Plus, when June Moone is transformed into the Enchantress and turns her brother into a superfiend, it resembles the sibling tragedy in Snyder’s superb production 300: Rise of an Empire.
Adrian Campbell
>based armond actually defends this piece of shit
i find his reviews funny when he insults Marvel and shit, but he's starting to come off as a DCshill now.
Jonathan Price
>Snyder and Ayer are like presidential and vice-presidential candidates attempting to synthesize popular sentiment with their own feeling for aesthetic reform. Their message seems deliberately misunderstood by those who favor conventional Hollywood formula. Surely, it’s a joke to complain that one superhero sci-fi fantasy plot makes less sense than another. (Or that Leto’s wily Joker is not as repugnant as Heath Ledger’s. Blessedly, the Joker has less screen time, less validation.) Like a public accustomed to political pandering, the Comic Con fans who relish the ridiculous mix of humor and chaotic violence in Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool don’t realize when they’re being condescended to or cheated.
>It is apparent from the newly released “Ultimate Edition” Blu-Ray of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice that Snyder is constructing a large-scale morally serious epic that portrays modern man’s ethical struggle, giving comic-book characters the spiritual breadth of classical characters. Ayer acknowledges this when the Squad, facing supernatural evil, gets gung-ho and promises, “We’re gonna be a chapter in the Bible! Everybody will know what we do!” Snyder and Ayer pursue an interest in redemption and sacrifice using the comic-book and blockbuster genres that have replaced the universality of the Bible and classical texts. More is at stake in Suicide Squad than comic-book fun.
>Think metaphorically again, and see that Suicide Squad entangles post-Vietnam and post-9/11 notions about heroism and citizenship. Deadshot does the right, patriotic thing, yet compliments Waller, his treacherous superior, saying, “That’s gangsta!” This use of hip-hop cynicism speaks more directly to modern confused ethics than most lines from other movies and most politicians. Suicide Squad is The Dirty Dozen for millennial viewers (and voters), who think their patriotic moral conflict is new.
Jose Fisher
>he's starting to come off as a DCshill now. Yeah whatever. He's pure contrarian, simple as that. He hates Marvel films because critics love them and loves DC because critics hate them.
Isaiah Jackson
oh shit, is he really? i always thought he was doing this ironically as a joke.
Jaxon Gomez
Well for starters, none of what he wrote is untrue. Second, he isn't a consumer guide to tell you which movie is good or which movie you will like. And third, he objectively has more knowledge on film than the majority of today's critics
Isaac Torres
His description of this fucking fanboy-war is perfect and good that he adresses that. Still, the movie could've been much better if the studio doesn't fuck up Ayer's cut
Chase Miller
Yeah, but Armond decides to focus on what he liked. He never says its perfect or even pretty good. He just talks about the fanboy stuff and says he enjoyed some parts of Suicide Squad.
Matthew Campbell
Armond always gets it.
Jordan Lee
One-Man-Army-Armond bringing the pain to Marvelcucks once again. Get fucked shills!
John Reed
>Think metaphorically again, and see that Suicide Squad entangles post-Vietnam and post-9/11 notions about heroism and citizenship. Deadshot does the right, patriotic thing, yet compliments Waller, his treacherous superior, saying, “That’s gangsta!” This use of hip-hop cynicism speaks more directly to modern confused ethics than most lines from other movies and most politicians
This fucking guy...
Ian Martin
our guy.
Chase Wilson
His reviews were based until now... At least I agree with the fanboy shit.
Tyler King
His Avatar review was my favourite
>"The corniest movie ever made about the white man's need to lose his identity and assuage racial, political, sexual and historical guilt."
Parker Fisher
What's your problem, that quote of his makes sense
Nathan Bennett
God of Sup Forums.
Logan Cruz
He's not wrong.
Oliver Martin
>He never says its perfect or even pretty good.
He isn't supposed to, he is a critic of culture, not a consumer guide to the movies
James Johnson
>Marvel kids are going on the Internet to attack any proposed DC narrative,
No they don't.
DC fans want people to think Marvel fans are out to destroy DC so bad.
Grayson Mitchell
Get this nigger smirking at me off my screen you FAGGOT!!!
Adam Ward
yeah I know, im saying its a good thing
Christian Anderson
Dumb poster.
Jack Morales
Think about what you just posted.
Luke Jones
...
Jose Roberts
Films are nothing but Rorschach Tests to Armond.
Austin Gray
Not Goku. Die.
Dominic Kelly
>He hates Marvel films because critics love them and loves DC because critics hate them. Shit. I didn't realise it's all that simple. Go home people. This is all 9 paragraphs of nonsense and Rotten Tomatoes is right as always.
Gavin Lopez
>No they don't.
Have you been on the internet this week, even on this board?
Sebastian Campbell
You miss the point. He's a master contrarion
Jaxson Rivera
>you're either with us or against us!
Great fucking logical, 5 year old.
Adam Hill
Yes. Every sane person knows that movies spring into existence out of a null-space between dimensions and all perceived political or cultural subtext and/or commentaries are just pseudo-intellectual posturing.
>contrarian I hope you get die
Aiden Campbell
Hey I was waiting for this nig's review. I guess he needed to wait and see what was the overall critical reception to make sure he went against it.
Christian Parker
>last name is 'White' >is actually a black man
what's the guys problem??
Cameron Green
Fascinating posts
Oliver Ward
hello armond
Ryan Anderson
Marvel fans only poke fun of DC fans because they make it so easy.
That doesn't mean they don't want DC films to succeed.
Gavin Jenkins
Based
Liam Brooks
K I N O I N O
Dominic Clark
Lots of words, little meaning. Typical Armond.
Evan Hughes
I never said that. But you are in deep denial if you think Marvel fans don't constantly attack DC, Snyder or Ayer for their own interpretation and version of these franchises. This is what White meant under "any proposed DC narrative"
Lucas Bell
So you can't interpret words into thoughts? How do you manage to even read literature?
Parker Torres
Didn't DC make just 3 films? And all of them are pretty terrible? And he is obviously full of shit because everyone loved The Dark Knight trilogy.
Kayden Martin
What are his thoughts then? What is DC's "message" so misunderstood by the Millennials?
Sebastian Hall
Little words, no meaning. Typical underageb& who thinks girls don't like him because he's smart not because he's an autist who posts alt-right news articles on Facebook.
Mason Fisher
>reading is so hard... >trying to find arguments is so hard Typical /tv poster
Connor Ortiz
There is almost nothing about the film itself in his review.
Brody Perry
And they say he's not contrarian
Austin King
Damn
not only are niggers stealing all our women
they are the best critics in the world
How do white critics even compete
Bentley Baker
Dark Knight Trilogy was before the Marlel narrative fully set in. And even then it was starting to sink what with people claiming Avengers was better than DKR or just generally shitting on DKR when Avengers is fucking television grade garbage and TDKR is Banekino.
Brody Green
The supposed quality of the movies or the past successess of DC are irrelevant, he only said Marvel fans constanly attack DC's narrative, which is real and you can see it anywhere on the internet.
Josiah Davis
>best athlete in America - black >best critic in America - black >best president in America - black >best dicks in America - black
We kings NOW
Dominic Stewart
We iz kangs n shieet nigga
Barack Obama dat's my brother's cousin's ex-wife's abandoned son's uncle.
Michael Ortiz
>Best Athlete Prince Yeshua AKA Forrest Whittaker, you win there >Best Critic Armond >Best President Obama is about to be succeeded by either the lizard queen or the meme king, he's going to be topped for sure >best dicks based ethan hawke
2/2 it's neck and neck
Josiah Baker
Yes there is, maybe you should read it. The piece is about Suicide Squad, DC, Marvel, their fans, their creators and the culture surrounding them, didn't you notice it?
Luis Martin
Most people attack shitty plot and dumb characterization, not the narrative.
Alexander Wood
pretty sure ethan hawke is italian
Easton Morales
You're thinking of manuel
Juan Lewis
No, it's a conservative political agitprop used to insult democrats and the Millennial culture.
Gabriel Hughes
Are people here just memeing, or are they functionally retarded? I can understand his reviews perfectly and I'm not even a native speaker. Or is it just american thing to be unable to understand anything that does not have MCDonald's logo on it?
Xavier Rogers
You were meming and all but are there actually any good fucking critics.
Jason Murphy
So you admit now too that they attack DC's movies, thank you, that's all I was (and he was) saying
Kevin Martinez
It's a combination of unfunny edgeposters who have been conditioned to shitpost upon seeing a brown person and people who legitimately just cannot read.
That being said armondposting is the thinking man's meme.
Jaxson Powell
It has those too, yes, your point?
Gavin Thompson
So what is the message of these movies?
Jordan Cruz
Snyder's aim is to interpret these unrealistic stories as mythology for a modern audience, as opposed to the Joss Whedon-type approach of just playing all this childish nonsense straight and feeding people shit because they love it.
Chase Clark
>"(...)Suicide Squad entangles post-Vietnam and post-9/11 notions about heroism and citizenship"
>"Suicide Squad is The Dirty Dozen for millennial viewers (and voters), who think their patriotic moral conflict is new."
Thomas Robinson
This reads like the shitposts I read here, desu. Is he one of us?
Anthony Lee
He is right in shitting on Marvel, but that doesn't make DC movies any less of a clusterfuck.
Anthony Smith
Why should we spoonfeed anything to you when it's clearly explained by Armond. Or even better, you can watch them and figure out the message yourself
Daniel Jenkins
Fucking based
Leo Peterson
Did he praise ghost busters
Dylan Reed
>Marvel kids are going on the Internet to attack any proposed DC narrative, with the intention of dooming its box-office prospects
Oh this bullshit again? I enjoy the Marvel films. I guess you can call me a "Marvel guy" for that but I also spent money to see MoS, BvS, and I'm probably going to see SS this weekend. The reviews can say whatever but I guarantee most Marvel kids have seen them as well just because they are fans of the genre. MoS and BvS just weren't that good. Simple as that. Maybe the negative criticism went a little overboard but they were still mediocre at best. Bottom line is capeshit isn't that deep to warrant a fucking review like this. There's no conspiracy against DC. Nolan's Batman was a huge success.
Parker Sanders
He panned it.
Andrew Williams
Can you elaborate? I don't see how Snyder's films are less childish than Whedon's films.
Lucas Martin
Good point mouseboi, you sure showed him
Brayden Hill
>reads like the shitposts I read here Where's the part where he spams 'JUST' until all the other 12 year olds decide it's a meme followed by that cancerous Chris Evans gif?
When have you ever read anything remotely like White's work on Sup Forums?
Caleb Barnes
The movie's just plainly shit. No fucking politics or whatever involved, it's just a shit movie.
Anthony Cook
>patriotic moral conflict What moral conflict?
Brandon Torres
How is it possible that a man this based is a living and breathing legend? It blows my mind how smart this guy is.
Eli Phillips
I'd say about 5 to 7% of Sup Forums right now are Buenavista/Disney interns trying to protect their monopoly over capeshit. They understand Armond all right, but they have to do their job
Alexander Evans
>going against the mouse
This guy is going to wind up dead in less than 12 months from now, screencap this
Landon Murphy
Similar opinions get posted all the time here. Sup Forums is full of contrarian assholes who meme about how deep Snyder is and how good BvS was and how much better DC capeshit is over Marvel capeshit.
Jacob Baker
Completely insane rantings of a contrarian pseudo-intellectual. Does he even know what "nihilism" means? He's a hack who doesn't understand that comic book movies are supposed to be fun, not art. And he spends more time attacking the audience than reviewing the movie. Pathetic.
Jonathan Russell
Just post the evans webm already you fucking shill
Tyler Hernandez
>comic book movies are supposed to be fun, not art
William Murphy
>voluptuous, dramatic visual style
Joseph Cox
his entire shtick is "going against the mouse"
Sebastian Perez
I thought he was a contrarian what gives Sup Forums
Nolan Cooper
Why does he like Snyder so much?
Owen Moore
>booh bahh bleghh
Liam Cruz
>Whedon's take on superheroes quip and punch until all the bad guys are gone because they couldn't stand up to our powers of friendship >Snyder's Superman and Batman struggle with what it means to be a hero and do the right thing in the 21st century and get caught up in big melodramatic clashes to decide the fate of the world.
Snyder isn't a subtle man but at least he's trying. I particularly liked the Excalibur homage in BvS. Good fiction should build on what's come before, and with Excalibur he's drawing on the history of the medium as well western tradition. That's a hell of a lot better than most will give you when handed this source material.
Damn, someone should tell The National Review to fire Armond. We've got the real film genius right here!
You should write him an email suggesting that he turn his brain off and learn to have fun. I'm sure he'll appreciate your insight.
Snyder takes this trendy bullshit and tries to hammer it into something worthwhile. Whether or not he succeeds is debatable, but Armond isn't a consumer guide, he gives movies what they deserve.
Nicholas Cook
Did you even check the general response Ghostbusters got? It's positive.
Bentley Perez
Both the Dirty Dozen and Suicide squad feature the same moral conflict of "using" criminals and murderes to act as soldiers, and de facto protectors of nation. It places morally corrupt people in a postion usually is reserved to those who should be examples of virtue and civic duty.
Jonathan Carter
> HONKA HONKA > Joker a cuck
> Ktana
> China won't air SS
> Mexico Neither
> Evans everywhere
No sure they're not.
:spoiler: reddit is even worse, everybody talking like it was an objective faillure and that based snyder need to go"
Levi Ortiz
I'm sure you understand abstract concepts better than master Armond, 20 year old Sup Forums-poster.
Elijah Watson
The mouse entire shtick is to push their competitors out of the market, killing some negro and finally chnaging the company name to Weyland-Yutani is not beyond end