The Suicide Squad is almost here... again. Director James Gunn takes on the task of fixing what David Ayer's 2016 version messed up, which is quite a lot. Here are three reasons why we believe that Gunn's film will bring justice to Task Force X. Three reasons why The Suicide Squad is going to be much better than Suicide Squad.
Thank God the new film has a "the" at the front or it would have been very difficult to write this article in a comprehensive way. James Gunn's The Suicide Squad hits the theaters on August 6, precisely five years after David Ayer's Suicide Squad did the same, almost to the day. Ayer's movie featured acting staples such as Will Smith and Jared Leto, but was a critical bomb.
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Now James Gunn is taking on the mantle of the villain rejects. Could he improve upon the previous movie? Yes, he can. Here's why.
1. James Gunn is the Right Man for the Job
When the DCEU staff was looking for a director of the new Suicide Squad movie, they thought "who should we get to shoot a movie about cast-off characters with powers teaming up and defeating a larger evil?", and the answer hit them right in the face.
James Gunn is an obvious choice, because he's done pretty much the exact same thing with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Mind you, these weren't supposed to be part of the Marvel smash hits, but ended up one of the better-received releases in the MCU + achieving the mandatory mesmerizing box office success.
Gunn is the one to do The Suicide Squad justice, and if he can't do that, then perhaps no one can.
2. Less Distractions
In 2016, David Ayer appeared to want to do everything at once. Or DCEU executives, or whoever was calling the shots. The most obvious flaw was the Joker and the bare minimum influence he had in any of it. Not even going to tackle Jared Leto's take on the character. The main issue was that the Joker was in Suicide Squad just to be there.
Additionally, there were simply too many characters lumped together. No one could get a proper introduction or any semblance of an arc, because there simply wasn't enough time. Don't even get us started on that Katana intro. Haven't felt such cringe since 90s boy bands videos.
The Suicide Squad is cutting down on that. Gunn has spoken of how the Joker's relationship with Harley Quinn is barely going to be acknowledged. He has cut down a bit on Task Force X's numbers and has hopefully taken out the cheesy introductions too, because this viewer would not be able to sit through another one of these.
3. Suicide Squad Was That Bad
At the end, how much better something is than something else is relative to how high the bar is set. In this case, the bar is below ground. It's one of these instances where being competent will result in also being much better than the competition.
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Suicide Squad was very, very mediocre. If Gunn can produce a half-decent movie, our prediction that The Suicide Squad is going to be clearly the better of the two is all but guaranteed.
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