It’s another week for another BulletPoints and I apologize
for missing last week. I recently acquired a fulltime schedule as you might
know from having watched out Podcast the previous week. I’m also working on
finding new places to move to now that I can afford to, but I don’t have time
to do anything this week due to a full-over-time-schedule. I literally have no
extra time, so thank Christ I finished this week’s Smash Suggestion Box before the week started. Anyway, Some big news
happened this week in gaming I could talk about. But I know that the podcast
crew and I will be discussing the passing of Satoru Iwata in full detail and
fondly remembering the good times he gave us. Rather than double-dip into that
topic, I’m going to double-dip into the topic of the upcoming DC-films. But
please understand, we have much respect for Mr. Iwata and we will give him as much
time on the podcast to be discussed and remembered properly this upcoming
Friday.
DC’s still playing catch-up to Marvel and it seems that this
year’s comic-con is where they’ve aimed to prove that. They released two
trailers for their first two big films in the DCFU (DC Film Universe) being Suicide Squad and Ben Affleck V Henry Cavil: Brawn of Justice. As we all know, I’m a
Marvel fan, but I’m not a “fanboy” in the sense that I can’t enjoy the
storylines of DC. For example, they also announced at comic-con that the
LEGENDARY Batman comic, The Killing Joke,
will be getting an animated iteration (which I’m excited for on many levels). I
enjoyed The Flash and Flashpoint Paradox. I loved the DCAU
which had Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, and the Justice
League.
What I don’t particularly like is Warner Bros. What I don’t
particularly like is that Zack Snyder films have a tendency to showcase amazing
looking trailers and spectacular visuals but be void of a grounded and logical
story. And I don’t particularly like that Nolan / Goyer films have the same
tone that makes you wish they’d stop trying to be angsty teenagers and just
have some fucking fun once in a while with the movies they’re making about
super-muscular-men in their underwear beating up space monsters. In short, I’m
still interested to see where these films will eventually go, but I’m skeptical
as fuck that they will actually be good because history has proven such desires
will lead us to disappointment if not kept in check.
Let’s start with Suicide
Squad, a movie I have felt from the beginning was an odd choice to start
the DCFU with, given that the existence of a Suicide Squad requires the DCFU to have existed for a while prior
to the films in order for these villains to have been created to some capacity.
But I guess that also makes sense given that the Pointy-Ears V Red Cape trailer shows Batman has been Batman for a
while and is only just recently jumping back into the mix to deal with the
numbskull from Krypton. While this means there might have been interesting
stories we won’t see films for (see Death
in the Family) there are plenty of things we won’t HAVE to sit through either
(ie more fucking Origin Stories).
Suicide Squad is a
mix of several different B-tier DC villains joining forces under the command of
the government via Amanda Waller (DC’s version of Nick Fury). In this film, you’ll
notice plenty of Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and
Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Incidentally, all three are part of
Batman’s Rogue-Gallery and Batman also makes an appearance in the film (and
trailer). Gee, I wonder if they’re connected to the other movie they showed
off? Oh, and Joker’s in it too. Supposedly because the Squad’s first job will
be to apprehend the clown before Batman does.
The trailer doesn’t really provide us with a plot beyond
that. It’s basically, “Here are some minor DC villains you probably never heard
of before and that one from Batman that will make all the fanboys (and some
girls) hard. And also here’s Joker, stop bugging us about Heath Ledger.”
Unfortunately there isn’t much context to really give any proper judgment to
this trailer other than I have no idea what’s really going on and I suppose
that works to keep me from guessing the plot. Though if I had to guess, it’d be
something like…
The Suicide Squad
is cobbled together by Amanda Waller when Joker goes on the loose again, but
Batman isn’t around (pre-occupied with another movie atm). Worried after the
events of Man of Steel, Waller
decides that the safest way to protect people would be to release a bunch of
notorious criminals to catch another notorious criminal. When Harley Quinn (who
has always been obsessed with Joker) finds out they’re trying to take out
Joker, she betrays the team or joins him in some fashion. The betrayal happens
just in time for Batman to show up, stop them, and tell Waller that she’s an
idiot for thinking this idea made sense. 
My issues however are that I’m not a fan of some character
designs. Harley Quinn looks like a normal girl with some dyed hair and that’s
about it. There’s nothing unique to help her stand out other than she’s one of
the only girls (the other being a masked sword-fighter). I’m not asking for
much, but they could have at least tried to give her some kind of costume. Then
Joker’s design still looks fucking stupid. The teeth grill is the dumbest thing
I’ve ever seen for a character whose gimmick is to have a permanent smile on
his face. Short hair is fine, but also why does he not wear a shirt? I’m not
saying he has to, but is there a reason this Joker is playing skins instead of
his usual suit with the vibrantly colored purple jacket? Are we trying that
hard to stand out from Heath Ledger here?
But I’ve spent the usual article length talking about only
one of the films’ trailers. Let’s discuss the other one. Night-Man v Day-Man: Friendship for Everyone. You already know the
premise (it’s in the fucking title), so let’s just hit the trailer breakdown.
First, the trailer establishes that Bruce was in Metropolis
during the fight against Zod and that a building of his was destroyed (filled
with people no less). But according to the paper shown in the trailer, only
dozens are dead/hurt, so I suppose the city-destroying super-human battle wasn’t
as bad as it looked. This film also establishes that Joker is active (see Suicide Squad) and that he might even
know that Bruce is Batman (as some comic writers and analysts have already
discussed). We also see a Robin-costume that has been tarnished by the Joker,
possibly a shout out to the skipped Death
in the Family storyline. Really hope this means they’ll do a Red Hood storyline at some point, or why
bother even showing this?
Batman eventually takes the fight to Superman who is adorned
with Jesus-like-imagery, courtroom hearings, and soldiers at his side because
soldiers believe that the man who fought with another man that ended up
destroying their city needs squishy human body-guards. This leads to Batman
also having to whip out a specialized suit that can deal with Superman’s powers
(ala Dark Knight Returns). But we
know that this is laying the groundwork for FUTURE DC films and an eventual Justice League. Meaning that the two will
eventually have to become uneasy allies. How? 
Lex Luthor of course! He’s his own worst enemy given that he
becomes the common enemy of two of the most popular comic-book icons in the
world aside from Spiderman. From what we see in the trailer, Luthor uses his
tech to clone Zod, making Doomsday – the thing that kills Superman in the
comics (see Death of Superman). This
is likely what also draws Wonder Woman into the fight and possibly Aquaman
(rumored, but not shown in trailer). As to why they suddenly show up, it isn’t
really explained, but I’m sure we’ll find out at some point. Oh, and we also
catch a glimpse of kryptonite because it is a Superman movie after all.
Thoughts? While I get mankind would obsess over Superman in
the two ways shown in the trailer (absolute fear or praying to him like he’s a
god) I find both sides being cartoonishly portrayed that I can’t take this
serious attempt at a serious film seriously. Did you not see the frame in which
Superman is surrounded by worshipers in slow-motion, all of them with an
expression like they just came in their pants because they were able to touch
Superman’s shoulder? And Superman doesn’t look like he’s all that uncomfortable
with the moment either, which is what really bothers me the most.
And while I get Batman is the avatar of revenge, the fact
that he and Luthor are after Superman because they’re afraid of what he could
do if left unchecked is hilarious coming from two mortal humans who have two
radically different approaches to this same problem. Personally, while the
effects look cool, I’m less interested in the main-concept of the film and more
interested in the reasoning behind shoving Wonder Woman and Aquaman into the
film. We know they’ll be there and we know they’ll be there to fight Zodsday.
But we don’t know WHY they even showed up in the first place beyond the fact
the scriptwriter is being forced to set up for the Justice League.
Walking away from the trailer leaves me with this… I think
Affleck will be a solid Batman now that we’ve seen him do some things. I think
all the hype around Superman (within the film) is cartoonishly stupid. I think
that there’s a lot of really hard attempts to make this connect to Suicide Squad and a lot of work to keep
us from needing a twelfth retelling of Batman’s origin story in film. And I
think the trailer is showing us some of the best moments but I imagine parts of
the plot will still fall flat for me. Consider me interested, but highly
skeptical because of Man of Steel and
Dark Knight Rises.
But those are just MY thoughts on the trailers, what did you
guys think? Leave a comment below and let us know! Before you ask, HAVE NOT
seen the Deadpool trailer, so you’re
going to have to wait until it’s out online in full before I will talk about
it. Please be sure to like, share, and subscribe and we’ll be back with more BulletPoints soon! See ya next time!
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