I am surprised this movie is not better known. I keep hearing people say they want a movie where Batman is the hero antagonist, and this is that movie. It is really a Suicide Squad movie, and I hate The Suicide Squad. This movie addresses so many of my problems with them and fixes them.
It is directed by Jay Oliva and Ethan Spaulding. I have reviewed many great movies by them and many sucky movies by them. Seeing them together with another winner makes me happy, like two hit or miss creators teaming up to help each other. It feels like old friends giving each other a boost.
It starts with Waller trying to kill Riddler for currently unknown reasons. Batman saves him, and the portrayal of Batman is established. As a hero antagonist Batman is portrayed more like a slasher villain who never kills that we root for her, rather than showing the fights from his point of view. HE shuts off the lights and our view goes dark. We hear him more than we see him. Sometimes the camera is the point of view of a goon getting beaten up by Batman. Style wise both the words and movements are similar to The Dark Knight Returns. My only problem is Batman's visible pupils. There is a reason Bill Finger got Bob Kane to remove them.
Batman sends Riddler to Arkahm, so Waller gathers her Task Force X to break in and kill him. Her team is Black Spider, the assassin, Deadshot the shooter, Captain Boomerang, the throwing guy, Killer Frost, the killer, King Shark the muscle, KGB Beast, the guy who is there to die (considering he is a devout Russian I would think Waller would hate him and want him dead), and Harley Quinn the Arkham expert.
Unless she is written by Paul Dini I normally hate Quinn, so I am happy to see an exception. For one the traditional costume but with a bare midriff is a very good balance of her different outfits, and it offers some needed color from all these neutral colors (Killer Frost's blue is more icy death blue). She is actually funny here. Also she is introduced watching The Looney Tunes Show and biting somebody's ear off who takes away her screen. She has good tastes in comedy.
Immediately King Shark and Killer Frost start flirting and Deadshot is established as the veteran of the team. Waller reveals she has places bombs in their brains and will kill them if they try to leave. KG Beat tries to leave and is killed. Considering he came back from the grave when Batman murdered him in the comics (yes) I doubt this will last but it surprisingly does.
One of my main problems with Suicide Squad is everybody acts way to chummy towards Waller. Here everybody clearly hates each other except for King Shark and Killer Frost. It is refreshing seeing our team of protagonists not like each other, and they act more realistic for a team of villains forced to work together.
Waller keeps calling them "convicts" and threatening them, and Deadshot promises to get her in the future as payback. Based on their interactions last time Deadshot was the only survivor, and he liked his old team much more than the current one.
Quinn keeps flirting with Deadshot and getting angry whenever Joker is mentioned. She also regularly says "Yahtzee." Both of these have key meanings later.
Waller wants Riddler dead as he took files of all her Suicide Squad stuff and is threatening to put them online. Waller is sending them to destroy the files, and she secretly gives Frost the other job of killing Riddler.
Everybody hates Captain Boomerang. Black Spider even debates just killing him. I think he is around since he is a cockroach. He bugs everybody, but he is a survivor.
The next few scenes are about showing Deadshot's hated leadership. Everybody else knows they are probably about to die and mostly want to enjoy life while they can. Deadshot wants to kill Waller and get back to his daughter, so only he is taking this seriously. He is playing dad to children he hates like the one who everybody dumps their kids on. They put up with him, as he beats them up and gets them from point A to point B. He and Boomerang get along the worst.
They send Quinn to get captured, and Batman is trying to find out where a bomb is. Joker is locked in Arkham but hid a bomb somewhere that can kill half the people in the city. Waller is fine with this thinking it will keep Bats off their tails, while Task Force X is not happy they now have even worse odds of surviving.
They use disguises after that to get in (I see no reason Quinn had to be captured then but oh well). There are around here multiple naked fan service scenes (without actually showing any nudity. It is PG-13 rated, so if that is a deal breaker avoid this movie). Many things go wrong, but they pull through thanks mainly to the quick thinking of Deadshot and Captain Boomerang.
Quinn gets distracted by Joker, and he is great here. His scenes are limited helping him not steal the show. Troy Baker does a masterful impression of Mark Hamill (interesting fact: Baker also voices Batman in many animated movies). Quinn tries to kill him or free him and shoots at him. Joker later realizes she ruined his prison so he can escape. Maybe she was trying to let him out and maybe she was trying to kill him. I think she was trying to let him out. Sure she flirts with Deadshot but she regularly gives him death glares when he is not looking, those shots are too precise to be accidental, and they both like saying "Yahtzee" when happy.
They know Batman and security will be after them, thus King Shark convinces them to play yesterday's footage. Deadshot does not hide that part of this is to throw off Waller so he can killer her later. Fortunately Batman realizes the people on tape are from yesterday's shift and comes to help.
When taking out the security lights Boomerang delays long enough for the alert to come, and only Deadshot is mad since the rest just want to fight somebody already. King Shark does most of the work. This whole time Deadshot and Boomerang are clearly trying to kill each other.
After another scene showing how much everybody hates Deadshot and only keep him around since he is the best in an emergency. Quinn gets them to the convicts' stuff where they find some weapons, the hard drive they need, and Quinn's mallet which she is having trouble moving properly almost like it is now heavier (hmm.)
Then Batman shows up. This fight is great. The music is wonderful. The color gets brighter so we can see the action as Batman takes advantage of their terrible teamwork to wipe them out, bring the house down so nobody can look for a body, knock out Black Spider, change clothes with him, and steal his identity.
He rejoins the remaining 5 members with his own utility belt, but they see the hard drive was not there and Frost has left them to go kill Riddler. When she goes to kill him the camera keeps focusing on the marks from their infused bombs, and Riddler makes the preplanned plea for his life. He knows how to defuse the bomb. She knows he is telling the truth since Waller did not simply blow him up.
At this same time is when Joker escapes thanks to the damage Quinn made. He even takes back half of the horrible things he did to her.
They reconnect with Frost and Riddler. To disable them he needs some technology in the medical center. In probably the only scene in the movie members of the team (Frost and Shark) actually work together to solve an obstacle. Honestly it is pretty underwhelming with how much fun it is seeing our protagonists hate each other. Meanwhile Black Spider dressed as Batman (they hardly hide it) is stumbling around injured.
Riddler's plan is to use all the electricity to overcharge all the bombs while "Black Spider" offers to stand guard. Waller calls them, as Deadshot plays stupid claiming they are in the medical center to deal with Spider's injuries. She activates the bombs, but Riddler disables them. King Shark's shock did not work for some reason and he dies. Joker sees "Batman" stumbling, but before he can kill him he dies from the bomb. Joker uses the commlink in his ear to figure out Task Force X is there.
Riddler figures out who Batman is disguised as. Bats gets Deadshot to spill the beans and Joker shows up. This results in Bats getting shot and fleeing. Quinn leaves the others to rejoin Joker. He hits her so he can confirm the bomb is still int he mallet.
The remaining three are Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Killer Frost. They see all the cops and all the supervillains Joker broke out.
Now the chaotic final battle. A bunch of criminals are trying to break out of Arkham. Quinn and Joker are trying to get out and destroy Gotham. Batman is prioritizing Joker. The cops are focused on the criminals. That leaves Killer Frost, Boomerang, and Deadshot trying to get out as the remaining members...
No, as soon as they see a landed police chopper they can escape in Frost knocks the others over for a head start. Now it looks like the final 2 are the hated enemies Boomerang and Deadshot, but Boomerang runs off too. As should have been expected for a team that hates each other they ditch each other. That is why I hate Suicide Squad but really like this movie. It takes my hated tropes with them like thinking we should root for them and believe they get along and ditch all that.
From what I hear this climax is divisive. Either too dark and confusing or fun and chaotic. During the escape attempt Batman subdues most of the criminals and Killer Frost is killed. Boomerang gets captured.
Deadshot, Joker, and Quinn battle on the chopper with the bomb, before Batman gets there. After all the craziness from earlier I find this ending fight underwhelming. It is more of a typical good fight scene the DC DTV films normally have. My favorite gag in it is the Joker's instructions for disabling the bomb is to cut the red wire when they are all red.
After winning the fight in spite of Deadshot getting away Bats is furious at Waller for all the problems she made. She is not scared of convicts and vigilantes turning her in, as she is unaware of what is about to happen.
My biggest gripe with The Suicide Squad concept is how is Waller still alive. She reveals herself to all these killers after giving them ample reason to killer her. Why not use a fake identity like Rip Hunter does? How is she still alive. In the very end she sees a red dot pointing right at her. It ends with Deadshot smiling.
I love that his daughter is there with her teddy bear. She can enjoy the show.
I really enjoyed this movie. It takes a comic book team I call the dumbest in the industries and makes it very good. It gives a unique portrayal of Batman as the antagonist for an entire movie. The unlikable and evil protagonists really makes this stick out from the other 106 DC movies I have seen. My main problem is the twists and turns are very predictable.
Four Tree Stars.
Next time I am going to make a list of my top animated movies from the 2010s decade. I just need to write a list of every animated film I have seen from the decade. How hard can it be?
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