THE SUICIDE SQUAD : Tuesday 19th October 2021.

I finally got around to seeing 'THE SUICIDE SQUAD' on the big screen now that cinema's have reopened across greater Sydney in the past ten days or so, following almost four months of COVID-19 forced lockdown. Written and Directed by James Gunn, this standalone sequel to 2016's 'Suicide Squad' (Directed by David Ayer) is the tenth film in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe). Gunn's previous film making offerings include his directorial debut in 2006 'Slither', 'Super' in 2010, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' in 2014 and 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' in 2017, with 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' currently filming and due in 2023. 'The Suicide Squad' was released in the UK in late July, and in the US in early August while streaming on HBO Max for a month starting the same day. It has generated positive critical reviews, although has been a Box Office let down recouping just US$168M so far from its production budget outlay of US$185M.

Here then, A.R.G.U.S. Director (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans) Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles two Task Force X teams, known as the Suicide Squad that consist Belle Reve penitentiary inmates (a high security metahuman prison), who reluctantly agree to carry out missions for Waller in exchange for having ten years shaved off their sentences, while at the same time having explosive devices injected into their necks which Waller can activate at any given time should the need arise. The teams are sent to the island nation of Corto Maltese, located off the South American coast, after its government is overthrown in a military led coup by an anti-American regime. They are tasked with destroying the Nazi-era laboratory, Jotunheim, which holds a secretive experiment known as 'Project Starfish' as well as conducting clandestine experiments on human subjects, led for the past thirty years by lead scientist Gaius Grieves aka The Thinker (Peter Capaldi). 

The first team is led by Waller's subordinate Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and comprises Brian Durlin aka Savant (Michael Rooker), George 'Digger' Harkness aka Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Cory Pitzner aka T.D.K. (The Detachable Kid) (Nathan Fillion), Gunter Braun aka Javelin (Flula Borg), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Richard 'Dick' Hertz aka Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Mongal (Mayling Ng) and Weasel (Sean Gunn). They are almost entirely wiped out by the Corto Maltese military upon landing, with only Harley Quinn and Rick Flag escaping the fray. This distraction allows the other team to enter the country undetected, from a beach on the other side of the island. The second team is led by assassin Robert DuBois aka Bloodsport (Idris Elba), who accepted the mission in order to prevent his daughter Tyla (Storm Reid) from being incarcerated at Belle Reve, and consists of Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Abner Krill aka Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and Cleo Cazo aka Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior). 

After Flag is deemed to be still alive albeit being held captive, Bloodsport and his team systematically kill all those guarding the campsite only to discover that Flag is sat relaxing and enjoying a cold beer with the leader of a group of rebel soldiers fighting the resistance against the new regime Sol Soria (Alice Braga). Despite all of Soria's foot soldiers and resistance fighters being killed off, she agrees to assist them. 

Harley Quinn survives the attack on the first team and is taken captive by the Corto Maltese government, after killing the new President Silvio Luna (Juan Diago Botto) with whom she had a one night stand during which she learned from him of the new regime's plans to use Project Starfish against other nations, most notably America, Russia and China. Mateo Suarez (Joaquin Cosio) the Major General of Corto Maltese interrogates Quinn by having her strung up and goaded with an electric cattle prod to the stomach. In the Corto Maltese capital, the second team captures the Thinker, the lead scientist in charge of Project Starfish, in a bar and is ushered out the back door by Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man just as the military arrive and detain Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag. Needless to say it doesn't end well for the three military guards escorting their three new prisoners in the back of an armoured vehicle or the two upfront in the driver and passenger seats. Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot Man, King Shark, the Thinker and Milton (an Associate of Task Force X) arrive in a beat up old Toyota bus to retrieve Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag.

Meanwhile, Quinn using the power of her thighs strangles her interrogator and using the dexterity of her foot retrieves the padlock key from the now dead interrogator, turns herself upside down, inserts the key into the padlock and turns the key so unlocking it and freeing herself. She then goes on a killing spree wiping out every guard who happens to be in her path either in a hail of bullets, or using the golden javelin bequeathed to her by Javelin just before he died on the beach a couple of nights ago, or by breaking necks from some accurately landed high kicks or savage punches. You never should underestimate the wrath of a woman scorned! 

And so Harley successfully escapes and joins the others, who use the Thinker to gain access to Jotunheim. As the Squad rigs up the facility with explosives, Flag and Ratcatcher 2 enter the laboratory with the Thinker, where they witness the fruits of all of his clandestine human experiments. He tells them that Project Starfish is Starro the Conqueror, a giant alien starfish that is able to create thousands of smaller versions of itself to kill people and take control of their minds and bodies. Starro was brought to Earth by the US government, who have been secretly funding experiments on him in Corto Maltese for the past thirty years and using thousands of its citizens as test subjects. Upon learning this, Flag decides to leak a hard drive containing evidence of this news but is killed by Peacemaker who is under secret orders from Waller to cover up the US's involvement in the experiments, and the existence of Starro.

Meanwhile, a skirmish between the Squad and the Corto Maltese military lead by Major General Suarez results in Polka-Dot Man accidentally setting off the explosives prematurely. As the facility slowly begins to implode and fall apart, Peacemaker catches up with Ratcatcher 2 and is poised ready to kill her for knowing the truth about Starro, but Bloodsport shoots him instead and takes the drive, so sparing Ratcatcher 2. 

Starro escapes from the now destroyed laboratory, kills the Thinker and the majority of the military personnel on the ground, and begins taking control of the island's population by releasing thousands of smaller starfish which latch onto the faces of the victims, so suffocating them almost immediately before taking control of their minds and bodies at which point they are revived - zombie like. Waller tells the Squad that their mission is complete now that Jotunheim is destroyed, but Bloodsport chooses to ignore her and leads his teammates in battling Starro, while Waller is knocked out by one of her subordinates using a golf club across the back of the head, back at Task Force X HQ to prevent her from executing the squad. 

During the battle, Polka-Dot Man is killed, Harley pierces a hole in Starro's eye using the javelin, and Ratcatcher 2 summons the city's rats to chew the alien to death from the inside. With the military diverted, Soria takes control of the government by gunning down all of the corrupt officials and pledges democratic elections. Bloodsport forces Waller to release him, Harley Quinn, Ratcatcher 2 and King Shark from their imprisonment, and to swear not to go after his daughter Tyla, in exchange for keeping the contents of the drive confidential to which she has little choice but to agree. The remaining Squad is airlifted out of Corto Maltese.

It's easy to see where Director James Gunn filtered away a production budget of US$185M, and it's equally as easy to see why this film has yet to recoup that initial investment. 'The Suicide Squad' is a silly film full of largely one dimensional characters that we have very little investment in by way of back story apart from one or two glib sentences in passing from the main characters; there is plenty of cussing and swearing; the humour seems aimed mostly at fifteen year old boys; there is lots of blood and gore; and the action sequences are so over the top that it really does remind you that you're watching a comic book adaptation after all. As for the giant alien starfish, Starro, well that reminded of the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the 1984 'Ghostbusters' film, just a little more menacing. On the positive side, Gunn's absurdist direction shines through in this no holds barred, fast paced, ultra violent, piece of nonsense that doesn't take it self too seriously, has moments of sardonic humour, and is visually everything you would expect from a movie such as this. Worth watching on a big cinema screen just for the spectacle of the action sequences which Gunn delivers with aplomb and of which there are plenty to satisfy the most die hard fans of the genre. The film also stars Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher, the father of Ratcatcher 2 who is dead but is seen in memory flashbacks by his daughter. Also, remain in your seat for the post-credits sequence.

'The Suicide Squad' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BRIGHTBURN : Tuesday 28th May 2019.

I saw 'BRIGHTBURN' this week, and here we have something new and seemingly fresh - a superhero horror film as Directed by David Yarovesky, Written by Mark and Brian Gunn (cousin and brother of James Gunn respectively) and Co-Produced by James Gunn. Costing US$7M to bring to the big screen, has so far taken US$19M since its release in the US last week too, and has so far garnered generally mixed or average Reviews.




The film opens up in 2006 and we are introduced to Tori and Kyle Breyer (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman respectively) who after a difficult struggle with fertility, have their dreams of parenthood come unexpectedly true with the arrival of a mysterious baby boy who crash lands on Earth somewhere in the vicinity of Brightburn, small-town Kansas, from another world it appears. Upon finding the infant, in the woods behind their farm, the couple decide to keep their discovery a secret and adopt the child as their own, calling him Brandon.

Fast forward twelve years and now approaching his teenage years Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) hears strange voices inside his head late one night. Over the next few days Brandon comes to the realisation that he has some very special powers, including a high degree of invulnerability to any pain or injury. This is evidenced when Kyle asks Brandon to mow the grass out in the paddock. Frustrated with getting the motor started on the mower, Brandon yanks so hard on the starter cable that he sends the mower flying skyward about one hundred meters into the distance. It lands in an upturned state with the rotor blades exposed and still running. Brandon saunters up to the mower, and promptly sticks his hand into the rapidly rotating blade, which brings the mower to an abrupt halt with the blade buckled beyond repair, and nary a scratch to young Brandon's hand.

Later that night, Brandon sleepwalks to the barn, and is seen trying frantically to open a chained and bolted trapdoor in the floor which contains the wreckage of the alien spacecraft that brought him to Earth. Tori was awakened by a red glowing light emanating from the barn and went to investigate. She sees Brandon crouched down at the trapdoor and wakes him, at which he is startled and doesn't know what he is doing there.

Over the ensuing days Brandon become more distant from his parents, more disobedient and more disrespectful of them. One morning over breakfast, Brandon is distracted by other thoughts and begins chewing on his fork, mangling it. Kyle witnesses this, and begins to suspect that something is not quite right with his son. That night Brandon visits the bedroom of fellow classmate Caitlyn (Emmie Hunter) and stares at her from behind the curtains until she notices him. She screams out, and when her mother enters the room he is gone. The next evening, when Kyle is securing the barn for the night, he hears a commotion from the adjacent chicken coup. Going to investigate he comes across Brandon glaring menacingly at said chooks. Later that night Kyle is woken by the sound of the chickens giving it all they've got. By the time he reaches the coup, all the chickens have been slaughtered. Tori claims it was the work of a wolf, but Kyle is more convinced it was the work of Brandon.

The next day at school, during a trust fall exercise Brandon is placed in the centre of the ring with his fellow classmates all tasked with catching him as he falls backwards. When Brandon is passed in the direction of Caitlyn she allows him to fall by stepping aside as she did not want to touch him after their previous episode. Brandon bangs his head on the ground but is unhurt. Caitlyn is tasked by the teacher to help Brandon get up. Reluctantly she stretches out a hand, which Brandon grabs and promptly crushes so breaking her hand. In a meeting of the parents in the Principal's Office, Brandon who has risen to the ranks of star pupil at the school, is suspended for two days by the Principal, and orders him to meet with his aunt Merilee McNichol (Meredith Hagner), the school Counsellor, afterwards.

A few nights later Tori finds her son levitating above the open glowing bright red trapdoor containing the hidden spaceship, repeating the words 'take the world' in an alien language that he hears inside his head again. Her interruption results in him falling and cutting his hand against a jagged piece of the spaceship - the first time in his life he has ever been injured or bled. Tori returns Brandon to the farmhouse and tends to his injury and then reveals the truth to him about his arrival on Earth. Despite her explanation and placing a positive spin on those events and his upbringing, Brandon leaves in a rage, claiming that they lied to him all these years.

Brandon visits Caitlyn once again at her house, who tells him that her mother has forbidden her from talking to him. Furious, a masked Brandon murders Caitlyn’s mother in the town’s diner where she works. During the first of the counselling sessions at the school, Merilee becomes concerned about Brandon's lack of remorse about his injuries to Caitlyn, and tells Brandon that she is required to report his progress to the local Police. 

Later that evening Brandon appears at Merilee's home unannounced to intimidate her into not reporting her concerns to the Police. A short time later, her husband Noah (Matt Jones) returns home after shooting some pool and enjoying a few beers at the local bar with Kyle and other friends. Noah finds Brandon hiding in their closet and furiously attempts to return him to his parents. Brandon attacks Noah in the driveway of their home, but escapes in his car. Its not long however, before Brandon catches up with the fleeing vehicle and kill Noah by wrecking his car - levitating it, turning it upside down and dropping it from a significant height with him inside. 

Tori and Kyle learn of Noah's death the next morning and are alarmed when Brandon does not emotionally react to the news of the death of his favourite uncle. Kyle attempts to explain to Tori that Brandon must've killed Noah, but she won't have any of it, so leading to a rift in their relationship. To make amends, Kyle plans a hunting trip with Brandon the following weekend under the guise of repairing his relationship with his son. While in a secluded woodland area, Kyle shoots Brandon in the back of the head only to have the bullet bounce off, unharming Brandon. Heartbroken and distraught, Brandon overpowers his father and using his laser vision burns through Kyle's eyes and straight out of the back of his head, dead!

Meanwhile, Tori is visited by the local Sheriff, Deputy Deever (Gregory Alan Williams) who shows her photographs of a symbol found at both the diner and Noah's accident scene - Brandon's signature mark. After sending the Sheriff away without a warrant, Tori searches through Brandon's room and finds his notebook, which contains drawings depicting graphic acts of violence and the various murders in addition to his repeated scribblings of his now familiar signature mark. Finally coming to terms with the full extent of Brandon’s involvement in the recent deaths, Tori frantically attempts to call her husband only for Brandon to answer his phone and inform her that her husband is dead.

Brandon returns home and begins destroying the house around Tori. She manages to find some temporary refuge to call the Police. Upon the Sheriff's arrival Brandon is seen to be levitating above the house. He sweeps in and brutally murders the Sheriff and then another responding officer. Escaping through a bedroom window, and landing awkwardly, and limping Tori makes it to the barn where the spaceship is located. Having remembered that it cut him, Tori arms herself with a sharp piece of the spaceship that she breaks off to use as a makeshift dagger.

Brandon finds Tori in the barn, who tries to settle him down. Tori assures Brandon that she still loves him no matter what, and that she has every confidence that there still remains good inside him. Once they embrace, Tori tries to stab him from behind with the makeshift dagger but fails. Enraged by her betrayal, Brandon holds onto Tori and flies her high above the clouds and then lets her fall to her to her death as a plane approaches him. Brandon crashes that plane into the Breyer farm, killing everyone onboard.

In the aftermath, news reports about the deaths of Brandon's parents and his other victims are attributed to the crash. Brandon is seen eating a cookie from the back of an ambulance, with his trademark signature inscribed on the planes fuselage in blood. Final reports show Brandon, nicknamed 'Brightburn' in the media, creating havoc, destroying buildings, setting forests ablaze, killing numerous people and leaving his signature on the landscape - seemingly afraid of no-one and nothing - because after all, he's only a young lad!

Basically 'Brightburn' is an alternative twist on 'Superman' with our red caped mild mannered Superhero out to save the world and do good by all of humankind is replaced by a similarly red caped evil inclined Superhero out to destroy the world and bring all of humankind to its knees. They both crash landed somewhere near small town America from some far away solar system, on a farm, were raised by good well meaning gentle folk, and from a young age came to the realisation that they were both special and possessed super powers - bullet proof, super human strength, stamina, speed, the ability to fly, laser vision, and an invincibility to anything man made. One chose to do good with his powers and the other pure evil. It's an interesting premise, that I was pleasantly surprised by given the average Reviews read prior. The film doesn't stop short on the gory aspects of Brandon's extreme acts of violence towards his victims, and at a lean 91 minutes running time the film moves along a good pace. The supporting characters are however, one dimensional, and in Brightburn it seems no-one is intelligent enough to spot a no-good early teen wreaking murder and mayhem most foul in the local community - not the Counsellor, nor the Sheriff, and not even his parents until it costs them their lives.  That said, it's good to see an alternative Superhero offering in this day and age of Superhero overload, and view the crowded genre from the other side of the tracks. You don't need to watch this on the big screen and can easily wait for the BluRay, download or your streaming service to catch it from the comfort of your own couch or mobile device. If successful the Producers have hinted at a sequel already, which was partially set up in a mid-credits sequence starring Michael Rooker as The Big T, an online TV channel conspiracy theorist and broadcaster.

'Brightburn' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-