Suicide Squad - Renegade Cut

Suicide Squad is structurally unsound a film held together by a broken skeleton intelligence agent Amanda Waller has put together a team of criminals her plan is to activate them should a Superman level threat arise which is strange because nearly all of them do not possess extraordinary powers they have guns and baseball bats the only two members with real powers are enchantress who is completely out of Wohlers control and Diablo who often refuses to use said powers also considering Diablo even at his strongest could only go toe-to-toe with a super monster for about a minute there is really nobody on the team that even comes close to meeting the criteria Waller laid out for a task force X and why it needs to exist that being said I can actually believe that a government has woefully overestimated their own strength in the face of a foreign enemy frankly that seems historically accurate even if it was absolutely not the intention of the film narrative contrivances happen or else the movie would not so fine whatever the premise is built on shaky ground but that is actually not what I mean when I say that Suicide Squad is structurally unsound now plot into picking aside Suicide Squad does not work because it's very bones are not strong enough the editing the pacing the tone everything that makes an engaging action film does not exist in this film that's it what we some kind of Suicide Squad the 3x structure is a screenwriting model for dividing the narrative into three distinct parts it has its roots in theatre even ancient theatre but its use in film has evolved the concept only slightly Suicide Squad actually does utilize this structure albeit poorly but as an example I'll use a completely unrelated film that adheres to the structure and used it well Raiders of the Lost Ark easiest example I can think of due to the strict adherence to the three acts structure and the fact that everybody knows how this movie goes even if one has never seen it due to cultural Osmos now is it fair to compare a timeless action-adventure classic to a poorly edited critical disaster with a 26 percent on Rotten Tomatoes I don't know but it's best to explain how something can go right if you want to explain how something can go terribly terribly wrong Act one is the set up a series of exposure Tory scenes that reveal information about our protagonist and his or her relationship with other characters in Raiders Indiana Jones is revealed and the scenes in the cave of the idol and the classroom explained who he is what he does and why he does it his relationship with bellick the principal antagonist is also established in the first act an inciting incident occurs the protagonist learned something important or something happens to the protagonist or someone in his or her life this inciting incident or catalyst either forces the protagonist to do something or gives the protagonist a choice to pursue something in raiders government agents inform Jones that German forces are searching for Abner Ravenwood Jones deduces that if the Nazis are in need of ravenwood's expertise they must be searching for the Ark of the Covenant the pursuit of something is act 2 the confrontation a variety of different things can happen here and for obvious reasons this is usually but not always the longest act in Raiders Jones meeting up with Salah in Egypt everything related to the staff of raw and digging for the Well of Souls is in act 2 during this act in the screenplay something awful happens and the protagonist is at his or her lowest but then resolves to defeat the villain or capture the item or fix the problem or something in Raiders the bad thing that happens is that Jones and Marion Ravenwood are trapped and must escape to stop the Nazis from using the power of the Ark the third act in the film has the climax and the epilogue in Raiders the climax is the revelation of what is inside the arc and the epilogue or falling action is the government agents informing Jones that the Ark has been recovered and will be studied by top men it's significantly more complicated than that and can have many variables but those are the basics now before someone flips over a table and says fight Hollywood system I want a five act movie just I know not every movie needs to strictly adhere to such a structure to the letter to be good but two things about that one even movies with unorthodox structure have some basis in this ancient storytelling method even if the screenwriter does not even realize it and - yeah not every movie does or even should follow the formula exactly but when creating a polished Hollywood product in this case a big-budget action film it is wise to stand on the shoulders of giants and craft a film at least loosely based on how a good story classically has worked David Ayer wrote and directed Suicide Squad he has written 10 movies directed six he has one more on the way and all of them all of them are about police officers or soldiers all of them every last one even Suicide Squad albeit to a smaller degree he is not some avant-garde David Lynch or Nicholas winning reference style filmmaker and even they sometimes follow said structure movies like these require some version of this model this formula and it is completely botched in Suicide Squad I've seen the theatrical version and the extended edition but for the purposes of all of this I'll use the time indexes on the latter act one obviously begins immediately the inciting incident a disaster in Midway City occurs 37 minutes in act two begins 50 minutes into the film when Task Force X flies to Midway city act 3 begins at 1 hour and 40 minutes when after our team has reached its lowest point decides to confront the antagonist it's a 2 hour and 14 minutes Phil m-- counting the credits and you can make the argument that act 3 begins earlier and that's fine but the structure is more art than science more guideline than Law Act one has a lot of problems most of which are pacing that's where the structure of a film helps pacing for the first three minutes of the film we are introduced to the two characters on task force x who get the most screen time and backstory Deadshot and Harley quit okay that's enough right the rest of the plot and exposition will unspool naturally over the course of the film right wrong because then we spend another 17 minutes introducing supporting characters including Deadshot and Harley again to characters we have already met these introductions are terrible by the way I'll save the details of that later this is just about pacing then a full twenty minutes into the film after a scene in which Amanda Waller tried to sell her colleagues and the audience on who Task Force X will be and why it exists she introduces said characters and mission again to the Pentagon she also introduces enchantress to the military officers even though we the audience already know who she is her conflict her relationship with Colonel Flagg and her role on the team this seems like it would be the most redundant scene not just in film but in motion pictures this year that is until the next scene because then Waller flag an enchantress visit the prison and we are introduced to these characters again each of these sections of the first act the initial three minutes then the overly long dusty a montage scenes then the Pentagon scene then the following prison scene all convey the same thing rather than providing new information see a scene is meant to convey information to the audience who are these people what can they do we already knew that exposition should be over by now but it just keeps going going back to the good example of structure and pacing the cave of the idol scene teaches us who Indiana Jones is an archaeologist adventurer the idol is unrelated to the main plot this scene is just information it exists to be entertaining sure but also explain who he is and what he values the immediate scene afterwards expounds on that very briefly to tell us he is educated and then everything after that is about the central conflict of the film if Raiders of the Lost Ark went by Suicide Squad logic and editing after the cave of the idol Jones would then go on to another mission to say Iraq to find another identical Idol and then back to the school to teach a class and then teach another identical class and only then have the catalyst or inciting action so when critics say Suicide Squad has pacing issues this is what is meant by that it is structurally unsound inefficient in its editing and redundant bear in mind I don't think that the length of the first act in it of itself is the problem The Lion King has a long first act before its inciting action even occurs ditto for full-metal-jacket and tons more the length itself is not the issue it's what's done within that length you notice these are criminals psychotic antisocial freaks it makes no sense Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Warner Brothers had dismissed the initial cut of the film and created an entirely different cut with trailer park the company that compiled suicide squads popular trailer two versions of the film airs more somber cut and the studios version that looks like a music video were tested as late as May there may have been some compromises but it seems like the studio largely won and that required millions of dollars worth of additional photography in case anyone is wondering the home release extended cut is not some unseen original version before trailer park got its hands on the film the extended cut only adds a few minutes to the film and virtually all of it is superfluous it does not change the tone or quality of the film in any noticeable way so some of the blame as it relates to the editing of the first act may go to trailer park but it seems like what they really added was alterations to the tone we may never know exactly how much for sure but David Ayer filmed all these superfluous scenes and introductions he was still both the director and sole writer of the film the second act is arguably better paced in the sense that it feels like a second act but we still flashback multiple times for multiple characters it's even worse in the extended edition because we see a completely unnecessary flashback about Harley Quinn and the Joker deciding whether or not they should be together and that's the purpose of the scene and then we get another separate flashback about the same thing I think the first one was cut for the theatrical version for good reason the third act has the least structural problems but it's also the shortest part of the film the biggest problem with the second and third acts is that we are introduced to multiple ticking clocks from a three act model screenplay perspective a ticking clock is exactly what it sounds like motivation for the protagonist to hurry up and stop the antagonist before something terrible happens or before the bomb goes off or before the kidnapper kills the hostage etc in raiders the ticking clock begins when the Nazis captured the Ark of the Covenant and intend on opening it somewhere Jones needs to escape and stop them before all hell breaks loose it focuses the audience's attention on a singular goal and create suspense in Suicide Squad there are multiple ticking clocks which is not always a problem except that they overlap with one another and create a confusing scattershot mess what appears to be the central conflict is task force X rescuing someone from Midway city before the monsters get to her this individual turns out to be Amanda Waller herself while this is happening at the same time there is this secondary ticking clock of the Joker closing in on Harley Quinn and the rest of the team we get constant updates through text messages about his location in relation to Quinn side note here a corrupt guard gives Quinn a smartphone in front of many witnesses and explicitly tells her it's from mr. J how did nobody see this everyone is staring directly at them and listening to them as this happens this does not happen on the down-low all secret okay all right how did sorry moving on this movie is just so stupid alright so a lot of this is happening all at once you may have noticed I keep referring to a singular protagonist when explaining character motivation and plot points that's because most movies have a main character one protagonist in Suicide Squad there is no one protagonist there is no main character there is no character to which the audience can attach selves a viewpoint character an audience avatar the character who learns about the world of the film at the same time the audience does that that we can both sympathize with the protagonist and have exposition revealed naturally ensemble movies can certainly work if everything around the multiple characters is compelling enough but I don't think compelling is a word often attributed to Suicide Squad Deadshot Harley Quinn Colonel Flagg and Diablo get more screentime backstory and motivation than say Captain Boomerang but that only narrows the field to four maybe five if one counts Amanda Waller The Avengers solved this problem by introducing all its principal characters in separate movies prior to the big team-up x-men solved this problem by having Wolverine be the audience avatar it's an ensemble film but Wolverine learns about the team its motivations and its central conflict as the audience does Suicide Squad clumsily uncovers backstory through a deluge of flashbacks and introduces far too many characters for the audience to care about them it's taken some work but I finally happen the worst of the worst let's define tone the tone of a film tone is the mood of a film both visually and in terms of narrative atmosphere the tone can be serious comical or anything in between the tone does not necessarily have to be completely consistent throughout but it should be even enough that the audience can be enveloped in its world there is an infamous tonal shift in the film sunshine the first two acts are a space adventure and the third act is more akin to a slasher film this is not just a shift in the tone of the film but maybe even the genre that being said sunshine is still mostly well liked to this day because the material is otherwise strong enough to survive such a jarring shift in tone Plus at least the shift happens in the third act when things are generally supposed to pick up and feel a bit different Suicide Squad is not a good enough film to survive it's tonal chefs and unlike sunshine said shifts are not confined to one act neatly divided in the screenplay so that it feels like a natural progression Suicide Squad alters course from scene to scene switching from incredibly brutal and ugly to comical the members of Task Force X are frequently tortured beaten and humiliated by the guards and soldiers it is a disgusting attempt by the filmmaker or studio to be edgy but comes across as revolting and phony some of the tone problems come from the after mentioned reshoots and re-edit of the film absolutely but some of it is embedded into the very DNA of the film and cannot be entirely explained away by studio meddling example Slipknot remember him if you don't that is understandable because he's the only member of Task Force X who does not get a flashback or an explanation of who he is through Wohlers files after the entire team is assembled this other character Slipknot just shows up someone says there's Slipknot the man who can climb anything great alright that's oddly placed and tonally jarring considering everyone else got an obnoxious music video to introduce themselves and Slipknot gives a description so short that it could fit within the character limit of a tweet but fine whatever moves the plot along at a faster pace Slipknot is basically a red shirt a character who exists purely to inform the audience of the stakes and consequences that's why the movie didn't bother telling us about him which really Telegraph's his death that is terrible writing he dies almost immediately after being persuaded to make a run for it Colonel Flagg brutally murders him with a remote control head explosion and he swings from his grappling hook harley remarks now that's a killer app in what i'm guessing is supposed to be an applause line everyone's theater experience is different but i groaned audibly when this happened and so did the person who was with me and so did virtually everyone else in the audience it's a dad joke immediately after a senseless killing this is what I mean by problems there is a lot of cringy stuff in the film everything from the romanticization of the abusive relationship between Joker and Harley to scenes of almost sexualized violence against Harley and just violence and threats against women in general context is everything but these are not dramatic scenes meant to establish a threat in this film the violence and threats against women are usually played for laughs I will knock your ass out I do not care to Joe Girardi she had a mouth haha abusing women oh you're so funny you tone-deaf dumpster fire movie the grimy filthy grease of the movie is somehow punctuated with an overabundance of recognizable popular songs on their own they're not bad but the way they are used one after another rarely breaking rarely giving us necessary silence is awful just a cacophony of Eminem and songs that are so on the nose that they become laughable 30 seconds into the film House of the Rising Sun starts playing because we are seeing a place a setting a setting that is bad you know in Louisiana like the song says a full 1 minute later you don't own me plays over Harley Quinn's introduction get it because she's a strong woman who literally wears a jacket that says she is property of the Joker on the back all right clearly the song was chosen long after shooting ended these are trailer songs then less than two minutes later sympathy for the devil plays as we are introduced to Amanda Waller because she's like the devil get it Harley even calls her the devil later and we're supposed to sympathize with the bad guys in this movie yeah two minutes later we get a rap song called standing in the rain because Will Smith and then super freak because oh that Harley Quinn she is super freaky yow then dirty deeds plays as Captain Boomerang in fact performs dirty deeds when we are in the sky we get the song spirit in the sky and the whole movie is like this Suicide Squad features the giant death ray of light that shoots into the sky that we have seen over and over again in blockbuster Hollywood movies this decade here is an incomplete list of said movies it is absolutely insane that the same visually identical climax has been recycled this many times in so many movies over such a short period of time by the time Suicide Squad was in production someone should have said hey let's not do this by the way with a few notable exceptions a giant death ray of light in a movie is a big red flag that the movie is hacky and forgettable so let me guess we're going to the swirling ring of trash in the sky you know cuz why wouldn't we the aesthetic the tone the mood it's the living tangible embodiment of the attitude of teenage rebellion and at the same time a soulless heartless corporation that pretends to be edgy cool while exploiting said teenager it's gross and mean-spirited and happily whiplashes between hateful and snarky because it mistakenly believes those two should go together because both are dismissive dismissive of the mainstream but there is nothing more mainstream that this foe edge Lorde film this pg-13 sarcastic t-shirt this radio edit of an already bad song Suicide Squad was edited in a broken blender but I have a feeling that some Holy Grail version of this film does not even exist at least not the way the fans think it does trailer park probably damaged the overall quality of the film I acknowledge that but this is an ugly film in every sense of that word and excising a few of its post-production maladies would have been more like removing tissue long after the disease had spread many of the inherent problems with this film are deeply structural not merely subjectively displeasing and they go right down to its bones however one if you enjoy my show please consider clicking on the orange link at the bottom my patreon is how all this happens click the circle to subscribe or the image to keep watching you

Channel: Renegade Cut

Views: 165,109

Rating: 4.8842106 out of 5

Keywords: suicide squad, david ayer, warner bros, dc comics, movies, film, renegade cut, deadshot, harley quinn, the joker, captain boomerang, killer croc, katana, diablo, flagg, amanda waller, task force x, comic, superheroes, supervillains, indiana jones, raiders of the lost ark, enchantress, batman

Id: SjT0srEoHEk

Length: 22min 43sec (1363 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 22 2016