Suicide Squad and Sausage Party: August is always just a slew of disappointment, some are just worse than others

Today, I look at the (deservedly) universally hated Suicide Squad and the generally liked Sausage Party.

Suicide Squad:
After the disastrous events of Batman v. Superman (both the actual film events and the crushing disappointment), government agent Amanda Waller puts together a team of superhuman criminals and outcasts to face any major supernatural threats that may attack. When an ancient being threatens to destroy the modern world, this "suicide squad" is dispatched against their will to dispose of the threat. Meanwhile, team member Harley Quinn's psycho boyfriend and master criminal The Joker orchestrates her escape.
    This was a film I was excited to see after seeing the fun and over-the-top look of the film from the marketing. I was skeptical of Jared Leto as The Joker, but after hearing positive reception about his small role I was happy to see what he had to offer. I was devastated when I saw the film.
    It's a film that seems just mediocre when you first see it, but slowly you realize how much you hate it the more you think about it. At least that's what I felt.
    The cast are all just there. The only real stand-outs were Viola Davis, who was admirable as the ruthless and calculating Waller, and Margot Robbie, who, despite some cringey one-liners, was absolutely perfect as Harley Quinn, though her relationship with other team members was underdeveloped. Will Smith was good... as Will Smith. He was just miscast as Deadshot and they try to make this scumbag contract killer into a nice guy because he has a daughter, which somehow excuses his killing random people for money.
    Common just kind of shows up. For about 30 seconds. And then the Joker kills him.... for now reason (cause y'know, crazy).
    Adam Beach appears as Slipknot, the deadliest Squad member in comics, who is reduced to a cameo with one line before he disappears from the film in a comedically awful fashion.
    Jai Courtney does a fair job as Captain Boomerang, bringing a fresh take to the character in the vein of a chav/bogart punk that I found entertaining, despite, again, some cringey lines on his part.
    Ben Affleck has a cameo as Batman, and Jared Leto is absolutely terrible as The Joker. I've already elaborated on his performance before, so I'll link to an in-depth take on it here: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-not-like-Jared-Letos-Joker/answer/Matthew-Cotter-6?__snid3__=328470377&__nsrc__=1&__filter__=all
    Cara Delevingne seems to confuse her two careers, strutting about the screen as if on a runway and not saying or doing much instead of, you know, acting. Her villain entirely relies on her sex appeal to get by and that's kind of insulting.
   The rest of the cast are bland and the movie just comes off incredibly rushed (which apparently it was, as David Ayer, who had a much darker vision for the film, was forced to write in in 6 weeks and had most of it cut in reshoots to appeal more to the success of Deadpool by giving it a forced comedic overlay). Characters are given personality traits they've never before possessed (Killer Croc is now super in touch with his black heritage and is more a comedic relief character instead of a terrifying force of nature like he should be), and all motivations are rushed (even Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, the only character I really liked, is given a forced backstory which he tells in exposition only and even then it's just so the audience goes 'Oh, he had a sad life so now I like him.')
    The CGI effects are abysmal and confusing and the entire film is just boring and ugly to look at. The soundtrack reeks of "focus group" and all the songs are by mainstream artists and the most cliche music choices are made during the opening montages.
    Suicide Squad is trash. I'm not a Marvel fanboy, but I certainly would take anything (even Ant-Man) over this mess of marketing. DC just keeps making the same mistake: playing catch up with Marvel and fucking up their films as a result instead of slowing down and just focusing on making a good film individually. More creativity and effort went into the design of the posters than the actual film, apparently. 4/10 stars.



Sausage Party:
In a local supermarket, foods worship the idea that one day they will be chosen to be in The Great Beyond, a place of magic and wonder where they can finally have sex, as long as they are good now. One sausage, Frank, finally seeks to learn the truth of what lies beyond the supermarket after a store accident leads to a warning from a dijon mustard that the Great Beyond is a lie and what lies beyond is an unimaginable horror.
    Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg bring their most twisted film to date. Turning the CG animation world on its' head, they take full advantage of the medium to get away with sickest, most taboo stuff they can think of that would never skate by in a live-action film.
    The voice cast are incredible, and I won't list them here, because part of the fun of the movie for me was finding out who voiced certain characters. (Sammy Bagel Jr., my favorite character, is voiced by a well-respected actor which I found pretty amusing considering who this character is and what he does).
    The animation is of decent quality, having a nice, colorful palate and crisp imagery. Most of the jokes rely on food and sex puns, which gets grating at times, but there's enough cleverness to balance it out. The plot takes some incredibly unexpected turns that I found both ballsy and hilarious and overall the film was a great time (though I think it'd be better drunk or high, and I think that was the intention all along).
    Sausage Party is a fun comedy with some sly humor and an effective social satire on religion, surprisingly. I say just stop reading this and check it out for yourself. 6.5/10 stars.



(Images: Wikipedia)