The Suicide Squad (2021) primarily follows six of DC’s… lesser known villains, brought together by the government’s formidable Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). Their mission, with no option to reject it, is to journey to the inhospitable island of Corto Maltese and sabotage the secretive scientific experiments taking place there. Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by Steve Agee), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) find themselves kept (sort of) in line by Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). While the marketing material may showcase a slew of other fun and quirky characters, the film’s title should give you a hint of how that goes.

For the most part everyone fills their designated ensemble role quite well. Idris Elba serves as the stable patriarch figure of the group. John Cena delights as the deranged protector of peace, willing to kill as many women and children as it takes to uphold it. Margot Robbie slides right back into her fantastic portrayal of Harley Quinn, only faltering when the script lets her down (more on that later). Rounding out the baddies, Daniela Melchior provides a serviceable emotional through line for the team and David Dastmalchian is the celebrated new addition. Polka-Dot Man’s depressed sense of humor and unexpected running gag make him the easy standout. The only character that falls apart is Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller. Just like in the last iteration, she comes off as a frustrating bureaucrat instead of a towering threat. This time the film itself even undercuts her presence when the plot demands it.

One of the large improvements previously referenced is that this version of The Squad dives right into the action. It quickly moves past all of the stage setting the 2016 version has to deal with. With no time wasted, our characters are on a beach ready to kill in the most gruesome and entertaining of ways. However, this insistence on jumping right into things is a double-edged sword. By spending so little time on setting up the cast before throwing them into the fray, the film lacks emotional and dramatic weight. At times it is as if a child has grabbed all of his or her action figures and smashed them together, declaring it a battle of epic proportions. The results are undoubtedly entertaining, but hallow nonetheless. The Suicide Squad (2021) tries its best to feed the audience reasons to care about a number of its characters as it goes on, but these sequences are too little, too late.

The next and most important improvement (that guess what, is another double-edged sword), is Gunn’s sense of humor. Whether it’s hitting or missing Gunn swings for the fences every time. An impressive kill-off between Bloodsport and Peacemaker left my theater in stitches. Harley Quinn also delivers some terrific laughs when the film embraces her psychosis and has her fall in love with Corto Maltese’s Presidente General, Silvio Luna (Juan Diego Botto… noted Nick Wright look-alike). She also serves the biggest groans, with poop and 69 jokes headlining. Additionally, some squad members with less spotlight, like King Shark, quickly have their tropes worn out. Although the R-rating lets the film flex with entertaining physical and violence-based comedy, it is hard to walk away from The Suicide Squad (2021) not thinking that PG-13 ratings have previously forced Gunn to be more creative with his writing.

Focusing in on the filmmaking itself, the island setting proves a bit dull. Moving from generic location to generic location results in a visually bland affair. The film does give Harley one colorfully stylized battle (highlighted in the trailers), and it’s probably the most impressive of the bunch. Another scene worth mentioning is a fight that starts off in the reflection of a certain polished helmet. I only wish the film had the confidence to let the shot linger a smidge longer. The soundtrack is also typical upbeat Gunn, but nothing as noteworthy as Guardians of the Galaxy’s.

The Suicide Squad (2021) accomplishes what it sets out to do. It hits the tone of the source material much more faithfully than the first adaptation (by actually providing a plausible reason for villains to make up the team, even though it still redeems our baddies a bit too much at the end) and it more than successfully revitalizes the brand for DC Films by injecting the lovably evil squad with James Gunn’s trademark energy and humor. Unfortunately, it injects so much of both that the film cannot always sustain itself.

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Much like gorging oneself on a bowl of colorful candy, watching Birds of Prey is mostly enjoyable, but a bit too much at times. The film opens with an animated exposition-focused introduction, and its narration and humor falls a bit too far on the “try-hard” side. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) narrates this segment, and her narration continues throughout the film. At times this works, especially when setting up for some of the more comical character introductions. However, it also acts as Birds of Prey’s most egregious fault. Similar to the opening sequence, many of the voice-over jokes fall flat and attempt to hit that “so random it’s funny” button. Even for a film as frenetically paced as this one, at points it is just too much.

Genuinely funny moments are present in Birds of Prey, but the most noticeably fantastic segments are the fight sequences. A jailhouse brawl with the sprinklers pouring down, a tremendously creative funhouse climax, and slide-based combat all give Birds of Prey’s action a much-needed sense of originality. The film also ditches the drab color pallet of other comic book movies and goes all in on flashy and vibrant visuals. Putting the cherry on top of all this, Birds of Prey’s soundtrack keeps the energy high throughout. Only one or two of the songs initially come across as obnoxiously poppy, but even they end up blending into the chaos.

Margot Robbie delivers with her performance as Harley Quinn, with all of the trappings that entails. If you love this incarnation of the character, you will love her portrayal, but like other aspects of the film she can be overwhelming at times. Ewan McGregor steals the show with his hammy and over the top rendition of Black Mask. He does a fantastic job of bringing the mentally unstable and incredibly violent character to life. The only actor that sticks out is Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain. Like many child actors, she does not read her lines super fluidly, but nothing too glaring.

One last peculiar scene to note, Birds of Prey features a direct homage to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). It even packs in a rework of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” While a nice weird little surprise if presented in a vacuum, the wonky editing suggests they had this quite elaborate scene leftover and were trying to find a place to edit it in. It seemed rather sloppy.

Birds of Prey comes in with all guns blazing and does not let up for the entirety of its 1hr 49min runtime. This approach represents both its greatest strength and weakness. The film presents an incredibly vivid and feverish narrative that separates itself from other comic book movies. Simultaneously, that same energy often goes too far and leads to cringeworthy humor and unneeded exposition. Birds of Prey is a fun movie to watch, but also one that comes with a lot of baggage.

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No one expected Iron Man to experience the staggering success it did, much less the cinematic universe it would spawn. 21 films later Marvel has thoroughly proved the world wrong. Those first few films were a massive gamble for the financially struggling company, but boy did they pay off. Even though there were some duds along the way, Marvel kept on marching and improving.

No one remembers the mediocrity of Thor: The Dark World or The Incredible Hulk at this point. No, those disappointments have been washed away by the overwhelming sense of wonder comicbook fans have experienced since 2008. By now, you could even say they contribute to the charm of the first phase.

Doing something no one else has ever done represents true greatness. It does not matter that none of their films are Best Picture worthy. Rather, the sheer scale of their universe deserves an award of its own. In all these years, no copycat has reached near the same success. Marvel stands alone in its accomplishment, and now looks to see how far it can run up the score.

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MARVEL hosts arguably the largest panel at Comic-Con in the famous Hall H. With such high expectations to live up to, especially considering Endgame’s success, they came prepared this year. Revealing their Phase 4 slate, Marvel announced Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Widow. Black Panther 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Captain Marvel 2, The Fantastic Four, Mutants (X-Men), and Blade were also name dropped.

Eternals packs some serious star power. The cast includes Angelina Jolie, Ma Dong-Seok, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, and Salma Hayek. Following a group of immortals, Eternals promises to explore the human condition in another cosmic setting. Wrangling together such talent in such an out-there concept just goes to show the power of the Marvel brand at this point.

Shang-Chi’s presentation opened with a sizzle reel of all of the Ten Ring gang’s subtle appearances throughout the MCU so far. This leads one to believe the gang may play a larger role in Phase 4 than previously thought. The promise of the real Mandarin also piques interest, as he’s a pretty big villain to only end up making a single appearance.

The Multiverse of Madness promises to deliver the MCU’s first film with horror elements. Combining the trippy nature of the first Doctor Strange with a scarier tone would be a great mix-up for the series. Scarlet Witch’s tie-in is the cherry on top.

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the whole event, Kevin Feige managed to get Natalie Portman back as female Thor for Love and Thunder, after she previously swore off the franchise.

For those dying to get back into theaters, Black Widow releases first on May 1, 2020. Follow Natasha during the period between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War when she finds herself on the run.

After all of the big news, hearing Feige rattle of The Fantastic Four and Mutants sent the crowd into a frenzy. The previously Fox owned properties find themselves back with their creators, and the future looks promising for the pair (and The Mouse’s pockets). To end the show, Mahershala Ali came on-stage to announce Blade. So the MCU has vampires now. Nice.

Anyone who predicted Marvel would slow down after Avengers: Endgame might want to double check their analysis, because Marvel certainly plans to stay around for quite a while.

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Far From Home opens with an awkward Peter Parker still trying to figure out his path after the tragic events of Avengers: Endgame. (SPOILER ALERT…but come on) With Tony Stark out of the picture the world needs a new Iron Man, and Peter finds that responsibility thrust upon him. Far From Home very much acts as another coming of age story for the young superhero, albeit from a different perspective.

After begrudgingly chatting with Nick Fury, Peter travels through Europe on his class field trip meeting Mysterio and the Elementals along the way. The rest of the movie involves Peter summoning his courage, protecting his friends, and defeating the Elementals. Hooray. Yup, nothing else. It ends right there. After defeating the villains with no build up in any of the trailers. The ones with no actors attached to them. The incredibly generic (in this movie at least) earth, fire, wind, and water monsters. Nothing else to see here folks. (SPOILER ALERT) If you do not want one of the most obvious twists in the history of superhero movies spoiled for you (one that happens pretty early on in the film), you should stop reading here.

Okay, so if you made it past the spoiler alert you were at least a little suspicious of a guy named Mysterio; good for you. Anyway, Jake Gyllenhaal puts on a wonderful performance as the main antagonist, excellently playing off of a vulnerable Peter Parker. The father-son dynamic between Tom Holland and Gyllenhaal comes through perfectly, and not much more could be asked of the duo.

The supporting cast including Peter’s classmates, MJ (played by Zendaya), and Nick Fury (more on him later) delivers competent to great performances throughout the movie. The soundtrack is the standard MCU fare, nothing too outstanding or noteworthy. There are some exciting shots, but again, nothing too out there. Camera framing plays it safe and sweet.

While you may shrug those technical aspects off as what you have come to expect from the MCU, the CGI disappoints. Barring the final two major set pieces of the movie, the CGI was surprisingly ineffective. Especially in the first half of the movie with the Elementals, it was not up to the standard Marvel’s universe has set. Several shots of Spider-Man swinging into frame looked flimsy and weightless, with other similar scenes receiving the same treatment. Far From Home manages to pull the effects together for the final act (and what an amazing, gorgeous, psychedelic finale it is), but the first half could have used more of the budget.

Continuing this first vs second half trend, the former also delivered most of the unfortunately poor jokes. Many MCU movies use quips as a crutch since they lack situational comedy, but Far From Home packs plenty of legitimately funny moments on its own. So it is surprising director Jon Watts felt the need to cram in as many quips as he did. The end result feels overbearing, with too many ineffective lines competing for your attention.

The final complaint comes down to Mysterio’s origin. It works in the thematic context of the film, but Marvel has gone to this well so many times before. Mixing it up would have cemented Mysterio as one of the MCU’s greatest one-off villains, instead of an only “very good” one.

Of course you will also want to stay for the two (one mid and one post) after credit scenes. Out of all of the MCU post credit scenes, these probably had the largest direct impact on the film they were attached to. The mid credits scene presents a hilarious cameo along with huge set up for the future of Spider-Man and Phase Four. The post credits scene delivers further Phase Four set up (and possibly some for a Captain Marvel sequel?), while also retroactively fixing some performances from earlier in the film. Whether it was entirely intentional or not, Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal of Nick Fury becomes drastically better after watching the post credits scene.

Overall, Spider-Man: Far From Home delights. Minor technical and quipping issues do not hold back the shine of Marvel’s most popular comicbook hero. With excellent chemistry between the leads, legitimately well done situational comedy, breathtaking third act set pieces, and a bizarrely accurate portrayal of modern high-school students, you cannot help but smile through to the end. Far From Home is easy to recommenced to MCU die-hards and casual moviegoers alike (more so than most recent Marvel films).

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It seems Disney really wants to beat Avatar at the box office, but this weak offering might not have the draw to do it. The introduction, tribute, and deleted scene will pop up on YouTube within an hour, and the sneak peak doesn’t offer much when you can wait four days for the full release.

Endgame currently (as of June 25th, 2019) needs roughly $38M to surpass Avatar for the title of highest grossing film of all time. With this last push it will come down to the wire.

Tell us what you think of these Avengers: Endgame rerelease details and how you think this will play out below.

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