In the stillness of the morning light, a war brews. Where Hope once stood unfaltering, unruliness ensued. The fabled hymns of paradise besmirched by the slender lashes of a whispering behemoth.

Are you not happy? Is this not what you wanted?

If certainty was out of the question, defensiveness would be too. But now the days are too late to solve a lapsed, rotten predicament. And so the battle waged on. A war so muddled in filth and hopelessness. What is dead may never die – yet the light in the eyes sit clinging to a sliver of Hope.

But what of forgiveness?

“Can THIS be forgiven? sssssShould it be forgiven?” he whispered.

No.

What is dead may never die, until it truly does. Hope knows this now, thanks to the Whisper. Athena cried in the corner, fingers loosening from her battle sword.

All Hope is gone.

Picture credits: Agata Serge

Can parallel lines with ends that meet still be called parallel? The riddle is solved – the lines meet.

Can one still choose to regard those lines parallel? But what if said person really wants to? Desperately.

It is a blatant deceit. A sham in the very nature of its definition. A façade of something that it will never be – a desperate attempt to fit into a place that it will never belong in.

I studied her countenance. I neither recognized the sullen eyes, the reddened nose nor the quivering lips anymore. I sighed.

She’s fed herself obvious lies. And for what? To sit in a nook which she was always too large to fit in. “But why not?” she tearfully asked. “Everyone else sits fine here… I must too”.  So she purposefully squeezed her form, expurgated the excess and made porous a smoothened surface and slipped unnoticed into the pretense of her “normal”.

She then sat heaving a sigh of content, smiling to herself. “Look… I am normal now! They’ll like me now for sure.”

She looked at me. Her eyes desperately trying to convince me that she was indeed pleased of what she has become. But through her ‘content’, I see the tears. By her disfigured and bloodied being, I see an insatiable need for acceptance. I pitied her but I could change nothing. She will be cursed until the Omega with the gnawing of envy and greed on her insides.

I asked myself but I could never fathom. “Why does Goliath feel the need to be validated by Samson? And why does it that reflects light envy a lump of blackened coal?”

“Lady Godiva” by John Collier, 1897

“Normal”

On the grains of a dry desert sand, sinuously slid a sly scaly slender. It stalked its eyesight-hindered prey with appetite whet, imagining devouring the victim, a bison, whole.

The scaly slender pictured its body squeezing and crushing the bones of the herbivorous titan. The desperate groan of a helpless victim – the vicious strike of a feral predator. “Oh what a feast”, it hissed quietly in pleasure.

Little was known for where the titan lacked in eyesight, it made up for in scent and hearing. After all, swallowing a rotting fortnight-old cadaver the night before made the predator reek, robbing him of any attempts of being stealthy. Sensing imminent death, the bison hurtled off. The snake hissed loudly and recoiled rashly in anger. The predator was identified and all potential preys scurried off. There goes dessert.

Dessert. The snake wasn’t hungry for a meal. The bison wasn’t meant to be swallowed to secure her survival. She attempted it as a sport. Killing because she could. The venom in her veins, the preceding tales of ‘she-who-brought-wrath-and-death-to-the-helpless’, the reek of decay when she was in the vicinity – the tools to instil fear in the inferiors of the food chain. Arrogance. Rashness. Pride. Overzealous. To use ones might to take advantage of an inferior; was it not an act of a Filth in the eyes of the Maker? Arrogance. Rashness. Pride. Overzealous – Consumes you.

The snake skulked through the vacant land, looking for dessert, looking for a snack, looking for dinner, looking for breakfast, looking for lunch, looking for food, needing food, needing to survive. As her greed and arrogance caused all the animals to be preyed on to flee, she wandered aimlessly – aimlessly for at the very least, the smallest bite to survive.

“An insect would do…” she hissed. But not even a spider was in sight. She felt her innards constrict, acidic juices covered her splitted taste buds. She shuddered. She knew what was happening, she simply couldn’t fathom it. A prey to her own created shrine. She desperately looked around for anything at all to possibly satiate the churns of her self-consuming insides. Her eyes widened – she laid eyes on something… a fat squiggling scaly worm of sorts not so far from her head. Without thinking twice, identifying the prey, she leapt to it, sinking her venom through the victim. The meat was tender but muscular. It tasted odd like it was decaying, like something rotting. She then felt weak but kept swallowing as vigorously as she could – she was feeding her body for survival, she cared not of the repulsive taste.

Little did the foolish sly scaly slender know that she fed her body by preying on her own tail. She ate and so she ate. The weaker she felt, the more tenacious her bite on her “prey” became. As fate bided its time, enjoying the satirical irony of the prey being preyed upon, the ever-determined self-slaying snake faded as her fangs shot its venom with every renewed bite. Soon after, death came to the snake as an inevitable fate.

Such an irony-laden tale – An opulently pampered hunger would come back as the very ‘Diablo’, forcing its own master to go as far as consuming her own self for the survival of this carelessly born abomination of greed. How foolish is the mind of a self-perceived superior who uses his might to suppress a perceived downtrodden? How foolish it is of him to think that the universe wasn’t silently watching, patiently waiting for its time to repay his deeds. How swiftly he is reminded where he stands. How fitting it is that the dog ends up gnawing at the master’s hands. Greed consumes.

‘Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia crevit’

 

After the cataclysmic failure of Batman V Superman (according to leading reviewers, that is. I thought it was fantastic! ), Suicide Squad was expected to be the saving grace of the floundering DC Cinematic Universe. Think about it. What could possibly go wrong with an A-List cast, a (not so) original premise of “scoundrels saving the world” (*cough* Guardians of the Galaxy*), the inclusion of Batman AND a newly re-imagined Joker played by an Oscar winner and LOADS. OF. MARKETING. ? Weeellll… EVERYTHING.

If you were under the impression that you’d be watching a movie with all the ingredients of an amazing 5 star movie with loads of story and character development… well, you might need to sit down for this. You’d be getting very little of that. However, I must make it clear that I am not berating the movie in entirety. Bluntly put, the movie is both good AND bad.

To be fair, I rid myself of any prior takes on Task Force X (the Squads other name), comics and animated movies alike, whilst writing this review. I judged this movie without expectations and based my opinions solely on the flow of the plot and the presentation of the characters in the movie. Expect a SPOILER-LADEN REVIEW. Proceed with caution if you’re yet to watch the movie.

Boos:

1. The plot.

Suicide Squad, in my opinion, has 3 plots; one main plot and two interwoven plots which lays the foundation for future movies. My biggest issue with this movie was the way the main plot played out.
While I was fine with the idea of a group of bad guys being sent on a mission to neutralize a teleporting hyperactive belly dancing ancient demon (Enchantress) and her 12+ foot giant brother (Incubus), what bugged me most was how cliché and predictable the climax of the movie became. The fact that DC bought into the current Hollywood Blockbuster trend of having an alien invade and lead a huge beam-like tornado that slowly consumes the world…. which can only be stopped by a bomb was a huge disappointment. DC marketed the movie with the idea that only THIS PARTICULAR GROUP of baddies could be relied upon to save the world THIS time from THIS threat. The movie, however, failed to show that and said failure not only devalues the main plot but insinuates that any other groups could have halted the threat too, if they were available.

2. Character Development.

Besides Harley Quinn, Deadshot , El-Diablo, Amanda Waller and Rick Flag, the other characters were just somewhat there throughout the movie. It’s a pity that these “other characters” that weren’t developed whatsoever had so much of potential. For crying out loud, Slipknot dies in less than 10 minutes after the Squad takes shape and the only thing we know about Killer Croc is that he likes BET!!

3. Batman/ Bruce Wayne.

I felt that Batman lacked that ‘scary-intimidating aura’ when he appeared to Deadshot. David Ayer, whilst promoting the movie, said in an interview that when Batman appears, the audience will witness Batman through the eyes of the villains, and it would be very intimidating sight. Personally, it pains me to say that I felt nothing of that sort. His presence being overshadowed by the father-daughter moment also left me a tiny bit disappointed. Batman’s presence lacked the needed OOMPH.

Bruce Wayne appears in the mid-credits scene and is seen negotiating with Amanda Waller. This scene tells us something that we have already known: the formation of the Justice League. The fact that Justice League has been made known to the world makes this scene utterly and entirely pointless. It just felt as if DC wanted in on the ‘mid-credits scene bandwagon’. Lackluster.

Yays:

1. The subplots.

MADly in love.

I loved how they built the relationship of Joker and Harley Quinn. David Ayer, the director, painted a clear picture that the Joker, although a nihilist, can still love and will stop at nothing to protect it. He is shown to be willing to do anything for her (Harley Quinn) because he truly does love her. *AWWW* This subplot is a beautiful and unprecedented take on two of these infamous characters (on the big screen) and I see it being a possible huge factor to be exploited in the Batfleck Batman movie. I also geeked out when they re-enacted Alex Cross’ cover painting of the ‘Batman: Harley Quinn’ comic at the beginning of the movie!! BIG UPS.

Justice League

Despite the pointless mid-credits scene, I liked that Ayer left subtle hints for viewers to pick up on with regards to the Justice League. Flash’s, Batman’s and Aqua Man’s cameos worked as a reminder that these heroes were bound to meet and fight alongside at some point, hence insinuating an imminent Justice League. Signs of great things to come from the DC Cinematic Universe.

2. The characters of Harley Quinn and Mr J

Suicide Squad showed a perfect execution of Harley Quinn’s character. She was beautiful, funny, lovable, unhinged, and down right in your face. I loved how they faithfully followed her characteristics from the comics but built on it to give the audience a character to love, although her being an anti-hero. You can expect to see LOADS of Harley Quinn cosplays henceforth.

The Joker.

Leto, in my humble opinion, killed it as the Joker. He introduced us to a Joker, although somewhat familiar, is very much different from what we are accustomed to. A vain, unhinged yet intense mafia was the direction taken following the iconic portrayal of the character by Heath Ledger in 2008. Did it work? An absolute YES.
I also love how it is hinted that Batman could have been the cause as to why the Joker was all tatted up and wears grills on his teeth. Theories include that Bats bludgeoned him after he murdered Robin, leaving him ‘damaged’ (can be seen tattooed on his forehead). An interesting theory, which I believe could possibly be exactly what transpired. He is a believable Joker that could’ve and could go toe to toe with the Batman.

3. A fun movie

Should you not ponder on the plot and other negatives surrounding the movie, you’d actually come out of the cinema with a smile. The movie, though not perfect, was indeed a fun one. The perfectly meshed music, visual presentation, and comedy became redeeming qualities of the movie. Those who are oblivious to the history and the characters in Suicide Squad would definitely benefit and enjoy the film most.

My Take:

Suicide Squad, though flaw-filled, was indeed an enjoyable movie. I would’ve rather this movie be a one-off thing in a universe of its own instead of being a bridge from BvS to Justice League. However, I personally feel that the movie doesn’t deserve the hate it is getting. People need to watch the movie and judge it on its own without comparing it with other Suicide Squad stories from comics/ animated movies etc. It is a movie that I would recommend watching, despite the piles of negative reviews from everyone.

I rate Suicide Squad a 6.5/10. Plot wise an average movie but oozes fun which is a redeeming quality that makes it worth a watch.

– ‘Resident Superhero’ Cassian Anthony.

Taken from my Facebook post under the ‘Scribble Garage’ page on which I review movies under the moniker ‘Resident Superhero’