Hey,
So I’ve read through this and watched your video, and I have some thoughts!
Regarding the jokes not landing: I wonder if this has anything to do with where we watched the movie. Did you watch it through HBO Max? I saw it in theaters, and I think the fact that I was surrounded by people who were constantly laughing may have contributed to my experience. I thought there were a lot of painfully unfunny jokes in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but a solid 95-99% of the jokes in this movie completely landed for me. There were moments where I was laughing so hard I ended up missing some lines of dialogue.
Anyway, regarding what I liked about the movie from a writing standpoint: I think the movie has two very smartly developed threads that help it all feel connected for me, even if certain segments of the movie (like Harley Quinn’s sidequest) don’t feel like they contribute much to the plot in a technical sense.
The first thread is the commentary on American interventionalism. The idea that the American government doesn’t care at all for the people in this other country but only in protecting themselves and serving American interests, at the expense of everyone else (even the American soldiers), is something that’s surprisingly based for a comic book movie. Not only that, but it’s something that is established early on, built up further in the second act, explored even more in the third act with the Flagg/Peacemaker/Ratcatcher conflict, and then followed through completely when the Squad decides to fight the alien anyway, even if it seems to go against the interests of their own government.
The other thread is the character arc of Bloodsport, which I’d consider to be the highlight of the film. In your video you say that “not once throughout the film does Bloodsport even think or mention his daughter,” but there is a moment when he’s talking to Ratcatcher where he does mention her. He says Ratcatcher reminds him of his daughter, and throughout the rest of the film, he and Ratchaser’s relationship has an increasingly tender father-and-daughter vibe to it.
With Bloodsport’s conversation with his daughter in the beginning, my takeaway is that he does genuinely care for her, but is too repressed by his past trauma to ever open up emotionally in a way that would make him capable of being a good father. We learn a little later that the reason Bloodsport’s afraid of rats is because of how closely connected rats are with the abuse he suffered as a child. This is where I think the movie does something kinda genius: to Bloodsport, Ratchaser symbolizes both the abuse he suffered as a child and his desire to be a better father to his daugher, who Ratchaser reminds him of. The Bloodsport/Ratchaser dynamic is the heart of the movie. It’s through his relationship to her that he learns to move past his trauma and become a more emotionally open person, which is what allows him to be the “leader” Waller says he’s become at the end. Bloodsport petting the rat at the end works so well for me as a closing note because it’s basically the movie saying, “He’s ready to be a father now.”
While other characters have fairly simple character arcs—Harley’s seems to just be a continuation of her arc from her previous two movies, King Shark just wants to have friends (aww), Polkadot man is just comic relief, and Flagg and Peacemaker don’t change much IMO—the movie works well for me because Bloodsport’s arc and the themes of American interventionism are consistently explored throughout the whole thing, and they converge very effectively for me in the final act when Bloodsport shoots Peacemaker (therefore saving the life of his metaphorical daughter and murdering the physical embodiment of American nationalism at the same time).
I also think the movie did a pretty job of avoiding the typical “big dumb monster fight at the end.” While yes, there was a big monster fight, the alien was rarely ever the focal point of the conflict. The main conflict was between Peacemaker and Flagg (following through on the American interventionalist themes established previously) and then on the Bloodsport/Waller confrontation. As much as the alien is causing trouble throughout those final forty-five minutes, only for a small section does the conflict ever get as simple as just “protagonists fight monster," which is where so many superhero movies spend way too much time.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I wouldn’t call this movie messy so much as just very episodic, with the structure of a typical comic book. (Granted, I don't read many comic books, so maybe I can't say "typical" with any authority. However, the pacing in this movie did remind me of the loose feel of the Sandman comics, which I've been enjoying rereading lately.) Also, I really love King Shark. He's somehow adorable even when he's eating a man.
