The Suicide Squad

[tomandtish]

Didn't see a current thread for it, so here goes.

Overall an enjoyable movie. It relies more on humor than the first one, and the serious moments aren't as serious. It's a good popcorn film. King Shark and Rat Catcher 2 are probably the best two characters, but all of the squad interacts well for the most part.

Now for some more serious discussion.

Spoiler: Large number of squad members

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For those wondering about the huge number of squad members, about half are a "decoy" operation and get taken out in an ambush in the first 15 minutes. The actual Squad is 5 members (joined later by Flagg and Harley who survive the ambush).

Spoiler: Flagg and Harley

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Interestingly, Flagg and Harley are assigned to the decoy operation, which appears doomed from the start. Waller even refuses to let Flagg withdraw when they are obviously blown. While Waller wanting Harley dead isn't a surprise, she must really be ticked at Flagg since she's very willing to sacrifice him as well.

Spoiler: Bloodsport and Rat Catcher 2

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These two develop an obvious Father/Daughter relationship. The interaction between them is very heartwarming (esp. since Bloodsport appears to get over his fear of rats at the end).

Spoiler: Peacemaker

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Imagine someone who loves (or claims to love) America just as much as Captain America, but is the world's biggest phallus-head. That's Peacemaker. "I love peace. And I'll kill every man, woman, and child to get it". He's obviously going to become a bad guy at some point. Interesting that he's apparently getting his own series.

Again, overall a nice enjoyable popcorn movie. Not going to win any Oscars (other than technical ones), but certainly worth watching.

[Mechalich]

Overall an enjoyable movie. It relies more on humor than the first one, and the serious moments aren't as serious. It's a good popcorn film. King Shark and Rat Catcher 2 are probably the best two characters, but all of the squad interacts well for the most part.

Broadly agree. The writing here is good enough that the actors can just lean into their roles and ride along for the madness, leaving an excellent character dynamic throughout. It feels like a film that everyone involved enjoyed making. The jokes don't always land and the hyper-stylized violence isn't always great, but there's enough of both to keep the movie constantly moving and consistently fun.

Spoiler: Peacemaker

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Imagine someone who loves (or claims to love) America just as much as Captain America, but is the world's biggest phallus-head. That's Peacemaker. "I love peace. And I'll kill every man, woman, and child to get it". He's obviously going to become a bad guy at some point. Interesting that he's apparently getting his own series.

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John Cena is comparatively available for a TV role of this kind and comparatively cheap versus Idris Elba or Margot Robbie (and he's the sort of guy who keeps himself in 'action star shape' as a matter of course). He's also reached the point where's he just proven himself enough as an actor to anchor something like this. It seems a very logical choice to me. I'm not sure it will work, but I can see why the studio backed it.

[Tyndmyr]

This was a surprisingly fun film. I'm glad they just leaned into all the comic book madness and embraced the wonkier elements. I mean, DC is chock full of off the wall D-list villains, and really, how much use are they in the sort of somber atmosphere the main DCU strives for? This is the perfect environment for them.

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I was quite happy to see Waller get some come-uppance. She's both morally reprehensible and kind of a terrible strategist. Yeah, she's an iconic part of the premise, but getting her out of the way seems.....satisfyingly well deserved.

Mad respect to the literal army of SFX folks working on this film. They had a seriously huge job.

[Giggling Ghast]

Very good film. I never watched the first Suicide Squad so I can't compare it to the first one, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. James Gunn is clearly right in his element when given the freedom to throw in some over-the-top gore alongside the goofy plot elements. Good casting all around. Props to the small army of CGI technicians that managed to pull it all off.

There are just two things that struck me as kind of odd:

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1) Harley Quinn is an anti-American symbol? Really? Anti-establishment, certainly, but anti-American? Then again, this might be a "Germans love David Hasselhoff" thing and she resonates differently in a country with strong anti-American resentment.

2) What was up with those fish that attacked King Shark? They were just kinda ... there. And they were the only thing in the movie, aside from Starro, that actually could hurt him. I assume they were also aliens and were prisoners like Starro.

[Bartmanhomer]

I was going to do the Suicide Squad thread but tomandtish beat me to it.

Spoiler: The Part I Like And Disliked

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The Part that I like is that there was action and it was fast-paced. The part that I disliked was that some of the villains were useless and stupid evil. It was a good movie. I'll give it 8 out of 10 stars.

[Talakeal]

I am one of the few people who actually liked the first one, this one was all right but not as good.

Spoiler: Minor Spoilers

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Bloodsport was basically Deadshot 2.0 and better in every way. Margot Robbie is great as always, and I love her new look. Rat-catcher was adorable. Polka Dot man was surprisingly compelling.

King Shark was criminally wasted. He had literally zero impact on the plot, and although he was charming, he wasn't quite as memorable as effeminate version from Harley Quinn or the "King Shark is a Shark" version from the DCAU.

I opening scene was a bit weird, from both an in and out of character perspective. I think it would have had much more gravitas if it had been the entire original squad getting wiped out, and much more comedy if it was entirely new guys, but I guess you aren't going to shell out Will Smith money to kill him off in the first three minutes.


I will say one thing though, this may be the most RPG movie I have ever seen. They acted exactly like PCs at every turn, especially the part where they wipe out the rebel camp and the conversations about not remembering people's names.

[Lemmy]

It's a pretty good movie.

It's a shame it's performing so poorly at the box office... But considering it's a quasi-sequel to the first Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey, it's understandable that audiences aren't too eager to give it the benefit of doubt.

[Mechalich]

It's a pretty good movie.

It's a shame it's performing so poorly at the box office... But considering it's a quasi-sequel to the first Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey, it's understandable that audiences aren't too eager to give it the benefit of doubt.

It's also a hard-R movie and that has traditionally impacted box office performance, especially in the US. For whatever reason American families are remarkably open to taking even very young children to see PG-13 films - I recall I many kids who could not possibly have been above eight years old present when I saw Avengers: Endgame in theaters - but balk at bringing them to see R-rated films. This may count double in this time of Covid as young adult and adult audiences without children are more likely to watch streaming versions at home than rush to the theater. I think this might be a telling difference compared to a movie like Jungle Cruise, which is extremely family friendly and did unexpectedly well.

[Lemmy]

It's also a hard-R movie and that has traditionally impacted box office performance, especially in the US. For whatever reason American families are remarkably open to taking even very young children to see PG-13 films - I recall I many kids who could not possibly have been above eight years old present when I saw Avengers: Endgame in theaters - but balk at bringing them to see R-rated films. This may count double in this time of Covid as young adult and adult audiences without children are more likely to watch streaming versions at home than rush to the theater. I think this might be a telling difference compared to a movie like Jungle Cruise, which is extremely family friendly and did unexpectedly well.

That's a factor, but we've had successful R-rated comic book movies in the past, from 300 to the far more recent Deadpool. Until more information comes forth, I honestly think the main cause of this movie's failure is due to its predecessors. Most people don't know anything about its production.. They just see the name "Suicide Squad" and remember how bad the last one was (as well as its kind-of-sequel, Birds of Prey).

Generally, how good or bad a movie is has a greater impact on its sequel than on itself, since by the time people figure the movie is good or bad, they have already seen (and more importantly, paid for) it.

[Wintermoot]

There's a number of factors:

The Delta Variant COVID breakout
The completely extraneous R rating for the sake of saying they have an R rating
Simulcasting to HBO Max
The mediocrity to downright terribleness of its predecessor movies.

WB was hoping for only 30 million out of the opening weekend and they got about 23. So, yeah, not as much as they hoped, but they knew they were never going to earn back the budget based on everything against them. I'm not going to label this movie a failure just yet. It's getting enough positive press and accolades from people who've seen it that I won't be surprised to see a sequel or for WB to think "this is a good path to follow." Yes, they will never make their money back at the box office, and by that measure, its bad, but I think WB knew that and I think they'll use other metrics to determine their internal success rating. At least I sincerely hope so, because I pray we get more DC movies like this.

Personally, I loved this movie. I think I loved it more than most of the Marvel movies to be honest. I definitely love it more than the prior James Gunn movies (Gotg, Gotg2)

First: Starro the starfish conqueror is my favorite DC comics property so to see it on the screen and see it so awesomely made was fantastic for me. It was exactly as I always imagined it.

Second: the movie is the perfect flow including the "false open" slaughter of team one, the flashback to putting the real team together, and the multi-stage steps to accomplish the goal of a classic caper flick.

Third: the compare contract between Bloodsport and Peacemaker. The entire arc between the two of them is perfectly done. a special shout-out to the two of them trying to one-up each other while taking out the rebel camp.

Fourth: King Shark. Yes, he didn't have much impact on the plot, but every scene he's in is fantastic.

That's not to say there isn't problems. There's literally no reason for this to be R rated other than they wanted to be R rated. They threw in two gratuitous nipple shots in the background of the bar scene and a couple gory face-blown-off corpse shots in order to get it over that hump. The movie would've been just as fine, if not better, without those and the PG-13 rating would've probably got them over their 30M hump IMO. But who knows. Perhaps the pre-release negative blowback from a certain brand of "fans" mad about it not being R would've countered it. There's always that small batch of people who just really want something to be R so they can feel like its more badass in some way.

Still... HIGHLY recommend. Fantastic movie.

[Psyren]

King Shark as the ur-himbo was fantastic.
John Cena was surprisingly good.
Polka Dot Man was suitably and unexpectedly creepy.
Rat-lady was forgettable.

Peter Capaldi, aside from one great Doctor-worthy monologue, was completely wasted. I feel like none of these comic book properties know what to do with former doctors (save Jessica Jones), and it makes me really nervous for Matt Smith's appearance in Morbius.

As much as I like Margot Robbie, stopping the entire movie dead in its tracks for Harley Quinn 3 in the middle of it was a bizarre choice. The entire point of that sequence seemed to be to get her into that dress for the rest of the runtime.

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I was quite happy to see Waller get some come-uppance. She's both morally reprehensible and kind of a terrible strategist. Yeah, she's an iconic part of the premise, but getting her out of the way seems.....satisfyingly well deserved.

I mean, did she?

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- She got exactly what she wanted from the get-go (the info not leaked to the public.)
- Starro is dead anyway, and the only country it ravaged was a war-torn Nowhereistan to begin with, so eventually that info will be utterly useless even if it does get out.
- She's still in charge of the SS program.
- AFAIK the bombs are still in all their necks, and all she has to do to re-arrest them safely is find Bloodsport's server, which a Nick Fury character like her will do eventually.
- Apparently the last movie was canon too, so all the people she murdered there still got no justice.

In what real way was there a comeuppance for her? At least Nick Fury had to disband SHIELD and lay low for a while. She didn't even come close to that kind of consequence, and she doesn't even have HYDRA as an excuse for being terrible. Worst of all, what she's doing is the kind of thing both Superman and Batman would be against, but the DCEU is all over the place so it will never get addressed, despite one of her guys having apparently "put Superman in the ICU with a kryptonite bullet," which is the kind of thing you'd think would get you on his radar.

As worldbuilding goes it's a giant mess. I love Viola Davis in this role but thinking about the premise for more than a minute shows what a rickety stool it is.

[CheesePirate]

Rat-lady was forgettable.

Personally I thought Ratcatcher 2 was awesome. Love Sebastian too.

My favourite DC Comics film so far.

[Psyren]

Personally I thought Ratcatcher 2 was awesome. Love Sebastian too.

My favourite DC Comics film so far.

Wonder Woman 1 is still my favorite. TSS is up near the top, but that's more a reflection on the DCEU than this one's own merits.

[Tyndmyr]

Peter Capaldi, aside from one great Doctor-worthy monologue, was completely wasted. I feel like none of these comic book properties know what to do with former doctors (save Jessica Jones), and it makes me really nervous for Matt Smith's appearance in Morbius.

Realistically, Morbius is probably gonna be really rough. I'll still watch it, because I'm a sucker for comic book stuff, and the potential inclusion of the Vulture is interesting. Beyond that? Ehhh.

As much as I like Margot Robbie, stopping the entire movie dead in its tracks for Harley Quinn 3 in the middle of it was a bizarre choice. The entire point of that sequence seemed to be to get her into that dress for the rest of the runtime.

It had more character growth for her than the entire Birds of Prey movie. Not a *lot* of growth, but it far more efficiently does the job of making her an independent character than the previous two attempts did. She's not really my favorite character overall, but I can't deny that she is popular and marketable, so attempting to salvage her character is probably a decent call for the brand, even if it's not essential to this film.

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I mean, did she?

Eh, she's definitely still in the game, but at least she got *some* setbacks. An ongoing villain to maintain the overall premise is fine, but the audience likes to see them at least taking hits from time to time.

In part, we're constrained by the previous movies apparently still sort of being canon. Yeah, just wholly memory holing half the DCU might be for the best, because the DCU doesn't make an awful lot of sense to begin with, but that doesn't seem like it's on the table. For every problem the MCU has, such as "why does Capt Marvel fix that" for half the problems...the DCU has that way worse, given the existence of characters like Superman.

Ultimately, they're unlikely to ever reach the sort of cross-movie worldbuilding of the MCU. I expect the kryptonite bullet will just be forgotten about, without even a nod in the next Supe/Justice League film. That's not really a failing of this film so much as it is an ongoing problem with the whole universe.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Tyndmyr

Spoiler: Comeuppance

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I was quite happy to see Waller get some come-uppance. She's both morally reprehensible and kind of a terrible strategist. Yeah, she's an iconic part of the premise, but getting her out of the way seems.....satisfyingly well deserved.

Spoiler

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Did Waller get splashed?

Then good. Very, very good. I had the unfortunate experience of watching the first movie, and awful as it was, she was one of the very worst parts. Glad she’s gone.

[Tyndmyr]

Spoiler

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Did Waller get splashed?

Then good. Very, very good. I had the unfortunate experience of watching the first movie, and awful as it was, she was one of the very worst parts. Glad she’s gone.

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Without getting into terribly spoileriffic details, it isn't that final. But it is still delightful to watch her get some payback for being...a straight up awful person.

[Giggling Ghast]

I dunno why y’all saying the “R” rating was extraneous. What about the scenes where we see what became of the Thinker’s experiments, which basically amounted to rather graphic vivisection? Did you not see King Shark bite off a dude’s head and watch as the eyes of the dude’s still conscious head rolled around in their sockets? What about when the little birdy pecked meaty chunks out of what was left of Savant's neck?

I could name quite a few other gory examples. This was a pretty hard R movie.

[Psyren]

Spoiler

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Did Waller get splashed?

Then good. Very, very good. I had the unfortunate experience of watching the first movie, and awful as it was, she was one of the very worst parts. Glad she’s gone.

No, not even close. Very still around.

Realistically, Morbius is probably gonna be really rough. I'll still watch it, because I'm a sucker for comic book stuff, and the potential inclusion of the Vulture is interesting. Beyond that? Ehhh.

Agreed.

It had more character growth for her than the entire Birds of Prey movie. Not a *lot* of growth, but it far more efficiently does the job of making her an independent character than the previous two attempts did. She's not really my favorite character overall, but I can't deny that she is popular and marketable, so attempting to salvage her character is probably a decent call for the brand, even if it's not essential to this film.

You misunderstand - I don't have a problem with Harley getting a major sequence, and I completely agree with her brand potency. I just feel they didn't have to grind the main movie to a halt to do it. What I'm saying is that they should have at least tried to tie her little sidequest in with the main plot.

Spoiler

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As an example off the cuff, Nowhereistan's Prince Fanservice can get smitten with her as before (having stupidly mistaken her wacky antics/rampant crimes for Anti-West Anarchism), followed by getting abruptly murdered the first time she notices a hint of Joker red flag. But she was banging a guy from the inner circle of the whole regime, followed by being tortured by his successor - some key bit of information should have come from one or both of them, like the Thinker's whereabouts, the knowledge of the US involvement in Starro's development, or the existence of the hard drive evidencing it. Information she can then deliver to the main Squad (or at least to Rick Flagg, her closest friend in the crew) once they come to "rescue" her.

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Eh, she's definitely still in the game, but at least she got *some* setbacks. An ongoing villain to maintain the overall premise is fine, but the audience likes to see them at least taking hits from time to time.

In part, we're constrained by the previous movies apparently still sort of being canon. Yeah, just wholly memory holing half the DCU might be for the best, because the DCU doesn't make an awful lot of sense to begin with, but that doesn't seem like it's on the table. For every problem the MCU has, such as "why does Capt Marvel fix that" for half the problems...the DCU has that way worse, given the existence of characters like Superman.

Ultimately, they're unlikely to ever reach the sort of cross-movie worldbuilding of the MCU. I expect the kryptonite bullet will just be forgotten about, without even a nod in the next Supe/Justice League film. That's not really a failing of this film so much as it is an ongoing problem with the whole universe.

Other than the literal one she gets from the background characters, I didn't see many hits being taken is all.

I agree with all the rest.

[Wintermoot]

You misunderstand - I don't have a problem with Harley getting a major sequence, and I completely agree with her brand potency. I just feel they didn't have to grind the main movie to a halt to do it. What I'm saying is that they should have at least tried to tie her little sidequest in with the main plot.

I would agree with this sentiment. The Harley interlude certainly felt disjointed and could/should have been more integrated and interwoven. I, personally, have a real dislike of the "hero hangs from chains from the ceiling and is tortured pointlessly" scene that has been done, redone, re-redone into the dirt so many times I just roll my eyes at this point and go to the bathroom if I need to.

that being said, Harley's speech after shooting el presidente was a high point, character defining speech that I wouldn't want to give up. Nor would I want to give up the "harley escapes, finds the others come to rescue her and offers to go back in so they can do it" entire crawl because it was fantastic.

[Psyren]

I would agree with this sentiment. The Harley interlude certainly felt disjointed and could/should have been more integrated and interwoven. I, personally, have a real dislike of the "hero hangs from chains from the ceiling and is tortured pointlessly" scene that has been done, redone, re-redone into the dirt so many times I just roll my eyes at this point and go to the bathroom if I need to.

that being said, Harley's speech after shooting el presidente was a high point, character defining speech that I wouldn't want to give up. Nor would I want to give up the "harley escapes, finds the others come to rescue her and offers to go back in so they can do it" entire crawl because it was fantastic.

Yeah I put "rescue" in quotes because

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her busting herself out was the strongest part of that sequence, followed closely by her character-defining speech as you mentioned.

What I feel a lot of adaptations get wrong about Harley isn't just that she's the manic pixie, brutal psychopath genki girl dragon that the Joker made her into - she's also one of the most brilliant psychiatrists in Gotham. It's something the Harley Quinn cartoon nailed, and her speech in this movie was the DCEU's first attempt at actually capturing that on live action.

[Talakeal]

Yeah I put "rescue" in quotes because

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her busting herself out was the strongest part of that sequence, followed closely by her character-defining speech as you mentioned.

What I feel a lot of adaptations get wrong about Harley isn't just that she's the manic pixie, brutal psychopath genki girl dragon that the Joker made her into - she's also one of the most brilliant psychiatrists in Gotham. It's something the Harley Quinn cartoon nailed, and her speech in this movie was the DCEU's first attempt at actually capturing that on live action.

I thought her talk with Cassandra in the car in Birds of Prey demonstrated this pretty well.


I also think that her DLC for Arkham Knight is pretty cool as it puts you inside her head and you here the struggle between doing what she knows is right / rational and doing what the Joker would want her to do, its an interesting inversion of the usual crazy guys who hears voices trope.

[Dragonus45]

I think it would have been a great way to tie the Harley stuff in if they had her kill off Presidente MK2 during her escape, and perhaps find a way to have her shoot whoever would be third in line later as well so that by the time the rebels go to take over it turns out Harley already decapitated the entire government, and you could probably play that into a great follow up joke joke about her being a national hero again because she shot all the dictators and brought free elections and all that jazz... entirely on accident.

[Spacewolf]

It was a entertaining film, for some reason it went downhill quite abit towards the end as the seriousness ramped up possibly because Starro and Thinker don't really do to much and the city feels pretty washed out. Wallers decision doesn't make sense even in character really she's not supposed to be stupid evil after all. I don't think she planned for the intro to happen as it did either, she just rolled with the situation.

[Ramza00]

It was a entertaining film, for some reason it went downhill quite abit towards the end as the seriousness ramped up possibly because Starro and Thinker don't really do to much and the city feels pretty washed out. Wallers decision doesn't make sense even in character really she's not supposed to be stupid evil after all. I don't think she planned for the intro to happen as it did either, she just rolled with the situation.

I have heard Waller has an aesthetic similar to a depressed person. Her heart is no longer in it over the last 5 years, controlling the uncontrollable. Superman can always save the day so causalities are just numbers to her, and thus not her problem.

[BRC]

I have heard Waller has an aesthetic similar to a depressed person. Her heart is no longer in it over the last 5 years, controlling the uncontrollable. Superman can always save the day so causalities are just numbers to her, and thus not her problem.

I will say the film does not cast a favorable light on Waller.

In my mind, Waller should be cold and ruthless, but no more cruel than she deems necessary. She wouldn't view herself as a Hero, but she believes she is in the right.

The film does not show her in a good light. She either
A) Failed to stop Blackguard from making a phone call with Squad A's landing location and time (And, "Don't let one of your untrustworthy assets literally call the enemy with info" is a pretty basic part of her job) or
B) Sent in Squad B led by a man with a Rat Phobia, and babysitting King-Shark, on a mission that required them to move stealthily through a city.
That bit succeeded because they teamed up with the Freedom Fighters, but the Freedom Fighters were not part of the plan. We had no indication that Waller knew they existed.

I've heard the Suicide Squad described as, less a spec-ops team, and more of a Grenade that Waller throws in the general direction of a problem, hoping they cause enough chaos to achieve her end-goal. And that kind of fit this film?


For me, the moment that tipped the edge was Waller ordering them to not engage Starro and try to save the city. Waller is not a good person, but part of the whole concept is that she views the Squad members as completely disposable. She has one lever to pull when it comes to controlling them, and that's the bombs in their heads, because if you're not useful to Waller, you might as well just die.

With Starro, she goes from "Cold and calculating" to just...Stupid Evil. "Let Starro destroy this city and infect countless people, doing so is good for the government".
Her one argument might be that she's trying to protect her assets (The Squad), but the whole point is that she doesn't care if they live or die. There's no world in which blowing their bombs to stop them from Superheroing fits her general mindset. If they were insisting on charging off into certain death, why threaten them with immediate death to stop them? Either way she gets dead squad members.


Unless the mass destruction of Starro's rampage was her actual goal, which moves her from "Cold and Calculating" to "Stupid Evil".

[Ramza00]

But that means admitting, Waller admitting, she does not have control. And control is what it is all about. Waller is an avatar of the system, incarnated as a tough as nails person. The military industry complex, they do not negotiated it is antithetical to their self image internally, but also their self image externally.

She can't control the people of her suicide squad grenade once she starts negotiating with them.

[Psyren]

*snip*

Yeah it made not a damn bit of sense. Like let's say they left, okay, the world thinks Nowhereistan unleashed Starro and the US's hands are clean. I guess it's Superman's problem now? But where is he? Does she really think there's no danger to the US from that thing if nobody turns back before it's able to reach the mesosphere?

I think it would have been a great way to tie the Harley stuff in if they had her kill off Presidente MK2 during her escape, and perhaps find a way to have her shoot whoever would be third in line later as well so that by the time the rebels go to take over it turns out Harley already decapitated the entire government, and you could probably play that into a great follow up joke joke about her being a national hero again because she shot all the dictators and brought free elections and all that jazz... entirely on accident.

I don't mind this either.

Just something that would have made sequestering her in the belly of the beast for almost the entire second act mean something.

It was a entertaining film, for some reason it went downhill quite abit towards the end as the seriousness ramped up possibly because Starro and Thinker don't really do to much and the city feels pretty washed out. Wallers decision doesn't make sense even in character really she's not supposed to be stupid evil after all. I don't think she planned for the intro to happen as it did either, she just rolled with the situation.

Yeah she really jumped off the deep end didn't she? Which makes her simply sitting in her office at the end while all the mutineers take a coffee break even more jarring. But WB knows that Viola Davis is the second-best part of this franchise behind Margot Robbie so no real comeuppance is in order.

[BRC]

Yeah it made not a damn bit of sense. Like let's say they left, okay, the world thinks Nowhereistan unleashed Starro and the US's hands are clean. I guess it's Superman's problem now? But where is he? Does she really think there's no danger to the US from that thing if nobody turns back before it's able to reach the mesosphere?

The thing is, I feel like you could have gotten the same result with a slightly different outcome.


Waller says "Your mission is done. Get out of there, Starro isn't your problem."

Bloodsport says "We're not going to let it infect this city"

Waller tries to order them to leave anyway, Bloodsport retorts with "We're going to fight that thing. You can blow our bombs if you want, but we both know that's not how you work. You can kill us, in which case you get nothing, or you can help us, in which case you might get some of your toys back. What's it going to be".

Beat as Waller pauses, then she says "Task Force X, New Mission. Destroy Starro the Conqueror by any means necessary. If you get infected, I will not hesitate to detonate your bombs."

Like, make it clear, she's not happy about being disobeyed, but she's a pragmatist.

[Ramza00]

The writers and directors wrote Waller as megalomaniacal and high on her own supply, it was all about control, and she has options she controls like nukes and Superman and she was indifferent to casualties. Casualties are part of the job, in fact dead people do not produce chaos, live people do when they are now cowed thus she used the 1st SS team which had veterans of 5 years of experience, and a noble agent going soft (he abandoned the mission to save his friend of 5 years.) Hell Pete Davidson / Blackguard doing the betrayal likely occurred with Waller’s knowledge.

A different writer and director could write Waller as a pragmatist and not with megalomania and that could be an interesting story. But there are reasons, there are themes that went through the entire movie, and not just the last / third act. It was going to happen the way it did, or else the 1st and 2nd act themselves would have been different.

[Mechalich]

I think it would have helped, slightly, it Waller was given a line that implied she believed the surviving squad members were utterly incapable of doing anything about Starro, which it seems likely is something she strongly felt to be true. That calculation makes a lot more sense.

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And she's not really wrong, exactly. The Starro absolutely smashes the team initially. Bloodsport and King Shark are incapable of doing more than cosmetic damage, and though Polkadot Man does inflict injury, he's immediately killed and it doesn't seem like something Starro couldn't heal. Harley can't even get into position to engage, much less do anything. The Suicide Squad triumphs via deus ex rattus (and man, that island has one colossal rodent problem) rather than anything of their own doing.