'Suicide Squad' and 'Rogue One' Had the Same Problem

The problem I'm referring to is having too many characters and too little characterization. I think the following scene epitomizes what I'm talking about.


www.youtube.com...

At that point in the film, the characters have barely been introduced. I think it's a flawed type of storytelling:

1. Introduce a bunch interesting characters as fast as possible with little or no characterization.

2. Put the characters in dangerous and interesting situations that mostly involve as many special effects as possible.

You've got characters with lots of potential, but the fatal problem is that we never get to know any of them well enough to care what happens to them. The result is a special effects extravaganza that means nothing to most of the audience.

Both Suicide Squad and Rogue One followed this same formula, and I thought they were both awful because of it.

Before anyone starts telling me that all fantasy films are like that, consider The Lord of the Rings films, the original Star Wars trilogy, and the original Batman film series (with Michael Keaton as Batman).

I think this may be happening because simple stories with less characterization and more special effects are probably easier to sell globally.

I think it has a lot to do with a preconceived notion that most have the attention span of a cocker spaniel.
Not to mention, Suicide Squad was mostly about parading around Margot Robbies' a## in almost every shot.

Personally, I haven't seen Rogue One so I can't fairly comment on the comparison. However, I agree with your assessment of Suicide Squad. When we are introduced to characters, the descriptions on screen were flashed so quickly, I had to wait for a personal copy to read all the little bullet points, which in some cases, were important and very interesting facts. Take Killer Kroc...it describes him as over 7ft. tall, and yet he was no where near that on screen. Maybe that's why they sped through those bullet points.

With that said, you saved me some dough as far as Rogue One, thanks!
Lol.

a reply to: EternalShadow

If anyone's interested in all the characters in Rogue One, it looks like the video below is more entertaining than the whole movie was.


www.youtube.com...

I think there should be a movie specifically about Harley Quinn. I just hope it has a different director, and a different actor playing the Joker. If Margot Robbie plays Harley Quinn alongside someone like Heath Ledger, Jim Carrey, or Jack Nicholson as the Joker...I'll watch that movie.

a reply to: Profusion

I haven't seen Rogue One, and don't intend to unless forced, Suicide Squad needed another 30 minutes at least. It all rode on Will Smith being Will Smith, which works, he can carry weak films. Harley Quinn I was expecting not to take to, I thought she'd irritate me, but they developed her character well I thought, and Margot Potter is great in most everything she's done, so I loved her by the end. The fights for me were deeply anti-climatic, and very disappointing, and for me it is that that needed the padding out. Just not enough action for my taste. I'm not really expecting character driven plots when watching franchise movies though.

a reply to: Profusion

I agree with SS, it was a mess. It was entertaining but definitely a mess.

I thought Rogue One was Damn good. I disagree about them trying to jam in characters.

No character development, bad writing, too much dependence on CGI effects, it's like every single other movie that's come out in the last 10 years, ect.......

I haven't seen Suicide Squad, but I have been talking all week with people about Rogue One, and why I felt let down by it. I literally started to nod off in the middle.

My complaint is exactly what you have described here, and I find it in a great many movies coming out of the US lately. A whole lot of combat and explosions, some rap music and twirling weapons around, and not much of a story. I couldn't care less about the characters, I don't get a chance to emerse myself in their stories and it all comes off as extremely superficial and stupid.

Hollywood has lost the art of storytelling
The new magnificent seven suffered the same fate

I don't know one actor from another these days as they never develop an identity, acting has become second to cgi.
Having said that, dead pool was very well done, they can still merge both if they want

originally posted by: Bluesma
I haven't seen Suicide Squad, but I have been talking all week with people about Rogue One, and why I felt let down by it. I literally started to nod off in the middle.

My complaint is exactly what you have described here, and I find it in a great many movies coming out of the US lately. A whole lot of combat and explosions, some rap music and twirling weapons around, and not much of a story. I couldn't care less about the characters, I don't get a chance to emerse myself in their stories and it all comes off as extremely superficial and stupid.

Plinket it all.

I loved rogue one and thought it better than the prequals!

I've been pretty fed up with the CGI blowout/no actual story craze for awhile. It's even more frustrating when these ideas seem to be validated by large box office earnings.

Either way, it won't be changing any time soon. The greatest casualty is that every so often a good character based no cgi showroom action movie might come along and be trampled in the box office by the latest third, fourth or even fifth installment of some cgi light show.

I tend to skip theaters now, I'll wait until stuffs out on netflix or redbox. So I'm not usually up to date on the latest, though I did go to theater to see star wars when it came out.

Watched The Nice Guys this past weekend, I loved it. It had an actual story with some character development. Rare for most action movies now, and it didn't take place in a comic book universe(as far as i know).

Not to mention, Suicide Squad was mostly about parading around Margot Robbies' a## in almost every shot

And it did it very well...damn...just...damn....

Rogue was one great. The final act some of the best I ever saw. As a Starwars fan I knew what was gonna happen to the ones stealing the plans; IE Suicide Mission.
So, the movie did not need character development as a normal movie might benefit from.

Suicide Squad however was just one big MESS from start to finish. Horribly edited together.