Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Guy1]

Well damn. Shut their finisher down and sent it back at them!

[Len Ikari145]

Well, maybe they didn't want to put too much effort into it, so they put in the tired, played out "Evil Superman" trope. Or perhaps they thought they were being 'shocking' or 'edgy' by having Superman, a symbol of hope, be a bad guy.

At this point, it'd be far more shocking if they wrote a story where Superman isn't the main character and he's a hero.

And unless the Suicide Squad gets a couple REAL heavy hitters, they're completely fucked. Because a shark man with low-level superstrength, a guy who shoots gun, a woman who swings a baseball bat, and a guy with boomerangs are going to last maybe... maybe seconds against a merciless, murderous Superman.

Or are saved by extremely terrible writing. That's also a possibility.

Well, the subtitle is Kill the Justice League, so at least Superman isn't the only one who will be brainwashed/evil in this game. At least we can see how they will manage to out-bullshit Batman.

[Guy1]

[Jcogginsa]

Darkseid looks like handsome squidward

[FistofIron]

Ten bucks says Bruce is alive and is the Court of Owls' new brainwashed Talon.

That would be interesting. I love that this game is co-op.

[The Dog]

Well, the subtitle is Kill the Justice League, so at least Superman isn't the only one who will be brainwashed/evil in this game. At least we can see how they will manage to out-bullshit Batman.

Depends on if they're going to be shilling Harley Quinn or not. Because the only way to best Batman in these situations is if they're shilling the opposing character. Otherwise the best the opposition can hope for is a double-KO against Batman, regardless of who that character is.

Even Darkseid can't hope for more than a double-KO against the Batman.

[FistofIron]

I still wish that we could’ve got that Damian Wayne Batman game that was cancelled.

[Nik Hasta]

I'm not a Batman fan in any capacity but I like that this trailer strongly implies that the Riddler is going to be the villain.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Oh wow. What a shock. Evil Superman. Again. Again. Again.

Snooze.

While I'm blasé about Superman, and probably the entire Justice League, being brainwashed and evil, and I don't actually care that much about the Suicide Squad in general, this is a solid trailer.

The characters have good, entertaining interactions, the humor is funny and the action sequences looked really cool (we'll see how that translates into gameplay).

Also, evil Justice League is a dull over-used idea. But I think it's better than the alternative of the Suicide Squad going through regular good guy Justice League just because the government wants them dead.

[Nik Hasta]

So, looking up the above game trailer, which looks fun enough insofar as no gameplay was shown etc, I stumbled upon a trailer for a new Suicide Squad movie.

Which... melted my brain a little because I had no idea that was a thing and it felt like I'd gone back in time. Also, James Gunn is directing it? I mean, that's a pretty stellar directorial choice but, again, I'm slightly bemused that I'd heard nothing of this. So back in time and into a parallel timeline?

I'll say this about the DC film division and Warner Bros, they aren't easily discouraged; even in the face of critical and commercial failure, they are still plugging away with their viable properties.

I'm... maybe rooting for them? A bit?

Compared to the overly slick and conceptually sanitised MCU, I like that DC seems to be adopting a more "**** it, try everything," approach. The films look a bit more interesting.

[Nik Hasta]

At this point, it'd be far more shocking if they wrote a story where Superman isn't the main character and he's a hero.

You mean like they did in the Harley Quinn tv show?

[Dark Soul # 7]

This is pretty funny.

[SpiderClops]

So, looking up the above game trailer, which looks fun enough insofar as no gameplay was shown etc, I stumbled upon a trailer for a new Suicide Squad movie.

Which... melted my brain a little because I had no idea that was a thing and it felt like I'd gone back in time. Also, James Gunn is directing it? I mean, that's a pretty stellar directorial choice but, again, I'm slightly bemused that I'd heard nothing of this. So back in time and into a parallel timeline?

I'll say this about the DC film division and Warner Bros, they aren't easily discouraged; even in the face of critical and commercial failure, they are still plugging away with their viable properties.

I'm... maybe rooting for them? A bit?

Compared to the overly slick and conceptually sanitised MCU, I like that DC seems to be adopting a more "**** it, try everything," approach. The films look a bit more interesting.

Suicide Squad made over $700 M.

[Nik Hasta]

Suicide Squad made over $700 M.

I wasn't referring to Suicide Squad specifically, more to the DCU as whole. But also, that's not really a great figure in terms of box office takings for the kinds of films we're talking about.

Firstly, box office takings aren't just flat profit. First you have to subtract the cost of the film - Suicide Squad reportedly clocking at ~$175 mil - then general rule of thumb is that a film doesn't really start making money until it makes roughly 75% or so of the stated budget /again/ as marketing, distribution and the like are not counted as part of a film's budget but are a very significant cost absorbed by the studio and needs to be covered. It's worth noting that, Suicide Squad had a troubled production which means it's likely it ran over the stated budget as well into the bargain, but we'll work with the stated figures for ease.

With all that in mind, the film likely needed to make around $300 - 325 million dollars to /break even/ with what it cost to make. From there, studios generally like a film to generate roughly what it cost to make on top of that, thereby justifying the investment, so to be considered "reasonably successful", Suicide Squad needed to make about $600 - 650 million total which it did but not comfortably.

This was why I'm surprised they are making another one. Suicide Squad was not super successful and Birds of Prey [which is a soft sequel of sorts] did really quite badly, though that film cost a lot less to make.

Looking at it more broadly; as the primary competition to the MCU in the cinematic universe game, they have fairly consistently fallen short of what they're clearly aiming for financially. Justice League did awfully, Superman vs Batman limped over the line to just about being successful in the end. Wonder Woman did surprisingly well and its budget was a fair bit lower than normal. Only one film in their library has broken a billion dollars in takings and it was Aquaman of all things and, the real kicker here, Aquaman cost reportedly cost about the same as Suicide Squad to make.

[Nik Hasta]

New chapter of Chainsaw Man.

Oww.

My feelings.

Oh god.

It hurts so bad.