Not since Geppetto’s expert craftsmanship brought Pinocchio to life, has a wooden by design character been animated as expertly as Peacemaker.
In Suicide Squad, he’s a jingoistic caricature, an All-American nightmare of oversized muscles willing to kill whoever it takes for peace. In his own tv show, Peacemaker is a man, a flawed man shaped by a tragic past with his abusive white supremacist father. You actually get to see (and even like) a man behind the silly suit, Chris Smith. When we meet him for the first time since the events of Suicide Squad, Peacemaker is fresh out of prison where he’s been for the past four years – plenty of time to think and reflect on his actions. The release is conditional – his skills are needed once again to protect the American way of life, this time from an alien invasion no one talks about. Peacemaker is given an uneven team, featuring an emotionless (for a reason) leader, a dyed-beard grumpy tech, an action Barbie aka kickass female warrior aka James Gunn’s main squeeze who here proves that nepotism isn’t always shite because she’s great in her role and a contract worker who is (gasp) Amanda Waller’s own daughter, completely unprepared for the work and reluctant to even be there. There’s also the self-proclaimed Peacemaker’s greatest fan and friend, The Vigilante – a wildly amusing homicidal idiot with a disproportionate sense of justice and mad fighting skills. And of course, Peacemaker’s actual best friend – an eagle named Eaglie. Who hugs. Seriously. Hugs. And now this ragtag bunch who fumble at least as often as they score might be the only thing that stands between the world and the alien (they call them Butterflies) invasion. Crazy, sure, but they’re going to give it all they got. Peacemaker isn’t a perfect show. It’s kind of an oddball, honestly. James Gunn is a master of crowd-pleasing offbeat blockbusters as known for their awesome effects as they are for their quirky humorous approach and awesome soundtracks. The show didn’t quite land for me until some episodes in. The jokes were coming in kind of flat, like almost but not quite there. But the thing is, I now realize, is that Peacemaker is simply more subtle than Gunn’s other work. When Gunn puts his foot down and revs the engines – and the man is very much in control here, having written and produced all of the episodes and directing most of them – Peacemaker is awesome. It’s bombastic but also smart, fun, and surprisingly emotionally engaging for a such a bro of a superhero show. It helps that John Cena does such a remarkable job here, working all of his face muscles. Yes, his eerie likeness to an young Schwarzenegger is disturbing (and so noticeable it’s actually remarked upon by his teammate), but Arnie never emoted like that on his best day. Cena is an absolute delight; he shifts gears from too to man so effortlessly it’s an absolute pleasure to watch. I liked everyone on his team too, especially Vigilante, but Cena is the one who carries the show on his gigantic well-muscled shoulders, and he does a great job of it. The rest? Well, it looks as great as you’d expect. It sounds as great as you’d expect. It has quite possibly the BEST opening credits sequence ever made. Seriously. I didn’t hit skip into button once. It’s just such a charmingly wacky dance routine, you gotta see if for yourself. Overall, in retrospect, this was excellent. In a way, a perfect antidote to Reacher. Both Reacher and Peacemaker are essentially gigantic muscley mountains of American justice machines, the difference is… Reacher is meant to be an optimized version of everyman, but he is such a ridiculous creation that he ends up wildly unrealistic like a comic book character (and not a very interestingly written one at that) and Peacemaker is actually a comic book character, but rendered so well that he comes across as a real and compelling and interesting person. Yey for Peacemaker. The only question remains…Do ya really wanna, do ya really wanna taste that?
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