It is fully to the credit score of “Creature Commandos” that the animated sequence doesn’t really feel like some momentous occasion, though it technically is. Officially, the present’s debut on Max marks the kickoff of filmmaker James Gunn and producer Peter Safran’s reboot of the DC Universe, symbolized by a brand new opening sting of Superman busting out of some chains. But the seven-episode season, written fully by Gunn and directed by Matt Peters and Sam Liu, is as playful and irreverent as most load-bearing franchise entrants are ponderous and encumbered by obligations to a bigger narrative. An ultra-violent, profane antihero story isn’t precisely mild within the tonal sense; nonetheless, “Creature Commandos” is refreshingly unburdened, a sense Gunn and Safran’s DCU can hopefully preserve when it strikes on to way more main characters.
The setup of “Creature Commandos” is, explicitly and shamelessly, a redux of “The Suicide Squad,” Gunn’s DC debut again in 2021. (The “Guardians of the Galaxy” director started his tenure at DC as a employed — pun form of meant — gun, delivering the quasi-remake “The Suicide Squad” simply 5 years after David Ayer’s model, after which creating the “Peacemaker” spinoff sequence for Max.) Amoral safety operative Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, reprising her live-action function) has been barred from deploying human prisoners on high-risk missions, so she turns to the state’s non-human fees as a loophole. Same villains-as-heroes idea, however with even wackier characters liberated from the necessity for CGI.
Like the Squad, the Commandos are ostensibly led by Captain Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo), although their de facto captain seems to be the Bride (Indira Varma), a resurrected corpse and longtime resident of the general public area. She’s joined by G.I. Robot (Gunn’s brother Sean), a World War II relic programmed to kill Nazis; Weasel (additionally Sean Gunn, additionally from “The Suicide Squad”), a nonverbal, rodent-like animal; Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), a flaming skeleton; and Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), a mild-mannered, hyperintelligent fish-woman straight out of “The Shape of Water.”
It takes just a few minutes to lock this ensemble into place. (“Creature Commandos” is nothing if not economical, with every episode having a mean runtime of round 25 minutes.) But because the bigger plot rolls alongside, dispatching the Commandos to a fictional Eastern European nation to guard its Princess Ilana (Maria Bakalova) towards the sorceress Circe (Anya Chalotra), Gunn provides every member of the crew a highlight by way of flashbacks. Such reminders that monstrosity is within the eye of the beholder might simply really feel trite or compelled, however Gunn capably balances them with a pitch-black humorousness. Circe leads an invading military of neckbeard incels and crushes beer cans together with her magic; slightly than the Monster, the Bride’s jilted, would-be lover — performed by David Harbour — merely goes by “Eric.”
Harbour provides a tour-de-force vocal efficiency as the long-lasting work of Dr. Frankenstein: half pathetic, half menacing, half surprisingly erudite, and typically all three without delay, like when he’s monologuing about his unrequited crush to a terrified taxi driver. Gunn’s spin on the basic characters is a novel one, with the Bride detesting and bloodily rebuffing her entitled, lovelorn suitor. A intelligent montage illustrates their relationship by the centuries, with Eric chasing the Bride from the Continent to the Wild West and again once more — like Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, if one among them had been an abusive creep.
“Creature Commandos” constantly deploys animation, a pure match for a comics adaptation, in equally clever methods. Often, the impact is comedian, significantly with over-the-top violence and gore. There are additionally fleeting moments of magnificence, typically seconds earlier than “Creature Commandos” dispatches a personality for good. This could also be a cartoon, however Gunn provides the sequence’ occasions a weight that’s earned by itself phrases. Like “Guardians” earlier than it, “Creature Commandos” excels at making audiences care about beforehand obscure figures partly as a result of they’re underdogs. Here, it’s Batman who has a fleeting cameo in Doctor Phosphorus’ drama, not the opposite means round. (Also like “Guardians,” “Creature Commandos” has a particular soundscape, dominated by the band Gogol Bordello — evoking each the setting and the present’s rollicking, chaotic power.)
Kicking off the brand new DCU is only a minor footnote within the rollout of “Creature Commandos,” which is ideally appropriately. There’s much less stress on a motley crew of anthropomorphic misfits than, say, Superman, whose time within the solar lies simply across the nook. “Creature Commandos” lies squarely in Gunn’s confirmed consolation zone, and is straight related to a earlier, profitable effort. It’s much less of a bang than an easing in, with little to distract the viewer from a straightforwardly good time.
The first two episodes of “Creature Commandos” are actually streaming on Max, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Thursdays.
