Episode 3 of Creature Commandos is now streaming on MAX, continuing the story from the first two episodes in Gunn’s signature style—his take on Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad, but with a team of monsters.
The episode is similar to the previous two. I really enjoy the animation, the characters, and the voice actors. I also like the overall story—keyword being “overall.” The concept of monsters being sent to a foreign country to defend against an invasion is cool. However, it’s becoming increasingly evident that the execution is lacking.
What I don’t like is Gunn injecting himself into the content, which ends up ruining the story (that’s the definition of woke, folks!). We get it, dude—we know what happened. This episode features the Sons of Themyscira, who are portrayed as complete morons, depicted as misogynists and rapists (IMDb even lists a character as named “Incel Son”). They slap the princess in the ass, want to take advantage of her, etc. So instead of some sort of cool badass and/or evil army, we get Gunn’s personal take on X/Twitter. Gunn seems to revel in having GI Robot kill them all, as if fulfilling a personal fantasy (lol).
Gunn also includes more stereotypically dumb white characters. GI Robot ends up in the hands of a war collector—a fat man with a family of cats. The man treats GI Robot like a son, even putting a coat and hat on him despite GI Robot pointing out that he doesn’t feel cold. The collector takes GI Robot to a “meeting,” and along the way, they talk about doing things right for the country (cue the eye roll). It turns out the meeting is a gathering of white supremacists—Nazis (at least Gunn gets the socialist part right). GI Robot kills them all.
These episodes are really short—only about 20 minutes each. A significant portion of this episode is spent on GI Robot’s origin story, which is ironic given that Gunn has said he’s not doing origin stories for major characters like Batman and Superman. Sure, GI Robot isn’t a well-known character, but did we really need that much backstory? We already knew he was a robot created to kill Nazis. Devoting an entire episode to his origins, especially after touching on it in previous episodes, feels unnecessary.
This highlights another problem: the episodes all seem to follow the same James Gunn formula. Each one focuses on a single character, gives some background and an origin, ties it to the present day, throws in a song, and delivers an emotional moment before wrapping up. Then it’s on to the next episode. It’s not a bad thing when it’s done here or there, but every time? For example, the Episode 4 focuses on Weasel—any bets it’s going to be the exact same thing? This repetitive structure makes the show get stale quickly, as there are no surprises and everything is predictable and telegraphed.
Another thing I didn’t like is how Circe’s supposed “invasion” of a foreign country doesn’t feel like an invasion at all. The episode literally shows just a single room full of people fighting—hardly the scale you’d expect for an invasion (lol). Where’s the war?
And what happened to Frank? There was so much buildup in the first two episodes (and did we really need to see Frankenstein’s origin, which is as widely known as Batman’s or Superman’s?). Yet, Frank is completely absent from Episode 3. Let me guess: after Gunn’s formulaic approach of dedicating each 20-minute episode to one character, we’ll finally get back to Frank—right at the end of the series, and then it ends.
The end of the episode was at least cool, teasing future developments and hinting at Circe’s motivations for attacking the country. Weasel and Phosphorous tearing Circe apart was wild, though I expected her to show a lot more damage (I guess because she’s Amazonian explains why). The Bride’s line to Rick Flag Sr. was also well done.
The Verdict
As I mentioned in my 8/10 review of the first two episodes, Creature Commandos has a lot of potential. However, it seems to be bogged down by Gunn’s agenda and what is becoming too clear, the over-the-top goofiness. I’d much prefer a more serious tone for the series. Imagine if it was straight horror? Is Gunn even capable of delivering something like that?
Episode 3 of Creature Commandos earns a 7/10.
