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As Above So Below
Haven't seen this movie yet, think I'll wait...
'Suicide Squad' Is A Bigger Disaster Than 'Batman V Superman'
There is a case to be made that complaining about a film (particularly a non-sequel) that made $134 million in its debut weekend is an exercise in foolishness. And I may just write that piece later this week. But, like the March release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is complicated. The film is going to make lots of money, but it once again puts the DC Films brand in a place of having to “redeem” itself the next time out.
The circumstances behind its construction and the potential which it squandered leave us asking not, “Can this franchise be saved?” but rather, “Should this franchise be saved?”
Suicide Squad was supposed to be a shot-in-the-arm for the DC Comics franchise after the somewhat underwhelming Man of Steel and the deeply disappointing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Both were relatively big hits ($668 million worldwide and $872m worldwide, respectively) but left Warner Bros./Time Warner TWX -0.47% somewhat on the defensive and promising that the next offering would be the one that drew a line in the sand. But Suicide Squad was significantly worse than those first two.
Not only is it an inferior movie to Dawn of Justice, the nature of its artistic failure puts DC Films in a harder spot than it was in when Batman v Superman was released in March. After all, when Dawn of Justice came and disappointed, we could point to the promising Suicide Squad as the light at the end of the tunnel. But how many bad movies can the DC Films franchise release before audiences get the idea and decide that the inherent appeal of seeing these DC Comics icons on the big screen isn’t enough?
You can point to the Transformers films all you want, but that franchise was built on a critically acclaimed and crowd-pleasing initial installment. Moreover, the fourth movie, Age of Extinction, earned noticeably less ($242 million) in North America than the first three ($307m, $409m, and $353m). These franchises don’t last forever if they don’t maintain a certain level of quality.
Not only is Suicide Squad “not good,” it’s a ”bad by committee” offering that undoes any long-term optimism in the DC Films universe. Say what you will about the jar of piss or the “Martha!” moment, but thoseBatman v Superman moments are tangible things that will be remembered for a generation, and arguably the kind of weird stuff you want in a would-be run-of-the-mill blockbuster. If only Suicide Squad had a villain as interesting as Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor.
Suicide Squad is, comparatively, a mostly forgettable would-be blockbuster that seems terrified to offer anything (narratively or visually) that will make it stand out. The film is desperately afraid to offend which in turn makes it somewhat offensive. Word that Suicide Squad wasradically altered, with costly reshoots andan alternate version created by the same company that cut the first crowd-pleasing trailer, completely undoes the notion that these offerings are “filmmaker-driven.”
This presents a picture of a DC Comics film franchise terrified of its own shadow and unable to trust the movie it hired its filmmakers to make. I don’t know whether David Ayer’s original version was any better. Yet, it is beyond odd that we ended up with a “grimdark” Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman movie only to now get a kinder/softer/gentler Suicide Squad movie with “These would-be villains have good hearts!” sensibilities less cynical or nihilistic than Teen Titans GO!.
And we are now in a position where each new disappointing DC Films movie leaves us worried as to how its reaction will be used against the next one. Moreover, after this weekend, we’ve lost the hope that any given DCEU movie will be presumed good until proven bad. After Batman v Superman, we could at least hope that maybe this offbeat, not explicitly-connected-to Justice League offering would allow the DCEU to get a quality foothold. Maybe the DCEU would be a franchise where the “stand alone” episodes were better than the “mythology” episodes.
But the vastly superior “Ultimate Edition” showed that there once was a version of Batman v Superman that worked. And now, regardless of who is to blame, the theatrical version of Suicide Squad is a genuinely bad movie. The cure turned out to be worse than the disease while exposing the root of the rot. The presumption of innocence has been forfeited for future DC Films projects. We have now had a disappointing Superman movie, a mediocre Batman/Superman movie, and an arguably terrible Task Force X movie. We got one that, it should be noted, bungled Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn by softening her relationship with Jared Leto’s Joker, which in turn defined her by said relationship.
The damage done by Suicide Squad is magnified precisely because Suicide Squad was the great hope in the aftermath of Batman v Superman. The status quo for the DC films universe is one of disappointment and artistic failure brought about by corporate meddling. But here’s hoping Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman can save the day next year. Wouldn’t that be ironic?
'Suicide Squad' Is A Bigger Disaster Than 'Batman V Superman'
