It happened again. Warner Bros. released another big-budget blockbuster in its DC Extended Universe lineup, and once again it received unanimous jeers from film critics everywhere.
The victim this time around is Suicide Squad, the David Ayers-directed supervillain team-up starring Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman and dead pig delivery boy Jared Leto as “Mistah J.” The PG-13 ensemble film currently has a 26% rotten score at Rotten Tomatoes; one percent below Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, another poorly-rated superhero movie released this year from WB and DC Comics.
Image source: Warner Bros.
What went wrong with Suicide Squad? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Suicide Squad went under the hatchet after the gloomy and superficial world of Batman v Superman was rejected by critics and moviegoers, causing WB to go into panic mode. In an attempt to save Suicide Squad from the critical backlash Batman v Superman got, WB injected more of the pop-thumping beats of the film’s later trailers than the somber tones of its initial teasers. Two different versions of Suicide Squad – one by the director; another by the company advertising the film – were made and spliced together like a science experiment gone horribly wrong.
The Suicide Squad we have today is an incoherent mess with heavy editing and uneven tones bogging down WB’s poor attempt to replicate Marvel Studio’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Suicide Squad doesn’t even hide its attempt at mimicking the runaway success of Guardians of the Galaxy when it samples Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” for one of its scenes, although it does try to combat Guardians of the Galaxy’s mixtape of 70s and 80s jams with its Hot Topic-flavored soundtrack featuring Eminem and Panic! at the Disco.
One area Suicide Squad has Guardians of the Galaxy beat is its opening weekend, as the DC film earned $133.7 million, making it the highest opening for a movie in August. Good, right? Not quite. Suicide Squad dropped 41 percent from Friday to Saturday, suggesting the film will have weak legs like Batman v Superman. With analyst predicting the movie will need to make $750 million globally to break even, there’s no doubt WB executives are sweating over the film’s comparison to its previous superhero tentpole that underperformed at the box office.
Image source: Warner Bros.
How does this keep happening? How does a movie studio with 65 years of experience producing DC-related films keep dropping the ball? At a time where superhero movies are dominating the box office, WB seems determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Is this really the studio that gave us the critically acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy from Christopher Nolan?
The current highest rated movie in the DCEU is the divisive Man of Steel at 55 percent. That alone speaks volumes of the type of movies WB is spewing out in the hopes of catching up to Marvel Studios.
Image source: Marvel Studios.
Could Wonder Woman save the DCEU by being an actual good film? Sure, but what has WB done to install that hope? The Comic-Con trailer was sensational, but so were the trailers for Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman, to a lesser extent. Considering the last-minute changes made to Suicide Squad to course correct it from the terribly reviewed Batman v Superman, how do we know the same thing won’t happen again to Wonder Woman, now that Suicide Squad walks among the rotten. WB is hella intent on selling Justice League as a bright and sunny Marvel-lite film, but as Evan Puschak (NerdWriter) noted in his video analysis, no amount of quips will make up for Zack Snyder’s questionable skills as a filmmaker.
While WB and DC Comics continues to fumble, Marvel Studios keeps churning out hits loved by all. Captain America: Civil War addressed the same political themes of Batman v Superman, but executed it exquisitely without sacrificing characters for in-movie teaser trailers. It must have stung WB to see Civil War earn the critical and commercial success – over $1 billion worldwide, to be exact – it wanted out of Batman v Superman.
It’s not just Civil War. For eight years Marvel Studios have done a terrific job executing its cinematic universe. All thanks to the efforts of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, a filmmaker and comic book lover that acts as a guiding hand to every Marvel movie released, which is what WB oh so desperately needs if it wishes to orchestrate its cinematic universe successfully. Even the weaker movies by Marvel Studios (Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Thor films) display a higher level of competence than anything seen in the DCEU. Why take a gamble on Wonder Woman or Justice League when Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Spider-Man: Homecoming are guaranteed to please? Until WB gets its act together, I’m downgrading future DC movies to Redbox rentals.
When it comes to superhero movies, make mine Marvel.
