You could practically hear the teeth grinding coming from the offices in Burbank, California yesterday when the first reviews dropped for “Suicide Squad” (here’s ours). Currently sitting at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, that’s only a very marginal improvement on the critical reception to “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice.” And while the movie will undoubtedly have a monster box office weekend when it opens on Friday, this is not what Warner Bros. wanted. They desperately needed “Suicide Squad” to affirm that they had a solid handle on DC Comics characters, but at least as far as critics are concerned, that’s far from the case. But maybe, WB only has themselves to blame.
THR has a fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes production, and it was a bit of a mess, and problems seem to have started from minute one, with “Suicide Squad” given a release date before a script had even been written. “[Ayer] wrote the script in like, six weeks, and they just went,” a source told the trade. And while there numerous problems that faced the movie — multiple editors, a director making his first tentpole, nervous suits trying to manage a valuable brand — it seems, ironically, that the biggest issue turned out to be the response to ‘Batman v Superman.’
“[Warner Bros. head] Kevin [Tsujihara] was really pissed about damage to the brand,” a source said about the studio’s response to the backlash ‘Dawn Of Justice’ received. And so, WB started to freak out a bit, worrying that the rough ‘n tumble, breezy nature of the trailers for “Suicide Squad” didn’t reflect the finished product from director David Ayer. And so began the wrangling to try and save the movie.
READ MORE: David Ayer Apologizes For Saying ‘F*** Marvel’ At ‘Suicide Squad’ World Premiere
As we know, “Suicide Squad” underwent significant reshoots this spring to boost up the fun factor. However, it’s now revealed that WB even went so far as to cut their own version of the movie, made by the people who created the film’s trailer, while Ayer was still editing his version. Essentially, as rumors have long suggested, WB wanted a lighter movie, while Ayer’s original version was more “sombre,” so the studio decided to test both cuts. Ultimately, in agreement with the filmmaker, a balance between tones was found, and WB’s preferred option of introducing characters early in the movie and giving the credits heavily stylized treatment won the day.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t seemed to make much difference. Our own critic found the movie to be “a patchy, makeshift effort of awkward, mismatched tones, tacked-on jokes and a messy narrative,” and in particular, noted that “each character is introduced with a swaggering and/or cheeky song” making the film “feel like a series of vignettes.”
But arguably the biggest problem with “Suicide Squad” maybe has nothing to do with the creative issues, but rather, spending $175 million (not including the cost of the extensive marketing campaign, and who knows how much was spent on reshoots) on a supersized movie featuring B and C-list DC Comics characters. The picture needs to hit $750-800 million worldwide to break even. And while many will point to the R-rated “Deadpool” as proof as that could happen — it earned $782 million globally — that movie was firstly, much better reviewed, and secondly, cost less than $60 million. So even if it “flopped,” it would’ve likely come out okay. “Suicide Squad” doesn’t have that option; it’s go big, or go home.
It’ll be interesting to see how WB is forced to pivot once again. Will there be a director’s cut of “Suicide Squad,” like ‘Dawn Of Justice,’ that the superfans will insist “fixes” the problems of the current version? Will the studio double down on their sequel plans or pivot their attention to Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn spinoff, with her character being one of the few highlights people can agree on? Either way, it’s becoming quickly apparent the most interesting things about WB’s comic book movies have really nothing to do with the movies themselves.
“Suicide Squad” opens on Friday.
