DC isn't Marvel, so I'll take a traitorous pass on David Ayer's "Suicide Squad".
As a self-professed nerd, there is something that feels horribly wrong about volunteering to skip out on the newest comic book film, but my pass seems long overdo. Before Hollywood became the setting to an epic showdown between DC and Marvel zealots, respectively, comic book nerds like myself resorted to reading actual comics and watching our favorite heroes and villain come to life on the small screen. It was the best we could do then, and for a while it seemed like the DC Universe reigned supreme. And how could it not? For years DC produced masterfully crafted animated shows like Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and its larger successor, Justice League Unlimited. These traditionally animated interpretations of the DC Universe allowed people to get to know characters through complicated story arcs and twists, and these new formulaic comic book films, like Suicide Squad, fail to make an impression.
Since its premiere on August 5th, Suicide Squad is being heavily criticized by critics from The Guardian, The New York Times, and Variety for its poor storyline, unconvincing villain, and convoluted cast of characters. Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator, gave the film a low rating of 25 percent because of the film's "... muddled plot, thinly written characters, and choppy directing."
And to be frank, I'm not surprised.
Ensemble films, of any kind, are ambitious and are often poorly executed, but it's the newest mismatched trend with comic book films in Hollywood. Film executives misdirect their attention from storylines and character developments to ways in which they can intrigue and entice moviegoers to see their next installment in yet another comic book film series. They focus too much on the future to give adequate care and attention to the immediate film, because they set their eyes on the money bags promised with comic book films. This is a damn shame for comic book lovers everywhere, especially DC fans.The best comic book characters are complicated, and a few stolen moments with the occasional punch line in a ensemble comic book film isn't going to cut it. Suicide Squad failed, because it promised too much and delivered too little. This is, regrettably, a common mistake.
Films like "Suicide Squad", "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", and the upcoming "Justice League" don't offer casual moviegoers or die-hard fans the opportunity to get to know their characters onscreen. Instead they're offered haphazard timelines with untimely flashbacks and dragged out action sequences that do nothing to push the story forward, and this isn't what DC fans want. For years DC has been trying to make itself seem like the darker and grittier counterpart to Marvel's entertaining and light-hearted comic book films, but it fails miserably because it tries to be entertaining, funny, dark, deep, and everything else.
DC should just stick to what it knows and does best, and that's produce some of the best small screen comic book content out there. If it wants to offer fans the best immersive experience, it should offer them more animated shows and television dramas. It's just what it does best.
