I don’t know what hurt more, the disappointment in the movie or the heartburn from the burrito I ate before seeing it. Out of all the reasons why I thought Suicide Squad was awful, the most offensive was that I could see there was a good movie somewhere, but due to studio interference, this movie turned into the turd that it was. But this creates a different problem, the interference of business in art, not letting the director do what he can to make the movie in their vision.
For those who don’t know, the Suicide Squad properties are owned by the same studio that owns the Batman and Superman properties, Warner Bros, and due to the other mediocre response to its early release this year's Batman vs Superman. The studio went into a panic, now let me say this to be perfectly clear, Batman Vs Superman was an un-savable piece of garbage. It was “throw it in a volcano” bad but unlike Suicide Squad, it was a victim of bad writing, and a terrible director (cough, cough, Zack Snyder).
Where suicide squad fell flat on its face was due to its reshoots and cuts, mandated by the studio. Warner Bro’s panicked due to criticism from batman vs superman that it was too dark, so it went into the editing room trying to do for the Suicide Squad what Marvel did for Guardians of the Galaxy, making a fun, light, anti-hero movie. The problem is, Suicide Squad was not shot to be that. Watch the first trailer from comic con. Suicide Squad was meant to be a dark movie, Jared Leto’s joker is proof of that. His joker is so dark and disturbing; I don’t know how you can make his character fit in a lighthearted movie. That’s why, despite being featured in advertisements as if he’ll be in the movie more than the 5 minutes most of his scenes were cut, his character was one of the few redeeming things in that film, and he was barely in it. I’m interested to see the original cut of the film because I think it would have been a million times better than what I saw in that theater.
Look, the worst part of this is that it was a missed opportunity. Suicide Squad is an amazing idea; get the worst of the worst to do some good. This movie had a great cast, great director, and great source material. But it fell flat on its face. I wanted this movie to be good I really did. Studio interference killed it though and this is a shining example. It can drive a person crazy thinking about what could have been when business didn’t interfere with the art form. Despite the director, David Ayer, saying the theatrical release is his cut, he’s smart by saying that. If he publicly went to the press and talked down on the studio interference, there would be a high chance that he could be blackballed in the industry.
It’s a tragedy that Suicide Squad sucked. I was hoping for it to be a promising new series, but instead, it’ll be 12 dollars I'll never get back, and a black stain on a property that had so much promise. Because the people that really get hurt in the end, are the fans; the people who line up to see this movie hoping they’ll see their favorite characters introduced properly to a wider audience.
