Warner Bros. and DC were hoping to create a successful DC Extended Universe starting with Man of Steel. It made enough to warrant Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which grossed $872.7 million worldwide at the box office. Even though both films have been somewhat successful, they were both panned by critics and Batman v Superman couldn’t even reach a $1 billion (not good since it featured three of the most popular superheroes).
With their third DCEU film, Suicide Squad, they were hoping to change things up by bringing in director David Ayer (Fury). The reviews are in, and they are mostly negative.
Here are some thoughts from the writers at Nerd Reactor.
Eddie Villanueva said, “Suicide Squad, although riddled with inconsistencies, squared its shoulders and stepped up to the DCCU plate, giving fans the film they needed 4 months ago.”
“While not perfect, Suicide Squad rose to the occasion and began to, albeit not completely, redeem the DCCU,” said David Webb.
Cory Vincent was the least impressed of the bunch. “Suicide Squad is so much better than Dawn of Justice… That being said… mehh,” he said.
Before we get to the bad, here’s some good.
“Lots of superhero films struggle to make us like their heroes even half as much as we end up liking the villains here, and that alone is a pretty canny trick, one that I suspect audiences will enjoy quite a bit.”
“Suicide Squad is a great step in the right direction for the DC film universe. It is well worth checking out on the big screen and is right up there as one of my favorite movies for the whole year so far.”
“Though wonky in structure, it makes a certain sense that this antihero tale wouldn’t play by the rules. Packed with attitude, ‘Suicide Squad’ is ferocious fun, boasting a bounty of action, mirthful mayhem, and a cavalcade of curious characters. It’s just the kick in the pants Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment need to correct course ahead of next year’s ‘Justice League.'”
“For DC, which blew it with Batman v Superman last spring, Suicide Squad is a small step forward. But it could have been a giant leap.”
“Still, at least elsewhere there’s a proper bad guy to chew on. Though only a wild card, occasionally capering in and out of the main plot, Jared Leto’s incarnation of the Joker is essential to its success. Where Heath Ledger’s version was scarred, shabby and countercultural, Leto’s has a smooth, blingy gangsta swagger; a modern take on the way the original comic-book creation riffed on ’30s mobsters. But it’s not his swish, purring style and elegant, slo-mo cackle that really hooks you, it’s something we’ve never seen before: the Joker in love. Here’s a fascinatingly jagged new angle (cinematically at least). It’s unsettling and compelling — almost enough to make you wish it were more than a subplot.”
Now onto the bad.
“It was hoped that Suicide Squad could be a major step forward for the DC Extended Universe, but it’s not exactly that — with the film frustratingly and consistently stepping on its own toes. It lacks the convolution problems of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but is also so simple that it doesn’t carry any weight.”
“The film’s biggest weakness is that it doesn’t seem to know or care. It doesn’t necessarily fall to this film to define what a villain’s journey really means. But like its characters, it’s free to operate on its own terms, and it’d be a much stronger story if it took full advantage of that freedom.”
“The movie feels thin, and with such little meat on the bone, it almost makes you appreciate how overstuffed Batman v Superman was (despite that being its downfall).”
“What a waste of a perfectly twisted Suicide Squad.”
“Suicide Squad moves fast, so fast that the characters barely have time to hate one another, let alone bond. But instead of making the picture more exciting, the cluttery blur of the editing flattens it out—it’s like watching helicopter blades whir for two hours.”
“When you compare Suicide Squad to what James Gunn and Marvel Studios achieved in Guardians of the Galaxy – low-profile property, oddball characters, make-it-fun brief – the film makes you cringe so hard your teeth come loose. But it’s a slog even on its own crushingly puerile terms.”
“The action of the film’s middle and latter stages is largely set in a gloomy murk that recalls far too many previous dour sci-fi/fantasy films, and by that point, vestiges of the opening stretch’s humor and snap long have fallen by the wayside. Suicide Squad may not quite commit harakiri, but it certainly feels like it’s taken far too many sleeping pills.”
“‘Suicide Squad’ plays like a TV pilot that puts forth the sketchy outlines of several characters, with the promise that the series will fill them in later. If the idea was to have future DC movies do that instead, then those films have their work cut out for them.”
“It’s too concerned with how the characters look individually—whether swinging a baseball bat or aiming a gold-engraved Chiappa Rhino—for any two shots to connect causally. If you’re gonna make a subpar superhero movie, you might as well do it with some flair.”
“Indeed, despite the mayhem, the Suicide Squad does manage to unite and help. Anarchy is fun, but, deep down, good old-fashioned superheroism still flies.”
“Who stole the soul of Suicide Squad? I’d say it’s Ayer’s willingness to go all limp-dick and compromise his hardcore action bona fides for a PG-13 crowdpleaser that would rather ingratiate than cut deep, or even cut at all. My heart sank during the film’s big battle between the Squad and zombie soldiers. You heard me: zombies! The walking dead aren’t the only clichés that eat away at the potential in this material. Superfreaks become supersweeties and Suicide Squad: Dawn of Dullness (my subtitle) does the impossible. Forget Batman v Superman — at least it tried. This botch job makes Fantastic Four look good.”
“This is one of the first movies I can remember watching in which I did not like the movie, but I’d look forward to a sequel. Again, these are fun characters. And it’s really hard for characters like this to still “work” in such a misguided story. But they do work, they just need to be in something more focused — something that doesn’t spend a lot of time focused on a dancing CGI witch and her army of blob monsters. (Seriously, the Joker was in this movie with nothing to do! How is that possible?!)”
“But Harley Quinn aside, the bantz is blunt, the arcs predictable (all these “psychotic social freaks” just wanna have happy home lives, dontcha know?) and the Big Bad straight out of Ghostbusters – fine in a ‘normal’ summer movie, but lacking any of the real threat posed by the knife crime and terrorism in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.”
“After one of the crummiest summer movie seasons in recent memory, asking one film to redeem four months of tepid blockbusters might have been a suicide mission in and of itself. But Suicide Squad doesn’t even come close. From the first scene to the last, it’s an absolute mess, one whose harried pacing, jumbled narrative, and blaring soundtrack of radio hits suggests a desperate post-production attempt to reconfigure what Ayer got on set into something palatable and poppy.”
from Nerd Reactor
0 comments: