Though it certainly impressed at the box office this past weekend, critics and fans haven’t taken too kindly to Suicide Squad. Citing it as a massive misfire and accusing Warner Bros. of meddling too much, it’s clear that people aren’t very happy with the final product. And while the cast and director have already responded to the negative reviews, now it’s time for some of the other folks related to the property to chime in with their thoughts.
Up first is John Ostrander, the creator of the ’80s incarnation of Task Force X. In a piece published on ComicMix, the writer explained that if a comic book movie doesn’t turn out to be the next Dark Knight, then people will complain.
“I really liked the film. Not perfect by a long shot, but a really good time in the movie theater. And for me a lot of it was just amazing. The look, the detail, the feel of the film is not something I’ve seen in superhero movies before.
Look, I get it – they [critics] have to see all the films out there and they must be tired of all the blockbusters. If every superhero film is not The Dark Knight, they’ll bitch. I think that’s going on here to a certain degree. Just as I came prepared to love the movie, they came prepared to hate it.”
To some extent, Ostrander has a point. But then again, many superhero films have received positive reviews over the years and haven’t been quite on the same level as Nolan’s masterpiece. With Suicide Squad, part of the problem was that expectations were so high given how much of a disappointment Batman V Superman was. If that film had been a winner, then Ayer’s adaptation wouldn’t have had to shoulder the burden of having to turn the DCEU around.
That wasn’t the case though, and given the lashing that Snyder’s superhero showdown received, Suicide Squad had the herculean task of defying expectations and putting the DCEU back on track. That being said, there’s no denying that this is a very flawed film and Batman V Superman aside, there are many problems with how Ayer chose to execute the movie. It’s not a complete disaster, but it was a misfire on many counts. You can’t argue that.
As Ostrander points out though, there were a few elements that worked really well here (the detail, the look, the feel) and hopefully all of those will be carried over into the inevitable sequel which, despite the problems we had with Suicide Squad, we’re still hopeful about.