Between them, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and its unruly cinematic sibling, Suicide Squad harbored a tremendous amount of potential towards the beginning of 2016. The former, in pitting the Man of Steel against Gotham’s Dark Knight, was teed up as a dark and brooding affair while Suicide Squad, David Ayer’s star-studded offshoot, was all but set to counter that morose tone with a memorable romp.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case, and no matter which side of the fence you find yourself on, it’s fair to say that both tentpoles proved to be massively underwhelming after squandering so much potential.
Despite raking in over $1.5 billion between them, Warner Bros. has addressed the shortcomings of each blockbuster in the past, and just recently the studio’s chairman-CEO Jeff Bewkes conceded that there is “a little room for improvement” during a call to investors. There’s also mention of the studio’s renewed endeavour to tweak the tone of the DC Extended Universe, which became immediately apparent during that crowd-pleasing SDCC teaser for Justice League.
Per Variety:
“The DC Comics characters … have a little more lightness in them than maybe what you saw in those movies, so we’re thinking about that. The main thing was to launch DC and reinvigorate it with the fan base. The reboot of Batman with Ben Affleck (in the role) was a big success.”
A stuttering start for the DC Extended Universe is disappointing, of course, but next year brings with it the one-two punch of Wonder Woman and Justice League. This, coupled with Warner Bros.‘ drive to alter the tone of the DC Films slate, does offer up a fraction of hope – even if it is just a fraction.