You could practically hear the teeth grinding coming from the offices in Burbank, California yesterday when the first reviews dropped for “Suicide Squad” (here’s ours). Currently sitting at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, that’s only a very marginal improvement on the critical reception to “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice.” And while the movie will undoubtedly have a monster box office weekend when it opens on Friday, this is not what Warner Bros. wanted. They desperately needed “Suicide Squad” to affirm that they had a solid handle on DC Comics characters, but at least as far as critics are concerned, that’s far from the case. But maybe, WB only has themselves to blame.
THR has a fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes production, and it was a bit of a mess, and problems seem to have started from minute one, with “Suicide Squad” given a release date before a script had even been written. “[Ayer] wrote the script in like, six weeks, and they just went,” a source told the trade. And while there numerous problems that faced the movie — multiple editors, a director making his first tentpole, nervous suits trying to manage a valuable brand — it seems, ironically, that the biggest issue turned out to be the response to ‘Batman v Superman.’
“[Warner Bros. head] Kevin [Tsujihara] was really pissed about damage to the brand,” a source said about the studio’s response to the backlash ‘Dawn Of Justice’ received. And so, WB started to freak out a bit, worrying that the rough ‘n tumble, breezy nature of the trailers for “Suicide Squad” didn’t reflect the finished product from director David Ayer. And so began the wrangling to try and save the movie.
READ MORE: David Ayer Apologizes For Saying ‘F*** Marvel’ At ‘Suicide Squad’ World Premiere
As we know, “Suicide Squad” underwent significant reshoots this spring to boost up the fun factor. However, it’s now revealed that WB even went so far as to cut their own version of the movie, made by the people who created the film’s trailer, while Ayer was still editing his version. Essentially, as rumors have long suggested, WB wanted a lighter movie, while Ayer’s original version was more “sombre,” so the studio decided to test both cuts. Ultimately, in agreement with the filmmaker, a balance between tones was found, and WB’s preferred option of introducing characters early in the movie and giving the credits heavily stylized treatment won the day.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t seemed to make much difference. Our own critic found the movie to be “a patchy, makeshift effort of awkward, mismatched tones, tacked-on jokes and a messy narrative,” and in particular, noted that “each character is introduced with a swaggering and/or cheeky song” making the film “feel like a series of vignettes.”
But arguably the biggest problem with “Suicide Squad” maybe has nothing to do with the creative issues, but rather, spending $175 million (not including the cost of the extensive marketing campaign, and who knows how much was spent on reshoots) on a supersized movie featuring B and C-list DC Comics characters. The picture needs to hit $750-800 million worldwide to break even. And while many will point to the R-rated “Deadpool” as proof as that could happen — it earned $782 million globally — that movie was firstly, much better reviewed, and secondly, cost less than $60 million. So even if it “flopped,” it would’ve likely come out okay. “Suicide Squad” doesn’t have that option; it’s go big, or go home.
It’ll be interesting to see how WB is forced to pivot once again. Will there be a director’s cut of “Suicide Squad,” like ‘Dawn Of Justice,’ that the superfans will insist “fixes” the problems of the current version? Will the studio double down on their sequel plans or pivot their attention to Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn spinoff, with her character being one of the few highlights people can agree on? Either way, it’s becoming quickly apparent the most interesting things about WB’s comic book movies have really nothing to do with the movies themselves.
“Suicide Squad” opens on Friday.
What a total disaster this is. Still, DC for life.
Whaaat a shit show!
Studios need to stop trying to fix films and let the directors work their magic. No talent executives hire directors for a reason. If directing and editing a film didn’t take talent and hard work, the executives would be doing it themselves.
It’s a fucking shame. I want these movies to succeed but warner bros keeps on fucking it up.
The truth is it’s way more complicated than that. The execs give the money, in this case a lot and I don’t blame them for wanting to know how it is spent and what they get in return because if the final product is unwatchable and don’t bring in any money, they lose their jobs too. The directors are artists and need supervision because even the best directors can make bad movies, especially if it’s their first big film.
The bigger problem was that they forgot to supervise Zack Snyder, overreacted when the BvS reviews came in and wanted too much control which is also a bad thing:
The second problem was that with the first trailer they promised a completely different movie than what was in the making.
Name a film that improved after studio interference.
Directors at this level are obsessed with film. Studio heads are obsessed by accounting, managerial economics, operations research, organizational behavior, policy, quantitative analysis, human resource management, marketing, and business law. I think it’s pretty clear from which group a good film would emerge.
“Name a film that improved after studio interference.”
Revenge of the Sith comes to mind
And what a model of the artistic enterprise that thing is.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
¯__(ツ)__/¯
I remember looking at all the prequel fans on the imdb message board of “Force Awakens” the night it was released complaining about Daisy Ridley etc
Studio executives and directors are not two separate groups. To make a good movie you need a good director with a vision but you also need a studio executive who make it a reality. Their goal is mutual: a good and financially successful film.
There’s a difference between supervision and interference. Supervision is what Kevin Feige does at Marvel, having a vision, a plan and making sure the movie fits nicely in their long term strategy from the first day of preproduction. Interference is what DC did when it turned out that people didn’t like BvS and when they realized that David Ayer was making a different movie than the one they advertised at Comic Con last year.
Yes, I’ve always thought of Feige as sort of the Sokurov figure in all this.
As an audience member, the one thing I’m really looking for in an evening’s entertainment is a fiscal reality that fits in nicely with a corporate long term strategy. That’s why I admire Fellini’s wily use of debt-service coverage ratios, and why I think Welles was robbed of the 1941 Academy Award for Best Strategic Use of Weight Average Maturities.
FINALLY! Someone who understands what true cinema is about. I’ve always said that spread sheets are just as important, if not more so, than the script, which is why I am excited for “Dawn of TurboTax: The Auditors Revenge” by Intuit Studios
I thought each trailer for this, starting out a year ago, has been superb. It’s sad it didn’t match the film but no wonder they hired the people that made the trailers.
I am still reeling from having seen this movie. It’s not bad overall, but some things about it are just not sitting well with me. Their portrayal of the dynamic between Harley Quinn & Joker, and the manner in which her origin story is told, stripped away everything that made Harley Quinn Harley Quinn!! And it’s evident that a lot of footage ended up on the cutting room floor, a lot of which are scenes between Harley & Joker. This is definitely an instance where you could watch a trailer for the movie after having seen the movie and realize that half of the scenes shown in the trailer Are Not In The Movie! I really really hope we get an Ultimate Edition showing us the Original Cut of the movie, as it was originally shot & intended to be. WB should not have meddled in this one to try to water it down and compete with Deadpool. They gutted the characters, and really the 2nd quarter of the film Just Drags Onnnnnnnn…. likely because they cut all of the action and front-loaded those scenes into the 1st quarter character montage. And we are left with quite a few plot holes & unanswered questions… The sad thing is, I am a huge fan of Harley Quinn, and with the way they have altered her character’s origins in the film, and her overall state of mind, the idea of moving forward with a Harley Quinn solo film would go hand-in-hand with them being forced to move forward with a solo film that also has this botched, butchered, gutted origin story that has damaged the heart of the character. DC will need to pull a “Rebirth” on the movie franchise already, to use some fluid continuity, to re-tell Harley’s origin the next time she appears…