So unless you’ve spent the last 48 hours hiding under a rock, you’ll be aware that the press embargo on Suicide Squad has now been lifted, and the first reviews have sent the Internet into total meltdown.
Within the first hour of the embargo elapsing, reviews were landing online giving the film anything between 1-5 stars, with some reviewers calling the film a ‘Game Changer’, but others branding it a ‘Complete Tonal Mess’. In response, DC fans have largely shrugged this off, and Box Office estimates still have the film tracking to beat Marvel’s ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ in terms of its opening weekend haul.
Now, is any of this sounding eerily familiar to anybody? Yep, back in March, exactly the same thing happened with ‘BvS’, and it would seem that once again, it’s the studio that’s to blame. The release of the recent Ultimate Edition of BvS, the cut that wasn’t altered by Warner Brothers, has proven a massive hit. Suddenly, all the shockingly and abruptly edited scenes from the cinema release finally made sense, and although the finished article is by no means brilliant, it sure as he’ll isn’t poor any more.
Well it seems that even prior to this, Warner Bros were already nervous about the direction that David Ayer was taking with the project. Whilst the studio wanted a comedy heist movie, Ayer wanted a gritty tale about brutal and conflicted meta-criminals. The negative reviews for Snyder’s offering were the last straw for the studio, who then immediately commissioned the same production company that had created the teaser trailers to edit a lighter version. This new cut was test screened, along with Ayer’s version, and the cut being released and reviewed this week is a mashup of the two linked by some pricey reshoots.
This desperate move has effectively torpedoed the released version, and not gone unnoticed. Nearly all the reviews so far center on the fact that the first third of the film is a riotously entertaining romp, full of banter and back stories, and then the rest of the film descends into predictable fight scenes with a limp and cliched villain.
So are there any positives at can be salvaged here? Well, for starters, it looks like the film will still be a huge financial success, most likely with an accompanying second weekend drop off, and a sequel will still be assured. Secondly, it looks like several months down the line we can expect a far superior Ultimate Edition DVD release, and we’ll get to see the version that David Ayer wanted us to.
The negatives are that the studio has once again failed to land a big hit against Marvel, and the brand remains damaged and trying to claw back ground. WB were hoping and praying that Suicide Squad would cover for and compensate for the BVS debacle, and it seems all they’ve done is manage to replicate the issue. As long as the studio continues to fight against its directors, the DCCU will remain stalled in the launchpad, whilst Marvel continue to run riot.
Is all of this going to put you guys off seeing the movie? And has anybody else seen the Ultimate Cut of BvS and agree or disagree?