DC does not seem to be able to catch a break with the critics, most of whom have given as bad critiques for "Suicide Squad" as they did for "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" earlier this year. A glance at the Rotten Tomatoes page will show that at 34 percent fresh rating, "Suicide Squad" did not please any of the critics, but that is not going to deter the comic book fans from theatres on Friday, Aug. 5.
In fact, fans of the DC-Warner Bros. franchise have signed petitions to shut down Rotten Tomatoes for aggregating the negative reviews and thereby affecting the moviegoers' opinions. Over 7,000 fans agree that the critics have always given unjust negative reviews to the DC extended universe and have signed the petition demanding the shutdown of Rotten Tomatoes.
In the case of "Batman V Superman," for example, the critics had given abysmal reviews but most comic book fans ended up liking the film. In fact, it remains one of the highest grossing Hollywood films of 2016 with a lifetime worldwide collection of $872,662,631. However, "Captain America: Civil War" tops the list with $1,151,501,420.
Despite the negative reviews "Suicide Squad" is expected to quash the numbers of at least "Batman V Superman," with experts predicting an opening weekend box office collection of $130-140 million domestically. If this expectation is met, it would make for the biggest August opener in recorded history.
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Here is a roundup of some of the reviews "Suicide Squad" received:
- Like "Deadpool" earlier this year, it's entertaining insofar as it allows the characters to crack wise and act out, though they can only go so far within the confines of MPAA guidelines and the rigid DC mythology. On paper, this could have been the antidote to an increasingly codified strain of comic-book movies, but in the end, it's just another high-attitude version of the same.
- The Joker and Harley Quinn steal the show in this DC Comics-style riff on 'The Dirty Dozen,' which shares the same bleak view of superheroes as 'Batman v Superman.'
- Like so many of [David] Ayer's directorial efforts, "Suicide Squad" feels like it was re-drafted in the editing room. It's clumsy, disrupted by at least eight different plodding flashbacks, filled with lines of dialogue that cut well into trailers but make zero sense in context, and patched up with an embarrassment of rock-along musical cues.
- Ayer, who caught his big break by writing "Training Day," likes to paint the world as needing bad to keep it from worse, but his black-and-gray mentality isn't that much different from black and white.
- If you're gonna make a sub-par superhero movie, you might as well do it with some flair.
- In the continuing effort to create a series of interconnected films based on DC Comics characters—similar to the well-established (and, thus far, superior) Marvel Cinematic Universe—"Suicide Squad" is just about as unpleasant as this year's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," but for totally different reasons.
- Writer/director David Ayer has created a movie that's simultaneously underwritten and overstuffed. It has too many characters yet precious few who even come close to resembling actual human beings.
- If these guys fail, they die. If they bail, they die. The makers of the film itself haven't given us much reason to care about them, either.
- It's got a plot that was edited into incoherence, but it's also got several strong performances from great actors, in good roles.
- Characters don't so much have arcs as they have a series of steps. Eventually the movie simply reaches a point where if the amoral loners don't pull together to save the world, the movie will end, so ... they do.
- After all the hype, Jared Leto's Joker is largely unmemorable and uninspired.
- If "Batman v Superman" was crushed under the weight of its conflicting goals and outsize ambitions, then "Suicide Squad" merely trips on its own shoelaces and barely bothers to get back up.
- The only things worth savouring are [Will] Smith, [Margot] Robbie, and [Viola] Davis. They make the case for their inclusion in a better DC Films project down the line.
- "Suicide Squad" is not the Savior of the summer. It is not the great DC Films entry that gets the franchise back on track after two middling Zack Snyder-directed "Superman" movies.
