David Ayer’s Suicide Squad was one of the most anticipated blockbusters of the summer — until film reviewers and critics released their opinions about the DC Comics superhero film on Tuesday.
The internet turned into a virtual Suicide Squad dartboard, with insults and takedowns coming fast and furious from innumerable publications.
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Here’s a taste of some (rather nasty) reviews:
“Just when you think the summer movie season can’t get any worse, along come the ‘Worst. Heroes. Ever.’ And while the film’s official tagline is selling its stars a little bit short (surely last year’s incarnation of The Fantastic Four still holds that dubious distinction), the mundane, milquetoast, and often mind-bogglingly stupid Suicide Squad almost makes good on the threat of its marketing campaign.
Of course, the advertising copy isn’t referring to the quality of the film’s super-powered task force so much as it is to their moral fiber, but this motley crew of demented rejects — a real who’s who of who gives a s**t — are bad in every sense of the word except for the one that might threaten to make them interesting.”
“I’m starting to feel like Charlie Brown here, folks. Once again I raced toward the football, with every hope that I would get a chance to kick it. Once again Lucy has pulled it out from under me at the last minute. Here I am, once again flat on my back staring up at the stars, wonder how I let myself get duped yet again. 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.”
“Suicide Squad is bad. Not fun bad. Not redeemable bad. Not the kind of bad that is the unfortunate result of artists honorably striving for something ambitious and falling short. Suicide Squad is just bad. It’s ugly and boring, a toxic combination that means the film’s highly fetishized violence doesn’t even have the exciting tingle of the wicked or the taboo. (Oh, how the movie wants to be both of those things.) It’s simply a dull chore steeped in flaccid machismo, a shapeless, poorly edited trudge that adds some mildly appalling sexism and even a soupçon of racism to its abundant, hideously timed gun worship. But, perhaps worst of all, Suicide Squad is ultimately too shoddy and forgettable to even register as revolting. At least revolting would have been something.”
And that’s just barely scratching the surface.
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In response to the negative reviews, Ayer quoted Emiliano Zapata, a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution. He insisted that the experience making the movie was the best time of his life.
Despite a horrendous RottenTomatoes.com rating (as of this writing, it’s at 32 per cent, which is considered “rotten”), Ayer’s movie is still on target to gross $140 million USD in just three days. The film is also setting records for August ticket sales.
Should you want to see Suicide Squad for yourself, the film opens in Canadian theatres on August 5.
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