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[Sept. 2016 Arts] Suicide Squad: new action movie dissatisfies audience

By Christoph Russi ’18 Web A&E Editor and Benjamin Stein

The movie “Suicide Squad” has generated controversy following its release, and a lot of disappointment from loyal DC fans and the average moviegoer upon watching it. Originally there was a lot of hype because many people really enjoyed “Batman vs Superman” and wanted to see what was next.

 

Essentially “Suicide Squad” was about a secret government agency that recruited incarcerated criminals to form a defensive task force.

 

One staples student Jack Caldwell said, “It didn’t have the hype or the wait of ‘Batman v Superman’ because those had such big characters, and I think that the lack of hype and well-known characters made it a bit more fun.” This opinion however was not universal, as another student had a different opinion on the movie.

 

Holly Shaum said, “I think the the Joker should’ve gotten a little more screen time because he’s such an iconic character … they left a lot out.” The feeling of the movie “having left a lot out” was pretty common. One media teacher Geno Heiter has talked to his students about the movie.

 

According to him it wasn’t that great, he thinks the budget was to blame for the sloppy editing, he said, “Some students in my narrative film class felt that it was ‘slapped’ together as if budgets and deadlines could have possibly been the reason for what they all thought was an ‘okay’ movie.” The budget for the movie was 175 million, whereas the budget for Batman v Superman was 250 million.

 

The majority of the complaints seemed to be more oriented towards the expectations and context of the movie, rather than the acting or writing itself. According to Anthony Lane of New Yorker, “To say that the movie loses the plot would not be strictly accurate, for that would imply that there was a plot to lose.” This builds upon an interesting pattern that’s coming to light of movies produced by Warner Brothers, and many of the same criticisms that can be made of their previous film, Batman v Superman, can be applied to Suicide Squad.

 

It’s unlikely that the issues of these films are the direct fault of the directors, cinematographers, writers, or actors– but rather Warner Brothers re-cutting final products in attempts to “appeal” to a broader audience, and ending up corrupting the director’s vision.

“Thoughts are that the film assumed the audience was familiar with many of the characters and plots that comic series established. Comments such as … “not enough back-story…”  Some students in my narrative film class felt that it was “slapped” together as if budgets and deadlines could have possibly been the reason for what they all thought was an ‘okay’ movie … I’ll have to check it out soon.”

 

“It didn’t have the hype or the wait of ‘Batman v Superman’ because those had such big characters, and I think that the lack of hype and well-known characters made it a bit more fun,” Jack Caldwell ’18.

 

“I liked it overall, but I think they had too many characters in order to explain what each of the character’s background was,”

“I think the the Jjoker should’ve gotten a little more screen time because he’s such an iconic character … they left a lot out.”

 

“Some students in my narrative film class felt that it was ‘slapped’ together as if budgets and deadlines could have possibly been the reason for what they all thought was an ‘okay’ movie.”

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