John Ostrander: Run, Squad, Run!
As I write this (Friday), the Suicide Squad movie has grossed $318, 779,276 domestically and $413,000,000 internationally for a total worldwide gross of $731,779,276. It’s been playing since the start of August and, in the U.S., it’s still on the top ten list.
It has now out-grossed the first Iron Man film. It has also out-grossed Iron Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Thor: The Dark World, Thor, Ant-Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Incredible Hulk. It has also out-grossed all of the X-Men films, the Wolverine films, and The Amazing Spider-Man films.
And Suicide Squad did not access to the #2 market in the world, China. (Why won’t the Chinese let it in? Beats me.)
It means that not only a lot of people have seen the movie, but many have seen it more than once. (I’ve seen it three times so far but you’d probably guessed that I would.) I know it’s still in at least one movie theater in my remote vicinity.
This is for a film that rates a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I still don’t understand. Did these disapproving critics and fans see the same film I saw? That all these other people saw? Yes, I know it’s not the Citizen Kane of superhero flicks; I know it’s flawed and I could recite some of those flaws. But, as I said before, I’d give it a good solid B. It’s a fun summer popcorn entertainment and it’s just different enough from other superhero films to deserve the attention it gets.
I saw at last one online poster sniff that, yes, it has had a lot of customers but, then, so does McDonalds. I’d hasten to point out that there are food critics who have praised McDonalds french fries. The fact that something is popular does not mean it isn’t good. (Ook. Two negatives in one sentence. Ah well.)
There are things that are different in the Squad film – I heard one millennial cite the coloring, the use of music, the pacing, and the central idea of bad guys being made to do “good” (“good” being a relative term). It is something different.
It’s something that the younger generation seems to be hooking into. The ad calls them the Worst. Heroes. Ever. – and they are. You wind up rooting for them anyway. As twisted as it is, the central romance in the film is Jared Leto’s Joker and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. The film is a different take on the superhero genre.
Look, I’m not going to try and tell people that their opinion of the film is wrong. They react according to who they are and how the film strikes them. I might suggest, however, that they might want to give it another chance. Sure, I’m biased and, yes, I have a (tiny) vested interest in the Squad’s success but I think the movie might be better than some people give it credit for.
So get a ticket, grab some popcorn, and meet me at the Cineplex while the Suicide Squad is still playing. I’m ready to go see it again.
I loved the movie. As you said, Mr. Ostrander, it’s not perfect but hardly any movie is. Some people don’t go to see a movie and just enjoy it, they go to find what’s wrong with it. Some people just don’t enjoy themselves and that doesn’t speak bad of a movie, speaks bad of themselves. But now that it’s like a trend or something, it’s hip. You read a ‘critic’ review and you adopt that even if you don’t know the guy who wrote it. If I have the feeling I won’t enjoy a show, I simply don’t go, I don’t need to torture me for two hours. As for Suicide Squad, it is a different comic book movie in different aspects and when you risk that much you might not lose everything but you also won’t hit it out of the park everytime. But it tries and for the most part, it delivers. One thing is certain, we have non comic book people making movies and that shows. But there’s also a lot of comic book guys involved, fighting to represent the medium these wonderful stories came from and it also shows. I would call that a win. I watched SS two times but I could easily have watched it another two. Now let’s wait for the blu-ray.