Film of the Week: Suicide Squad (Extended Edition)

I gave a strong review regarding why I dislike Suicide Squad. It was rushed, the Joker was hardly there, and Warner Brothers’ executives decided to take away most of the comedy and make it darker. We were given scenes in the trailers that weren’t in the final film. There were numerous problems. It was following the footsteps of Batman Vs Superman, and that means there’s an extended cut of the film. I gave Batman Vs Superman a second chance with the extended cut, and credit where credit’s due, it was better than the theoretical version, but it wasn’t perfect. It’s only fair that I give Suicide Squad another chance.

When they mean an extended cut of a film, they mean to make the film longer with scenes previously unseen, right? 11 minutes of extra film can be filled with a lot of content if used correctly, but there’s so few scenes added that it might as well just be the theoretical version again. But, let’s take a look at those new scenes. The Joker has a lot more screen time than previously, but they’ve weaved him in places that make it seem clunky and off, and from what we’ve learned over the past few months is that there was a lot of footage. I was expecting the extended cut to include pretty much everything that they shot during production, and I’m fairly confident that it wasn’t only an extra eleven minutes. It doesn’t add anything extra. It’s the exact same film as before, so I could just write what I wrote before.

Batman Vs Superman’s extended cut gave us a bit more than before; by filling in an empty shell that was the theoretical edition. It still needed a lot of work, but you could see that they put in some effort, whereas with the Suicide Squad, they put little to no effort into it, and expected us to buy it all over again. I’m disappointed, and proves that the executives overseeing the DC Cinematic Universe aren’t learning from their mistakes, or even listening to what we, the audience, has to say. To say what’s wrong with this extended edition, I’m basically going to repeat myself, so I’ll just leave a link to the previous article below this paragraph and move onto another topic.

http://www.tonyhadnouns.com/2016/08/film-of-week-suicide-squad.html

I’ve praised MARVEL’s Cinematic Universe, and disliked DC’s Cinematic Universe, and as a result, I’ve been labelled by some as a MARVEL fan-boy. I’ve been told that I need to see each film for what it is, not compare it to MARVEL all the time. A valid point, but unnecessary. DC’s Television Universe is much better than the movies. Starting with Arrow, then expanding with the Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and then the recent inclusion of Supergirl, I haven’t missed an episode of either. Arrow started to dip in quality during its fourth season because of what happened in the third. The Suicide Squad featured in Arrow, but had to end.

There were tonnes of opportunities to develop the squad, but due to Warner Brother’s own rule, they had to put an end to that because of this film. Characters that are set to appear in their films can’t appear in their TV shows – other than the main characters. Deadshot was killed off, Amanda Waller was also, and I saw no real need to do that. It was completely unnecessary but had to be done because of this film. This film ruined Arrow and a lot of people were put off from watching it altogether, especially during the fourth season. The fifth is picking up in quality, but the damage may have already been done. If it weren’t for the other three programs, Arrow would surely have perished. If it weren’t for the four-night crossover event – which I consider as being the biggest television event this side of Summer. My point is, they ruined a much-loved show to make a terrible film.

Warner Brothers have stressed that their television universe and their big screen universe will forever remain separate to allow them both to develop in their own way so it won’t get confusing and/or prevent either one of them from bringing them both down. They stressed about not doing something whilst doing it. Surely, if they really wanted them to remain separate, Warner Brothers wouldn’t have touched it in the way they already have. The shows are slowly redeeming the damage done, but before it all changed, DC’s television shows were a lot better than MARVEL’s. Now, shows such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and even Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, which had a weak beginning overtook Arrow during its third season. They do have some catching up to do, but this four-night crossover event, I’m confident will bring back a lot of people. Arrow’s portion within the crossover brings something else to the table, and that’s celebrating its 100^th episode. The trailers are showing that they are going bigger than before, so hopefully it’s better as well.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)