Genre: Superhero
Premise: A rag-tag team of super-villains are released from prison to help the military destroy a powerful witch who has taken over the city.
About: What originally began as a secondary project in DC’s plans to do what Marvel’s done, got called up to the big leagues when Batman vs. Superman didn’t do well and Suicide Squad’s first trailer generated a ton of unexpected heat. All of a sudden, DC considered Squad its top priority, and since then, just about everything that could’ve happened with the project did happen. The film had already been rushed into production from the start (they gave writer-director David Ayer only six weeks to write the script). And now the first cut was considered too serious, a common complaint with Batman vs. Superman. So they rushed into reshoots that would focus on adding more humor, all of which was denied by Ayer, DC, and Warner Brothers. Meanwhile, two separate cuts of the movie were being edited – one serious, one funny, and were later screened for audiences to see which tested better. Funny won and Ayer’s serious take was deep-sixed. Ayer seems to have learned from his predecessors though. Instead of throwing the film under the bus like Josh Trank did for Fantastic Four and Joss Whedon did for Avengers 2, Ayer has proudly claimed that he loves the movie. The film debuted this weekend to 135 million dollars, which is either really high (it’s the highest ever opening in August) or really low (it was projected to hit 150 million) depending on who you talk to. For reference, Batman vs. Superman, which consisted of the two best known superheroes in history, opened with 166 million.
Writer: David Ayer
Details: 120 minutes
Six weeks.
SIX WEEKS!
Remember that time when I gave you guys four months to write a script and most of you said it was impossible and I was moving way too fast and that you NEEDED MORE TIME. Well imagine someone telling you that you had six weeks to write a 180 million dollar movie. Oh, and by the way. It wasn’t some simple narrative that followed a superhero’s origin story.
No. It was an ENSEMBLE PIECE of brand new characters that hadn’t been seen on the big screen before. So you were going to have to introduce each of them, make us understand and care about them within a couple of minutes, and, while you were doing this, create a plot that would offer these characters something important to do.
When you consider all that? I think David Ayer did a damn good job.
I mean, from the way people were talking about this movie, I thought I was walking into Transformers 4 or Pan. This was a solid, albeit rushed superhero movie that felt different enough from the usual suspects, that it left me feeling like I’d spent my money well.
Now before you go all, “But Carson. It doesn’t do all these things that you tell us to do. Why are you giving it a pass?” Believe me, I’m aware of the things it does badly. But the combination of zero expectations and knowing they wrote a script in six weeks (SIX WEEKS!), left me actually impressed that they came up with something comprehensible at all.
This is something I tell you guys. Get ready for how it really is in the big leagues. Cause a time like this WILL happen to you, where someone asks you to write a script in six weeks, or four, or two, or ten days. I’ve heard it happen before. If you don’t have a game plan down for how to approach that problem, say goodbye to some potentially lucrative jobs.
For those who didn’t see the film, here’s the Five Tweets plot-breakdown. An extremely powerful witch tries to take over the city. They recruit super-villains from prison to stop her, the key players of whom are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and firestarter, Diablo. They’re led by Sergeant Rick Flag, who happens to be in love with the woman who the witch has possessed. Oh, and while they go after the witch, the Joker, who’s Harley Quinn’s boyfriend, attempts to get her back.
The rushed-ness of the script is felt almost immediately.
They give us an introductory scene for both Deadshot and Harley Quinn. They then do one of those dossier montages where a woman runs down each of the villains, while we see them in action, giving us a SECOND introductory scene for both Deadshot and Harley Quinn. Finally, before the mission begins, we get a THIRD introductory scene for Deadshot.
Look, we can hurl hate from our ivory towers all we want. But I’ve heard how some of these high level 15 producers sitting at a table with the studio head and a dozen executives, all of whom’s jobs depend on this movie, each giving opinions on what they think needs to be in the film, go. And I can only imagine the level of conflicting notes that come out of those meetings.
I can totally see a conversation that went something like: “But that Will Smith target practice scene is awesome!” “Well yeah, but we’ve already set up his character, um, twice.” “I don’t care. I love that scene. Put it in there.” “You’re the boss.”
Truth be told, the majority of the problems in this movie are problems that could’ve been fixed with time. For example, one of your best characters, The Joker, isn’t even part of the main plot. Why isn’t he a part of the Suicide Squad?
Then you realize, well, the Joker doesn’t have any powers. So it wouldn’t make sense for them to recruit him. Not only that, but he’s so big, he would overshadow everyone in the group. Who cares about Boomerang Guy or Katana Chick when the Joker is chewing up the scenery? Hence why they give him this subplot where he’s away from everyone else. But I’m sure with three or four drafts, you’d figure out a way to make him a bigger part of the story.
The lack of time also hurt the character creation. This is where time truly haunts the process. Because you can always cobble together a giant problem and a goal for characters to tackle. But making characters memorable and giving them something interesting going on is a whole other ball of wax.
I mean someone tell me what Croc did in this film. He’s the coolest-looking character of the bunch and he does absolutely nothing. Ditto Boomerang Guy, who’s relegated to an exaggerated Aussie accent and a boomerang that does the same thing a $19.99 drone from Toys R Us can do. And as much time as they spent on Deadshot, his entire character amounts to, “I’M DOING THIS FOR MY DAUGHTER” in big giant capital letters.
And again, I’m not blaming the lack of ability. I’m blaming the lack of time. Creating nuanced characters in an ENSEMBLE where you have a fraction of the time you’d have in a traditional single-hero film is hard. It takes a lot of trial and error.
But you could see Ayer trying. The choice to make Rick Flag and the Witch in love, so that destroying the witch meant destroying the love of his life – that’s the kind of the thing you want to do in screenplays. You want to make it personal. It was executed clumsily in a first-draftish way, but the intention was good.
And we did have a clear goal driving the story. We knew what we were after, which kept the journey focused.
I could’ve personally done without the witch-as-major-villain choice. I think witches belong in a separate universe from superheroes, which is why I never took to the witch character in the Avengers either. Then again, I don’t know how they come up with any villains in these superhero movies, since they have to construct something that is somehow more powerful than all of the most powerful superheroes combined.
It all feels so convoluted.
Is it any wonder why the two most popular villains in history (Lex Luthor and The Joker) have no powers?
That’s one of Nolan’s secrets to success. By eliminating anyone with ridiculous super powers, he didn’t have to come up with some silly villain who could blow up the planet with a wiggle of his left toe.
Is Suicide Squad great? It is not. But it’s not nearly as bad as people are saying it is. It’s DEFINITELY better than Batman vs. Superman, I can promise you that.
But I will say that if DC doesn’t put a better plan in place, they’re fucked. You can’t throw scripts together in six weeks and expect miracles. The key to Marvel’s success was that they mapped out a plan ahead of time, which gave projects the organic time to grow that they needed. In the few times that they rushed (Iron Man 2, Avengers 2), they paid the price. Then again, when has Hollywood ever listened to that advice? They keep making the same mistake again and again. Kind of like being told again and again that the reason we’re on this mission is because, “I’m gonna see my daughter!!!”
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the price of admission
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Bad guys forced to do good things is a formula that audiences enjoy. It’s no surprise why three of the biggest surprise properties of the last few years have been: “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Deadpool,” and “Suicide Squad.” Audiences love that setup.
