Thomas Roach on whether Suicide Squad is an attempt to copy the success of Guardians of the Galaxy…
Something many people point out is that comic book movies tend to be unoriginal and will borrow from one another for ideas. It’s been said that Captain America: Civil War – which will pit heroes Iron Man and Captain America against each other – was just a reaction to Warner Bros.’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. This year Guardians of the Galaxy was released and turned out to be a massive success for Marvel, both critically and financially. It seems that more obscure comic book properties can work really well on screen when they are given a chance. To me, Warner releasing Suicide Squad is an attempt to copy the success of Guardians of the Galaxy.
While it is not copying the concept of a group of misfit aliens fighting in the cosmos, Suicide Squad is taking a roster of unlikely characters and putting them together in a team movie. Like Guardians, Suicide Squad is a more obscure comic book property, although more people seem to have heard of Suicide Squad than they had of Guardians of the Galaxy. Still, it is certainly not a property that I or many others expected to see on the big screen, and especially so early on in Warner Bros’. DC line up.
It also seems that Warner and DC are developing a team up movie because they have shown to perform better. The Avengers is one of the highest grossing movies of all time and we can likely expect next years Avengers: Age of Ultron to perform the same or better. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will likely do very well too, and the fact that it will have The Dark Knight and the Man of Steel appearing together for the first time on the big screen may encourage casual moviegoers to check the film out. Suicide Squad will take some well known villains in a team-up movie and attempt to do what The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy has done. It probably wont outperform The Avengers or Justice League, but it should do pretty well in my opinion.
Another aspect that Suicide Squad looks to incorporate is the fact that the characters are going to be lovable rogues rather than heroes. It is a matter of opinion whether the Guardians are heroes or not, but I would say they are. In the comic they are heroes and in the film they save the day. Suicide Squad will also feature lovable rogues, and by the end they will likely be heroes. However some of the characters are well known villains and transforming villains into lovable rogues and then to heroes seems to be a massive mistake to me. I am sure that the film will work but there is something disappointing about the fact we are going to see characters like Harley Quinn and Deadshot save the day rather than terrorise Gotham City.
With Suicide Squad arriving so early on in the DC Cinematic Universe the studio must have faith in it. We still have a while to wait for the film’s release in 2016, and hopefully they are cooking up something unique, but I am nervous about it. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, I hope Suicide Squad really delivers and fans come to love the film.
SEE ALSO: Possible plot details for the Suicide Squad movie
Suicide Squad will be released on August 5th 2016 and directed by David Ayer (Fury) with a cast that includes Will Smith (Hancock) as Deadshot, Cara Delevingne (Pan) as Enchantress, Jai Courtney (Terminator: Genisys) as Boomerang, Tom Hardy (The Drop) as Rick Flagg, Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) as The Joker and Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) as Harley Quinn.
Thomas Roach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z2vq4CudKRk&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E
Originally published December 29, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
