David Ayer’s Suicide Squad was a total disaster. The film is disjointed and messy, has a crappy villain and feels like a bunch of random scenes thrown together instead of a fully cohesive movie. The only saving grace is the film’s stellar cast of characters. Suicide Squad has a stinking 29% on Rotten Tomatoes (with an average critics rating of 4.9/10) and failed to light the box office on fire too. Weeks and months after the film’s release, we came to find out that the film was a heavily messed around and meddled with by studio execs. At one point, Warner Bros higher-ups actually took the footage shot by Ayer and passed it to a company that makes movie trailers to stitch the film together however they please.
Now, as we gear up for a Suicide Squad reboot helmed by Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn, David Ayer took to Instagram to share what his movie was actually supposed to be.
Movies are fragile. They are like dreams, haunting moments that run from your vision. They have their own logic and truth. If you change the destination after the trip is complete is it still the same journey? The spine of Suicide Squad was Harley’s journey. In many ways it was her movie, her escaping her relationship with Joker was the major emotional through-line. A director holds an invisible compass in their hands. It guides every shot, every performance. That compass points to the destination. If the desintation changes did the journey even happen?
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4adVBEgxZ_/?utm_source=ig_embed
This is David Ayer once again reiterating that this film isn’t HIS. Yes, it may have his name on it, but Suicide Squad was a product of studio meddling, not that of an auteur with a singular vision. Ayer’s original idea, on the other hand, seems to be far more intriguing. However, I can’t seem to grasp why a film titled Suicide Squad would be less about a gang of ragtag bandits and more about Harley’s relationship with Joker.
