After Batman v Superman was dubbed “an authentic dumpster fire” almost unanimously by any masochist who sat through the three-hour movie, Suicide Squad went through a slew of reshoots to try and take the critiques people had against BvS (dark, dreary, incomprehensible, stupid, a real boner-killer of a movie) and apply them to make SS a better film. As I’m sure you may have heard, this did not work and wound up making Suicide Squad even worse somehow. What a giant waste of time that was for everyone involved!
Personally, I’ve come to enjoy seeing the DC movies flop like a whale on ice skates. It’s not that I hate the DC characters or anything – far from it, as I love the Batman movies all the way back to when they had to put 5’7” Michael Keaton on a platform for his first scene as the caped crusader in order to make him look more imposing — it’s more that the whole thing has become comical at this point. Look at Marvel, and then look at DC. Marvel’s basically got the superhero movie formula down pat, and while they’ve been getting heat (small heat, but heat nonetheless) lately for the fact that all their movies sort of feel the same, they’re still objectively good movies – DC? Not so much. Green Lantern, Batman V Superman, Man of Steel…none of those are arguably “quality,” and we’ve reached the point where every time I see a trailer for a new DC movie I automatically assume it will make a decent amount of money, but flop critically.
Even though the recent Suicide Squad was mostly garbage, DC still has a few movies coming up that’ll give Warner Bros. a chance to redeem themselves, with the trailer for Wonder Woman stirring up a good amount of hype. Not gonna lie, it looks pretty badass and sort of reminds me of Captain America: The First Avenger:
But according to a recent open letter to Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara, the film is actually a “mess” hiding behind a great trailer. While the letter is anonymous, the writer claims to be a former Warner Bros. employee and says that the executives are royally dicking over the people lower on the totem pole with their horrible decision making skills:
Zack Snyder is not delivering. Is he being punished? Assistants who were doing fantastic work certainly were. People in finance and in marketing and in IT. They had no say in a movie calledBatman V Superman only having 8 minutes of Batman fighting Superman in it, that ends because their moms have the same name. Snyder is a producer on every DC movie. He is still directing Justice League. He is being rewarded with more opportunity to get more people laid off. I’m assuming you yourself haven’t been financially affected in any real way. You and your studio are the biggest lesson about life one can learn: The top screws up and the bottom suffers. Peter Jackson phones it in and a marketing supervisor has to figure out a plan B for house payments.
Your uneven Hall H presentation at Comic Con this year was a ridiculous mess that ranged from rushed to boring. When Marvel announced their full slate of films with a fun fan event several years ago, you announced yours on a shareholder conference call.
You just don’t get it. And it’s not just DC movies, it’s your whole slate. Jupiter Ascending. Get Hard. Hot Pursuit. Max. Vacation. Pan. Point Break. Fucking PAN, you jerk. People lost their jobs and you decided Pan was a good idea. You think another Jungle Book is a good idea.
What are you even doing? I wish to God you were forced to live out of a car until you made a #1 movie of the year. Maybe Wonder Woman wouldn’t be such a mess. Don’t try to hide behind the great trailer. People inside are already confirming it’s another mess. It is almost impressive how you keep rewarding the same producers and executives for making the same mistakes, over and over.
Unsurprisingly, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins fired back at the open letter, tweeting that the claims made in the letter are “made up” and “entirely false.” Which, obviously, is what you would say if someone was circulating rumors that your yet-to-be-released blockbuster movie sucked:
Woah, just saw this press about WW having problems. Are they serious? This is some made up bs right here. Made up! Produce a source, anyone.
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) August 12, 2016
You can’t because it’s entirely false. Don’t believe the hype people. Someone’s trying to spread some serious misinfo.
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) August 12, 2016
Isn’t until you are intimately involved in these things that you realize how totally false these rumors can. Let me reassure you…
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) August 12, 2016
Zero about the movie we are making has been called a mess by anyone in the know. Fact.
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) August 12, 2016
Real lasso of truth, time, will reveal that letter to be false soon enough. But lame something so transparent in its agenda gets traction.
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) August 12, 2016
To be fair to Patty, she makes a good point – the whole narrative of “DC pales in comparison to Marvel” really started gaining traction right around the time BvS was certified as a craptacular movie, and only gained further backing after Suicide Squad failed to even break 30% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Then again, the only people cited for claims that Suicide Squad was a hot mess were anonymous “production insiders” or “studio insiders,” yet those turned out to be true regardless.
The only way to know whether Wonder Woman will be yet another entry into DC’s “Meh” catalogue of films is to wait until its release in 2017…but if you asked me?
I wouldn’t get my hopes up.