‘Suicide Squad’ Director David Ayer Defends His Film From Its Reviews

As the time neared for the embargo to lift on Suicide Squad reviews Tuesday afternoon, you could almost feel movie critics across the internet itching to fire off their first tweets. The hype for Suicide Squad has been massive. Its success is necessary to assure DC fans that the critically reviled Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a fluke, and that the villain-driven Suicide Squad would make it all better, blending grittiness and violence with plenty of humor. Did you hear how crazy Jared Leto was on set? Did you hear how crazy everyone was?

And then came the reviews, some good but most… well, nothing to write home about. Our own Mike Ryan called the story inconsistent, while our friends at HitFix were at least optimistic about the film’s potential for DC. Perhaps the worst review came from Vanity Fair, which said that Suicide Squad “isn’t even the good kind of bad.” They’re hardly alone, though, as you can see for yourself from this small sample of larger outlets.

This rush of negative criticism has put director David Ayer in a tight spot. He seems to love the movie and has promoted it with enthusiasm, even shouting, “F*ck Marvel!” to help antagonize a silly rivalry between warring comic book factions. But now he’s facing the same sort of treatment that Zack Snyder received in the wake of BvS, and so he is making it known that he stands by his film and will die on this hill.

“I’d prefer to die standing, than to live always on my knees.”

The fans seem to have Ayer’s back, evidenced by the ridiculous effort to shut down Rotten Tomatoes because of the negative Suicide Squad reviews. But hey, some people can use their time to help make the world better and some can use it to fight a pointless battle for the appreciation of comic book movies. Zapata would respect that, I think.