"Yeah
I am bothered about it, I think it sucks, obviously we worked hard and tried to
give the fans what they wanted," Jay Hernandez - a.k.a. Diablo - tells
Digital Spy. "It's weird that some of the criticism I heard was that it
was 'too much like a comic book', in terms of you have these characters being
objectified like Harley Quinn, there are just certain elements that are just
part of being a comic book. If you're trying to portray that on a film, you
have to stay true to that, because if you don't, the fans of the comics are
going to be offended." He then went on to say that the critics can kiss
his ass.
I feel Jay’s frustration with critics. I sure don’t like it when people get on me about my poetry, my acting, my art. I spend lots of time developing my skills for whichever artistic medium I’m working in and I’d like my endeavors to be appreciated and NOT bashed by some damn, dumb-ass critic who doesn’t know a damn thing about my chosen art form!
However,
There are a few points that Hernandez makes in his rant that might be the reasons why critics and fans aren’t “appreciating” this particular film.
1. “. . . obviously we worked hard and tried to give the fans what they wanted . . .” well, there’s your first mistake. You can’t tell exactly what your audience wants because they don’t know, and there aren’t enough surveys, polls and pie charts in the universe that can tell you, “THIS is what the audience wants.” Suicide Squad is chucked full of scenes we’ve already seen in other movies. Helicopter crashes, Katana sword fights and heroes in a battle for life against an army that out numbers them twenty (or more) to one— And while I’m thinking about it, what the hell is up with these omnipotent beings that create wimpy-ass armies to fight their battles? Enchantress is an all-powerful being, why she create a Burnt Marshmallow Army that Deadshot wipes out in seconds is a mystery to me! Okay, admittedly, the scene were Deadshot goes all John Wick on the BMA is really cool. However, the lead up to it was simply the same old same old.
2. “. . . If you're trying to portray that (comic books) on a film, you have to stay true to that, because if you don't, the fans of the comics are going to be offended.” Listen, Fanboys/girls are going to be offended no matter what you put up on screen because you are messing with something dear to them. And—
I feel Jay’s frustration with critics. I sure don’t like it when people get on me about my poetry, my acting, my art. I spend lots of time developing my skills for whichever artistic medium I’m working in and I’d like my endeavors to be appreciated and NOT bashed by some damn, dumb-ass critic who doesn’t know a damn thing about my chosen art form!
However,
There are a few points that Hernandez makes in his rant that might be the reasons why critics and fans aren’t “appreciating” this particular film.
1. “. . . obviously we worked hard and tried to give the fans what they wanted . . .” well, there’s your first mistake. You can’t tell exactly what your audience wants because they don’t know, and there aren’t enough surveys, polls and pie charts in the universe that can tell you, “THIS is what the audience wants.” Suicide Squad is chucked full of scenes we’ve already seen in other movies. Helicopter crashes, Katana sword fights and heroes in a battle for life against an army that out numbers them twenty (or more) to one— And while I’m thinking about it, what the hell is up with these omnipotent beings that create wimpy-ass armies to fight their battles? Enchantress is an all-powerful being, why she create a Burnt Marshmallow Army that Deadshot wipes out in seconds is a mystery to me! Okay, admittedly, the scene were Deadshot goes all John Wick on the BMA is really cool. However, the lead up to it was simply the same old same old.
2. “. . . If you're trying to portray that (comic books) on a film, you have to stay true to that, because if you don't, the fans of the comics are going to be offended.” Listen, Fanboys/girls are going to be offended no matter what you put up on screen because you are messing with something dear to them. And—
Oops!
Sorry. Anyway, the movie does have a lot of problems mainly due to trying to be
too much “exactly” like the comic in structure. Your movie can’t be the comic
book because . . . IT’S a MOVIE! It’s a
different medium. What works on the page does not necessarily work on screen.
Granted, there are a lot of movies that have no respect for the original
material and create a disrespectful mess by trying NOT to be the original,
written material. But there are also many successful filmed versions of novels,
comic books that are able to keep the spirit of the original piece of art and
create something new and different. The Walking Dead TV show has even added at
least one character, Daryl Dixon, who doesn’t exist in the original graphic
novel. Game of Thrones has a heated battle going on between fans of the books
and fans of the HBO series because the TV production varies a lot from the
books. But arguably, the TV show is just as good as the original material.
So, Okay. Suicide Squad is pretty much a messed up child because his parents couldn’t decide how do bring him up right. However, what makes me a fan of this “hot mess” is the work of the actors. The characters are fascinating to me. Listen, any movie that has Viola Davis in it can’t be all bad. She is an actor’s actor, and her portrayal of a harder than hard-ass patriot rivals Samuel L.’s Nick Fury. And yeah, we all know that Will Smith loves to “standout” in a scene, but when he does it in this movie it is something special. And yeah, yeah, yeah, his acting in this flick is a lot like all his other movies where he has to play more “streetwise” than he really is, but there’s something special about a psychotic killer, Deadshot, who loves his daughter more than anything. The scene where Deadshot helps her with her geometry homework is . . . Priceless. For me, Margot Robbie’s naughty, sexy, sweetly sociopathic Harley Quinn is masterfully portrayed and— like my opinion or not— Jared Leto’s Joker as a new dimension to this beloved madman in clown white!
So, Suicide Squad isn’t, overall, the best comic book movie ever made but it’s a hell of a lot better (primarily because of the acting) than most critics and fans will admit.
So, Okay. Suicide Squad is pretty much a messed up child because his parents couldn’t decide how do bring him up right. However, what makes me a fan of this “hot mess” is the work of the actors. The characters are fascinating to me. Listen, any movie that has Viola Davis in it can’t be all bad. She is an actor’s actor, and her portrayal of a harder than hard-ass patriot rivals Samuel L.’s Nick Fury. And yeah, we all know that Will Smith loves to “standout” in a scene, but when he does it in this movie it is something special. And yeah, yeah, yeah, his acting in this flick is a lot like all his other movies where he has to play more “streetwise” than he really is, but there’s something special about a psychotic killer, Deadshot, who loves his daughter more than anything. The scene where Deadshot helps her with her geometry homework is . . . Priceless. For me, Margot Robbie’s naughty, sexy, sweetly sociopathic Harley Quinn is masterfully portrayed and— like my opinion or not— Jared Leto’s Joker as a new dimension to this beloved madman in clown white!
So, Suicide Squad isn’t, overall, the best comic book movie ever made but it’s a hell of a lot better (primarily because of the acting) than most critics and fans will admit.
MOVIE GRADE 70% = C-
OVERALL ACTING GRADE 89% = B+
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