Suicide Squad creator claims critics 'came prepared to hate' film

Comic book writer John Ostrander casts his own admittedly biased review of the supervillain movie

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.)

The comic book writer behind Suicide Squad has come storming to its defence after the supervillain movie was hit by a flood of negative reviews.

John Ostrander, who penned the series with John Byrne in the Eighties, has insisted that critics “came prepared to hate” David Ayers’ film, which follows a group of villains enlisted by a secret government agency to carry out blackop missions in exchange for clemency.

Suicide Squad came out on Friday after being branded “crushingly puerile”, “nowhere near nasty enough” and “too shoddy and forgettable to even register as revolting” by reviewers. Jared Leto’s Joker has proved divisive despite him only getting circa 15 minutes of screen time, while Cara Delevingne has been unanimously panned as Enchantress. But, according to Ostrander, the critics had their knives out before even taking their seats.

Here’s what he had to say in his own Comic Mix review:

“Regarding the Suicide Squad movie, well I’m biased. I’m prejudiced. I have a vested interest in its success. I want it to succeed. However, if I didn’t like it, I’d be more likely just to keep my trap shut.

“My trap is open. I really liked the film. Not perfect by a long shot, but a really good time in the movie theatre. For me a lot of it was just amazing. The look, the detail, the feel of the film is not something I’ve seen in superhero movies before.

“I know some of the critics, both in print and online, do not like the movie. That’s okay; everyone has a right to their own opinion even when it’s wrong. My problem is that, at least with some of the media reviews, is that the critic is also tired of superhero and “tentpole” films and, overtly or covertly, would like to see their end. Look, I get it, they have to see all the films out there and they must be tired of all the blockbusters.

“If every superhero film is not The Dark Knight, they’ll bitch. I think that’s going on here to a certain degree. Just as I came prepared to love the movie, they came prepared to hate it.”

Ostrander also attacked the “online haters” who came out to join in the Suicide Squad bashing, some without having seen the movie. “If a film doesn’t fit their pre-conceived notion, it is wrong,” he said. “Female Ghostbusters, a black Deadshot, Ben Affleck as Batman (Affleck, by the way, does cameos as both Batman and Bruce Wayne in Suicide Squad and is terrific) - these are all sins and must be decried. Give me a f***ing break.”

The biggest successes for Ostrander were Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Robbie as a “sexy, innocent, funny, lethal, crazy and dangerous” Harley Quinn and Will Smith who “made Deadshot his own”, while he admitted that the chief problem with the film was the lack of a “well defined” antagonist and the generic storyline about saving the world, minus any “political and/or social edge”.

Unsurprisingly, Ostrander is gunning for a sequel. Judging by Suicide Squad’s record-breaking box office takings so far, it seems likely that Warner Bros will be bringing his stories to life on the silver screen for a good while yet.

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