Unless you were living under a rock in 2016, you must have heard the talk of the town for that year, which would be David Ayer‘s Suicide Squad. Audiences were already hooked on the prospect of a live-action Suicide Squad after household names like Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Cara Delevingne, Viola Davis and Jared Leto were attached. Unfortunately, we all saw how that turned out.
Nowadays, especially with James Gunn’s 2021 effort overshadowing Ayer’s entirely, no one cares to remember what once was, nor did they find Leto’s Joker — one of the movie’s many downfalls — redeemable in any way. Even when he reappeared in the director’s cut of 2017’s Justice League, it wasn’t enough to salvage a positive response, as DC fans longed for the Heath Ledger era.
Years on, no one can pinpoint exactly why Suicide Squad bombed so hard, but plenty of fingers were pointed at Ayer, who worked as both director and screenwriter. Even seven years later, Ayer is still being labeled a hack whose glory days were numbered.
Responding to an internet troll, Ayer dished out a witty comeback:
Ayer has been relatively quiet since Suicide Squad, struggling to strike gold with any one of his ideas. His latest action-thriller The Tax Collector crashed miserably at the box office, barely scraping $1 million against a $30 million budget. Even George Lopez and Shia LaBeouf weren’t enough star power combined to keep the income steady. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for his upcoming action film The Beekeeper, starring Jason Statham, Jeremy Irons and Emmy Raver-Lampman; that sounds a little more promising at least.
Published: Apr 27, 2023 06:07 am