By this point, plenty of moviegoers have spent hours arguing over Suicide Squad. Viewpoints have ranged from people that despised every single second of it, to those that were suitably enthralled and can't wait to see what the characters would do next, and everything in between. As you'd probably expect, the writer of numerous Suicide Squad comic book issues has some pretty strong opinions on the film, especially since he mostly loved it. But after disparaging naysayers when Suicide Squad was originally released, John Ostrander has backtracked on his original response to the critics.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, John Ostrander clarified his original remarks, and it's hard to disagree with his assessment. John Ostrander explained:
First of all, I want to say I am not disparaging any of the critics. I do have problems --- whether it's the Squad or not --- when a critic comes in with an agenda already. They are not looking at the movie for what it is. I have read several of the reviews that were just fine, even not that keen on it. As long as they were looking at it honestly, that's fine. When somebody comes in with an attitude, 'I'm sick of superhero movies,' 'I am not going to give them a break,' 'It has to be a masterpiece to get a good word out of me,' I don't think that's right or fair.
Shortly after Suicide Squad was released, John Ostrander wrote a piece for Comicmix that revealed he "really liked the film," while still acknowledging that it was "not perfect by a long shot." Like Deadshot with a gun in his hand, John Ostrander then took aim at the critics that had seemingly taken out their frustrations with Hollywood's plethora of tentpole blockbusters and the recent abundance of superhero films on Suicide Squad.
"Look, I get it -- they have to see all the films out there and they must be tired of all the blockbusters," Ostrander wrote. "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."
Of course, there were quite a few people out there that really didn't enjoy their time watching Suicide Squad, which is why it currently has the paltry score of just 26% on Rotten Tomatoes. But John Ostramender wasn't the only one to voice his displeasure with this reception. Soon after Suicide Squad's release, a petition was started to try and close down the movie aggregating site because fans didn't believe that it was a true reflection of the movie's brilliance.
The reviews didn't sabotage the release of Suicide Squad that much though, because earlier today it was revealed that it's now passed $600 million at the box office across the world. Just imagine how much it would have grossed if it had been universally adored, though.
