Why The Suicide Squad’s James Gunn Isn’t Worried About His DC Flick Being ‘Review Bombed’

Polka-Dot Man, Peacemaker, Bloodsport and Ratcatcher in The Suicide Squad

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The wait for The Suicide Squad is nearly over, and judging by the early reactions, James Gunn’s contribution to the DC Extended Universe is a critical hit. Soon the general public will be able to see whether or not Task Force X’s cinematic return lives up to the early hype, but even though the movie isn’t widely available yet, some folks are already review bombing it. However, this doesn’t bother Gunn for an understandable reason.

Although Rotten Tomatoes hasn’t opened up the Audience Score section of its page for The Suicide Squad, it’s been noted on Twitter that the latest DCEU movie is dealing with review bombing on IMDB, and some of the folks doing this are fans of Zack Snyder’s Justice League and the #RestoreTheSnyderverse movement. Here’s what James Gunn had to say about that:

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This isn’t the first time this year that a segment of the Zack Snyder’s Justice League fanbase have review bombed a fellow Warner Bros movie, as Godzilla vs. Kong was targeted right before it was released on March 31. But as James Gunn sees it, in the grand scheme of things, these review bombs don’t matter, and he also acknowledged that the majority of Snyder Cut fans have been pleasant with him. This is simply a minority who’ve decided to spend their time giving a low score to a movie that they almost certainly haven’t seen yet.

We’ll have to wait until The Suicide Squad in theaters and on HBO Max (use this link to sign up for the streaming service if you’re not already subscribed) to get a better idea how the masses feel about the movie. That said, looking purely at how it’s being received by professional critics, The Suicide Squad is currently the #1-rated DCEU movie on Rotten Tomatoes with a 97% score. 2017’s Wonder Woman is in second place at 93%, and 2019’s Shazam! comes at third with 90%. It’s also ironic that The Suicide Squad is leading the DCEU pack considering that 2016’s Suicide Squad is trailing in last place with a 26% Rotten Tomatoes score (though now I wonder how the Ayer Cut would rank).

Serving as a standalone sequel to Suicide Squad (as in you don’t need to have seen that one to follow along with this new story), The Suicide Squad sees Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller reassembling Task Force X to embark on a mission to destroy a Nazi-era laboratory on the island of Corto Maltese, which ultimately sees them clashing with the giant alien starfish known as Starro. Along with Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang and Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag returning, The Suicide Squad’s lineup of new faces includes Idris Elba’s Bloodsport, John Cena’s Peacemaker, David Dastmalchian’s Polka-Dot Man, Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2 and King Shark, who’s voiced by Sylvester Stallone. Along with his directorial duties, James Gunn wrote the script.

While we count down the hours until The Suicide Squad’s wide release, don’t forget to read CinemaBlend’s review of the movie and look through our upcoming DC Comics movie guide to learn what else the DCEU has on the way.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.