2016: Suicide Squad

If you remember nothing else about Suicide Squad (officially titled Suicide Squad , but unofficially known as the birth of the "damaged" Joker meme), you remember the marketing. Warner Bros. sold us a dangerous, R-rated-style heist movie about villains forced to be heroes. What we got was a studio-edited patchwork quilt.

Let’s talk about (Jared Leto). Leaving the behind-the-scenes drama aside (the "used condoms," the dead pig, the method acting), the final cut of the film features a Joker who is barely in the movie. He’s a side plot. A flashback machine. Leto’s "gangster with grills and a damaged forehead tattoo" had potential, but the theatrical cut reduced him to a music video cameo. It felt like watching the deleted scenes reel.

C- (But an A+ for memes) What’s your take? Do you defend the 2016 Squad, or do you pretend it doesn’t exist? Drop a comment below. Suggested Tags: #SuicideSquad #DCEU #HarleyQuinn #MovieReview #PopCulture #JaredLetoJoker #Retrospective suicide squad 2016

After the dark reception of BvS , the studio panicked. They hired the team behind the Trailer to recut the movie to make it "funny." The result is a film that feels like two different movies fighting for the steering wheel.

Let’s set the scene: It’s the summer of 2016. We had just watched Batman v Superman tear up Metropolis, and the world was desperate to see DC catch the lightning in a bottle that Marvel had been holding for a decade. Then came the trailers for Suicide Squad —set to Queen’s "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Twenty One Pilots’ "Heathens." They were gritty, colorful, and looked like a blast. If you remember nothing else about Suicide Squad

Where does one start? The plot is a disaster. The team assembles, then fights waves of CGI goo-monsters, then fights a witch named Enchantress who is doing a bizarre interpretive dance while trying to destroy the world.

Then the movie actually hit theaters. And, well… the rest is chaotic history. What we got was a studio-edited patchwork quilt

Revisiting Suicide Squad (2016): The Ultimate Case of "What Could Have Been"