What Went Wrong: 13 Disastrous Comic Book Movies (And Why They Sucked)
6. Studio Interference And False Promises - Suicide Squad
Despite some of the best marketing for any comic book movie, Suicide Squad was terrible. It could have been so much more, but the final product screamed of too many cooks and not enough restraint.
The Cause
Suicide Squad was the result of studio interference on the back of hiring the wrong director and not having the decency to either get rid of him or allow him his own vision. Realising that David Ayer was not the right man for the job, the studio mangled his vision in the edit leading to a disjointed experience that did nothing for anyone.
Even seeing Ayer's unmessed-with version would have been better than giving us this mess with an identity crisis. But in the interest of finding a more marketable tone, Warner Bros removed the most interesting sub-plot (the Joker) and tried to remould the final film into the image of the trailers that had worked so well.
The fact that the trailers were so good didn't help the negative response either: we were all sold a movie that didn't exist, so it's inevitable there'd be friction. Misdirection in trailers is one thing, but offering false promises is the next level entirely.
How Disastrous Was It?
It made a lot of money, in the end, but Suicide Squad was critically mauled, and rightly so. It also apparently derailed plans to give David Ayer an even more significant role in the DCEU, even with the supposed plans for spin-offs.