6 Lessons That Warner Bros. Must Learn For Suicide Squad 2

Most of the flaws in Suicide Squad are the result of studio interference. The inconsistent tone, the strange colours, and jumpy editing are all the result of a strange decision from Warner Bros. to task Trailer Park with the editing of the film instead of director David Ayer.

Trailer Park (as implied by their name) specialise in film trailers, NOT in the editing films themselves. They produced the fantastic first trailer for Suicide Squad, which amassed over 85 million views on YouTube, surpassing the previously more anticipated Batman V Superman trailer.

This trailer featured Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and a much lighter tone than the first look trailer released six months prior. The studio was so impressed with the trailer’s success that they hired Trailer Park to edit the film. The failure of Batman V Superman prompted a rapid change of tone from a serious exploration of rehabilitation and change to a fun film with bright colours, pop music and quips.

This transformed the film, taking it in a direction not originally intended by David Ayer. The result was a jarring contrast between the original dark aesthetic and a sickly colourful pallet that was mostly added in post-production, including strange filters being placed over flashback scenes. This was clearly not originally intended by Ayer, who wanted the film to have a more somber tone.

Giving director Gavin O’Connor free reign over the characters in Suicide Squad 2 will produce a film more popular with critics, instead of the Frankenstein’s Monster of conflicting ideas we saw in the first film (a mistake Warner Bros. repeated with Justice League).