Batman v Superman is a glum affair. You can’t go more than five seconds in the movie without seeing someone brooding, scowling, sulking or gnashing their teeth while waxing philosophically about how miserable it is to have to wear tights to work every day.
If it’s so miserable being a hero, it’s even worse to have to pay $15 for a ticket to watch these demigods mope around, and fans and critics have agreed.
So, with the movie taking a critical beating from audiences, Warner Bros. is apparently shifting gears with its next DC Cinematic entry, Suicide Squad. According to Birth.Movies.Death, the studio is investing “tens of millions” to do reshoots on the movie to bring a little more levity to the film.
This isn’t just a response to BvS, though. The studio got such great feedback from the movie’s last trailer that the bigwigs decided to really expand on the tone from that footage.
Apparently, the jokes from that trailer were about all of the humor the movie had, which is obviously pretty worrisome for a film that has Harley Quinn in it. BMD expands on this by saying that it’s not “that they're inserting jokes left and right but that they're beefing up fun character moments and interactions.”
On one hand: great, these movies definitely need to throttle back on the grim despair of Batman v Superman and give audiences something a bit more engaging and energetic. The only issue is that it’s a little late in the game to do so. Suicide Squad is four months out, and there’s obviously a risk that the “tens of millions” the studio is spending on jokes will feel shoehorned into the movie.
Still, Warner looks to be learning from its mistakes and recognizes that Batman v Superman’s tone is a flawed one. Finally ...
The good news is that movies like Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Justice League — movies that are still in production — will probably follow this "lighten up" edict going forward, while Suicide Squad will unfortunately be receiving the joke stimulus program in post-production.
Imagine that: someone at WB realized people want to have fun at the movies. What a time to be alive.
Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 5.
