Oh, what a difference a day makes.
This was Warner Brothers yesterday on the leaked Suicide Squad trailer:
We have no plans currently to release the Suicide Squad footage that leaked from Hall H on Saturday. It’s unfortunate and ultimately damaging that one individual broke a long-standing trust we have enjoyed with our fans at the convention by posting early material, which, at this point, was not intended for a wider audience. We are still in production on Suicide Squad, and will have a big campaign launch in the future. Our presentation yesterday was designed to be experienced in that room, on those big screens!
And this is Warner Brothers today:
I have to say something on the Warners’ statement. I think it’s is completely naive to think that the special trailer would not be released to the public. After all, paparazzi images from the set have already hit the Internet, and it was such an issue that David Ayer made a tongue in cheek reference to it while announcing clip to the Hall H audience. If still images were important enough to be released to the public to a massive amount of attention, what makes them think fans would honor a one-way “long-standing trust” and keep the moving pictures secret.
It’s just the nature of the beast. We live in a generation where almost everyone has a HD movie camera with an Internet connection in their pockets at all times and a generation where everyone wants to be “first” in breaking what they consider news. If your entire marketing plan is thrown into a tizzy because you failed to take this into consideration, the fault lies squarely on you, not the fans. This is the case of not blaming the scorpion for stinging you.
And if the studios take the passive aggressive move of not showing these special presentations in their panels anymore, good. That will eventually mean more tickets will be available to the convention and it will be easier to get a seat in Hall H.
Besides, what this all boils down to is more promotion for the film. The only problem studios should have is if the sizzle reel brings the wrong kind of sizzle. Speaking of which, let’s talk about the that trailer, shall we?.
First of all, let’s preface this by saying these are some snap judgements based on the disjointed scenes Ayer threw together to make the pseudotrailer. What we think we see here might not be what we actually get in the final film.
That being said, there’s a lot not to like in the trailer. Granted, the concept lends it self to the “let’s dial the brightness on every frame down to 2” philosophy Warners has towards their DC films. But the opening scene has an air of absurdity that lends itself to more of a “lighter” action film in the mold of Commando or even The Dirty Dozen. Doesn’t look like we will be getting that one.
Another foible for me is that Deadshot is one of DC’s better characters. He is a man who kills for a living by choice, but still cares for his family and friends. The Will Smith Deadshot seems to be someone who is forced to kill people to support his family, if I read a lot into the scenes he is in above. That is a big difference and makes for a less appealing character.
But that’s nothing compared to what has been done to the Joker. The Joker is one of the most iconic characters in comics books, who has morphed over the years to keep up with the times. And Warners has now made him into a generic psychopath. The Joker scenes got a good response from the crowd, but for me, it left me yawning.
