Suicide Squad Writer John Ostrander Weighs In On Critics Of The Film

It wasn’t long ago that Suicide Squad reached a box-office milestone when its global grossing passed $600 million. Warner Bros. Pictures has raked in all kinds of cash with the super-villain flick, allowing Suicide Squad‘s earnings to silence the critical who’ve plagued the film. Of course, naysayers flocked to the film as critics bashed Suicide Squad around with words as damaging as Harley Quinn’s baseball bat. Of course, the film did have its champions like Suicide Squad‘s writer John Ostrander. And, now, he’s weighing in on the film’s bad press.

“First of all, I want to say I am not disparaging any of the critics,” he said to Heat Vision. The hedge comes after some of Ostrander’s previous press comments landed him in sort-of hot water. In a self-published piece, Ostrander bashed the film’s critics, saying, “Look, I get it — they have to see all the films out there and they must be tired of all the blockbusters. If every superhero film is not The Dark Knight, they’ll bitch. I think that’s going on here to a certain degree. Just as I came prepared to love the movie, they came prepared to hate it.”

The writer’s sharp words rubbed some reviewers the wrong way, but it seem as if Ostrander’s position hasn’t changed since he first responded to Suicide Squad’s reviews.

Ostrander went on to tell the site, ” I do have problems — whether it’s the Squad or not — when a critic comes in with an agenda already. They are not looking at the movie for what it is. I have read several of the reviews that were just fine, even not that keen on it. As long as they were looking at it honestly, that’s fine. When somebody comes in with an attitude, “I’m sick of superhero movies,” “I am not going to give them a break,” “it has to be a masterpiece to get a good word out of me,” I don’t think that’s right or fair.”

And, of course, the writer did bring up Suicide Squad‘s staggering box-office haul as evidence of its success. “I know the box office isn’t an arbiter of what’s good or bad, but you have to take a look at how much money Squad has made so far. I think it has done really well,” he said.

However, Ostrander had admitted the film has its flaws. “The antagonist(s) are not well defined and, to my mind, you need a good antagonist to help define the protagonist(s),” he explained. But, when it comes to the film’s casting and such, the writer had only nice things to say about Will Smith and Viola Davis – two cast members who received flack for their roles.

So, let us know whether you agree with Ostrander’s comments or not in the comments below! Do you think he’s right about critics being prejudice towards superhero flicks?