Cara Delevingne and various other members of the Suicide Squad cast have stepped in to defend the film from the absolute critical drubbing it’s been receiving since it opened this week.
At present time, Metacritic rates the film at 41%, while Rotten Tomatoes, claims that only 26% of reviews have been positive (the site is still up, so clearly the fan petition to shut it down has not yet succeeded).
Speaking to Reuters at the film’s London premiere, Delevingne, who plays Enchantress, said “the critics have been absolutely horrific, they’re really, really horrible. You know, I just don’t think they like superhero movies.”
She also chimed in with that dependable chestnut that, while “this movie isn’t perfect,” it was made for the fans, a line that old mate Ben Affleck also chose to go with when discussing Batman v Superman.
Will Smith, who plays Deadshot, did the same, saying “I think people had expectations that may have been different, but I’m excited for the fans to get to vote.”
Director David Ayer also played up the critics-as-sad-basement-dwelling-freaks angle, saying “I made the movie for real people who live in the real world. I made the movie for people who actually love movies and go and see movies.”
Snarky reviews aside, Suicide Squad is shaping up to have a pretty bloody massive opening weekend. Here in Australia, it made $2.4 million on opening day yesterday, adding to a $29.6 million international opening.
In America, the film took in $20.5 million from Thursday night screenings, almost doubling the previous August record of $11.2 million, set by Guardians Of The Galaxy in 2014.
Guardians used that strong Thursday as a launching pad for a $94.3 million opening weekend, but the current estimates show Squad surpassing that for an opening weekend figure of somewhere between $125 and $145 million.
The question from here is whether the film will stay on top, or whether reviews and word-of-mouth will lead to a drop in ticket sales, along the lines of Batman v Superman, which fell by 68.4% in its second weekend.
Source: Reuters / BoxOfficeMojo.
Photo: Barcroft Media / Getty.
