Suicide Squad may have made some serious bank at the box office when it hit theaters last August — at $743.4 million in worldwide box office gross, it was only around $130 million short of Batman v Superman’s $872.7 million box office haul, which is impressive considering the former film didn’t have the name Batman and Superman to tout in their marketing. As great as it did — and as entertaining of a movie it ended up being — it was difficult not to shake the feeling that the flick wasn’t as amazing as it could have been. The plot was muddled, the villain more underwhelming than even your worst Marvel villain, and the overall tone at odds with itself.
Fans crossed their fingers that Warner Bros. would bite the bullet and release a director’s cut of the film that would be more in line with the trailer we saw at 2015’s San Diego Comic-Con. A Few weeks back, fans got their wish when WB released a trailer for the extended cut of Suicide Squad — well, sort of. Yes, we are set to get an extended cut of the film, but rather than the overhaul we were hoping for, the word “extended†seems to imply we’d simply get “more scenes,†not a complete recut.
In addition to simply being an extended cut, reports of 13 minutes of extra footage were tossed around, and while 13 minutes is all well and good, not everyone was convinced that it would be enough to fix the messy plot of the flick.
I’m afraid I come bearing more disappointing news. According to an image on Reddit allegedly taken of the back of the Suicide Squad Blu-ray, the extended cut will only feature 11 minutes of extra screen time (with the total runtime coming it at 134 minutes, compared to the theatrical cut’s 123 minutes). If you thought 13 minutes was barely enough to lay down some extra connective tissue, 11 minutes won’t do us any favors.
Of course, like much having to do with the extended cut, this is mostly speculation. We have no clue just how this cut will manifest itself. For all we know, it could be a bit of a re-edit that weaves in the 11 minutes of footage — and that could be a revelation if done properly. My only doubt there are previous claims from Ayer stating that the theatrical cut is his director’s cut. As such, I can’t shake the feeling that this extended cut is something spearheaded by a WB exec, hoping that the buzz will help give the home release an extra push.
All cynicism aside, I’ll definitely be on board for this cut. Despite my harsh criticism of the film, I genuinely had a great time at the theater, and loved a lot of what I saw in the theatrical cut. Here’s hoping that Suicide Squad will come out of this extended cut much stronger.
Suicide Squad hits Digital HD on November 15 and Blu-Ray/DVD on December 13
SOURCE: Reddit (via Screen Rant)
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