On Tuesday, the highly anticipated Suicide Squad Extended Cut was released. Here are 4 reasons why it is actually worse than its theatrical counterpart.
1. It adds barely anything to the story
Fans were teased before the cut’s release with a clip showing a flashback motorcycle chase between Harleen Quinzel and Joker. After watching the film, though, it’s really the only scene that adds to the narrative (and barely does that), providing us with something that wasn’t really needed. And while it was a good scene, it didn’t fit into a category of the original film that needed to be fixed.
2. Pacing issues
The film’s first act now is more bloated and lengthy than it needed to be. While Killer Croc’s extended introduction gives us a small cameo from director David Ayer, that’s really all it does, and other “extended” scenes like Joker’s torture of Dr. Quinzel don’t add anything worthwhile except for a little more dialogue.
3. It doesn’t fix any issues that the original was plagued with
Except for a deeper and more realized Killer Croc (who shines in this edition), the rest of the problems that the original faced were not met. Jared Leto’s Joker still has a bunch of scenes left on the cutting room floor, along with Karen Fukuhara’s Katana. Fans wanted the cut with Joker’s “bye-bye” scene after the helicopter crash and that would’ve made for a way cooler and darker cut. In my personal opinion, they should’ve released the extended in theaters (it’s only 2 hours 16 minutes) and released an alternate cut on Blu-Ray/Digital with the Joker scenes the fans wanted.
4. This could’ve been the theatrical cut
I mentioned above that the runtime of this cut is 2 hours 16 minutes, the original being 2 hours 3 minutes. This “extended cut” arguably could’ve worked as a theatrical release, as its runtime is less than Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice‘s theatrical cut. That could’ve opened a door for an alternate cut with lots of fan appeal (all of the extra Joker scenes?) and a darker vision.
Overall, the Suicide Squad Extended Cut adds nothing more but 13 extra minutes. It doesn’t give anything credible to the story, it’s sidelined characters still get barely anything, and the only things that save this from being a total disappointment is the fixing of the theatrical version’s choppy editing. It’s not a bad film, just a lengthened version of an already disappointing film. Release the Joker footage already!!!
Suicide Squad stars Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adwale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukahara, Cara Delevingne, Adam Beach, David Harbour. Directed by David Ayer.
