DC Bosses Know Why ‘Batman v Superman’ and ‘Suicide Squad’ Sucked

If you're one of the millions who paid money to see Batman v Superman or Suicide Squad, odds are you knew they were subpar products. Sure, they've both got enjoyable elements to them, but neither of them are the kind of movie you can say you like without giving a handful of qualifiers. Thankfully, the head honchos at DC Entertainment are aware that both films kinda sucked, despite both films earning over $800 million at the box office.

In an interview with Variety, Jon Berg and Geoff Johns—the producers in charge of the DC Extended Universe—both got candid about the films and why they both failed to be memorable. When asked what they learned from the tepid reactions to both films, Berg had this to say...

There are lessons from every movie. You would be silly not to analyze how a movie was received — what went right and what went wrong on the making of a movie.

On “Suicide Squad,” the movie did incredibly well commercially. It didn’t work narratively. You had some great casting and some great characterizations, but where the story fell down was on narrative, on plot. We could do better. “Batman v. Superman” was tonally dark. People didn’t respond to that.

That's a pretty bold statement, all things considered. The typical studio logic, however, would dictate that since Wonder Woman isn't tonally dark and is both a critical and commercial success, that all of DC Films will be lighter moving forward. Johns was quick to correct that false equivalency...

“Wonder Woman” celebrated exactly who the character is, but looking at it, it’s not like we should change everything to be about hope and optimism. There’s nothing to change. That’s what these characters are.

You know, at the very least, DC seems to be learning from their mistakes. Changing the tone of an entire universe to suit the whims of a fickle moviegoing public is not the way to run a business. It takes balls to admit that you were wrong, and in this day and age, that's a pretty big breath of fresh air.