Suicide Squad Lawsuit In The Works Over Lack Of Joker Screen Time
Last weekend’s Suicide Squad premiere was a huge box office success. In spite of dismal critical reviews, the film raked in receipts in excess of $135 million. Apparently, those moviegoers by-and-large didn’t share the same opinions as the critics – the film has netted a 71 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. But don’t count Reddit user BlackPanther2016 (“BP”) as one of those posting favorable reviews. He was so disappointed in the film that he has threatened to sue Warner Brothers and DC Comics. Here we go.
According to an Independent report, BP drove over 300 miles from Scotland to London to see the film, and upon seeing it, he was none too pleased with the fruits of his pilgrimage. After demanding a refund from the theater and earning only laughter from its owners, BP claims to be voicing his dissatisfaction in another forum by filing a lawsuit on August 11 against the studio. His legal grounds? BP takes issue with Joker scenes shown in the movie trailers that did not make their way into the film, an act BP claims amounts to “unjust false advertising.”
While we don’t know the allegations that will be contained in this much anticipated complaint, if it is in fact filed, we can only hope that they are somewhat similar to this Reddit user’s epic rant. BP offered the following thoughts on the grave injustice he experienced:
Movie trailers are like food menus, they give you a preview of what you’re gonna get. You look at a McDonald’s menu and you choose to get your favourite burger, presented in a nice picture with pickles, chicken, mild cheese (your favourite, in fact that’s the only reason you’re getting this burger, because you love mild cheese). You use your hard-worked money to pay for this burger, you get the burger, only to find out that this isn’t the burger you ordered. Yes it has pickles and chicken but it doesn’t have mild cheese, it has regular cheese.
Suicide Squad trailers showcased several specific Joker scenes that I had to pay for the whole movie just so that I can go watch those specific scenes that Warner Bros/DC Comics had advertised in their trailers and TV spots. These scenes are: when Joker banged his head on his car window, when Joker says ‘“Let me show you my toys’, when Joker punches the roof of his car, when Joker drops a bomb with his face all messed up and says, ‘Bye bye!’ None of these scenes were in the movie.
I drove 300 miles to London to go watch these specific scenes they had explicitly advertised in their TV ads…and they didn’t show them to me. Adding to this, they were also two specific Katana scenes they advertised that were also the reason I wanted to go watch the movie. These scenes were: Katana’s eyes going black, and a slow motion shot of her and her sword taking souls in a smoky kind of style. These scenes were advertised several times in the first trailer and many TV ads but they didn’t show it to me in the movie. I wasted a lot of money paying and travelling to go watch this movie because of these specific scenes they had advertised to me and all of us saying, ‘Hey, check out our preview! This will all be in our movie, come watch it on the 5th!’ All lies.
BP goes on to say that he is taking matters to court so he can obtain his refund as well as compensation for his fuel costs and the trauma of being embarrassed by people laughing at him for wanting his refund. We completely understand how BP feels. We, too, anticipated much more Joker in the film based on the trailers, and we too were disappointed by his lack of screen time. We also understand that passion of die hard comic fans. (However, we can’t imagine driving 300 miles to meet the actual Joker much less see him in a blockbuster film). Nonetheless, we can’t imagine filing suit over our dissatisfaction with a movie. We understand cut scenes in a trailer can, in some respects, be considered false or deceptive, but what trailer isn’t misleading on some level? Even when all of the trailer scenes make into the final product, we recall countless examples of trailers making a film look like something it is not. Whether it is showing the only “good” scenes or making an otherwise boring drama look like an action film, a trailer’s very purpose is to trick you into seeing the film.
Every movie has scenes that get cut, and often, those cut scenes find their way into the trailers. Unfortunately for BP, he was one of those super fans that actually noticed. At least for BP’s sake, the Joker made his way into the film albeit not as much as he would like. While we understand how he feels, we just can’t seem to quantify his damages.
