It is a known fact that the general opinion of this movie among movie critics is more on the negative side. Currently sitting on a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes among critics, however audiences have been much more accepting of this film as it a 66% approval rating among audiences. While 66% isn’t great, it is a much higher approval rating than that which was given by critics, and even generated a level of uproar against critics for giving the movie a negative review. Even going so far as to creating a petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes for giving the movie a low score. That petition has since been withdrawn but the tension between critics and audiences around this movie remains. Which got me thinking do movie critics and reviews have that much of an effect on an audience’s likelihood to go see a film? Or an affect on the studio's likelihood to continue making them? I will answer that question as well as settle once and for all whether or not this movie is good.

I’ll start with the movie first, and I didn’t think this was a bad movie. I thought it was a good movie that had potential to be a great movie. In that I was a little let down because I thought there was more potential here than was realized. Fans of Harley Quinn will definitely love this movie, and fans of the Joker will love the Joker in this film, even though the character of the Joker is utterly useless in this movie. The plot of this movie is thinly written and lacks any sense of suspense in scenes that are clearly designed to have us at the edge of our seats. The fight sequences with the exception of the climax have no substance behind them. Every fight sequence up until the climax are against faceless CGI monsters and the same formula is recycled throughout the film making the fight scenes predictable and not exciting to watch. A main theme I saw among movie reviews that I read on Rotten Tomatoes was that the plot was either non-existent or just completely lost by the end of the movie. I have to agree slightly with those statements. While I never got the feeling this movie was completely without direction, the plot did very little to compel me as an audience member and ultimately overreached by the climax in an attempt to create a sense of impending world peril that was both unneeded and ineffective.

Moving on now to how these criticisms or any other criticisms will effect potential audiences. Do moviegoers read film reviews? And if so, do those reviews affect their likelihood to see a film? First of all, movie critics watch movies differently than the average movie goer. An average moviegoer goes to the movie purely for entertainment, while a movie critic sees a movie because it is their job to watch and criticize movies. Movie critics will watch critically and try to find anything wrong with the movie if anything and will judge a movie by whether or not it is well written, well directed, well edited, etc. Most movie goers don’t view films in that way, as I’ve said, they’re just there to be entertained. So in that respect you need to take a critics opinion with a grain of salt, including mine.

Do movie reviews affect the movie audience however? Well it didn’t for Suicide Squad as it grossed over $179 million in its first week and currently has a box office earning of over $734 million. Obviously many people went to see this movie despite the negative reviews, and also liked the movie despite the negative reviews. The same thing happened with Batman V Superman which currently has a 27% critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but 67% audience score, and grossed over $800 million dollars. Also these movies were generally well liked among their audiences, so the opinions of critics did very little to influence the opinions of the general public. And as the opinion of the general public is more important to the movie studio than that of the critics, negative movie reviews most likely didn't effect this movie studio. Because the general public pays money that goes back to the studio to see movies, the studio is more concerned about their experience than that of a critics. If a negative review causes potential audiences not to see a movie, then it would start to effect the studio, but that was not the case for this movie.

Now let’s go back to Suicide Squad and talk about what the movie does right. The characters have a surprising amount of depth and are well acted by those who play them. Each character gets their own back story and paints them as sympathetic characters rather than heartless heathens. The movie does a very good job at giving you reasons to root for characters who are otherwise irredeemable. This movie feels more like a redemption story for all of these characters than it does a comic book action movie. But the redemption aspect of these characters are what makes this movie compelling, and what gets the audience invested in the movie. The characters are very well acted as well. Will Smith does make the most out of his role as Deadshot and arguably steals the show from Harley Quinn in certain scenes. That being said Margot Robbie is the star of the show and she all but refuses to be outdone by any of her supporting cast and puts in an unforgettable performance that will both satisfy audiences and leave them wanting more. The acting and the characters save this movie because without good characters, this movie would have been a complete bore, but thankfully the writers are able to provide a group of characters that are entertaining to watch on screen, and give this movie a ton of heart and emotional depth. The actors have really good chemistry as well which does well to compensate for the fact that the dialogue is poorly written at times. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes lamented that this movie suffered from lack of character development and one dimensional characters, but I fail to see the validity in that. These characters have a ton of depth, and are done well to show that even the lowest form of scum can be redeemed.

So to answer the question is Suicide Squad a good film? It is subjective but I personally feel the good outweighs the bad in this movie. The well thought out characters add enough, emotion, comedy, and tragedy to this movie where it distracts from the lack of depth in the plot, as well as un-inspired action sequences. I thought the movie was good, but was let down by the unrealized potential that this movie left on the table. I certainly see validity in the criticisms made by the Rotten Tomatoes critics. However negative film reviews won’t affect studios unless the studio makes a profit off the film, which as I understand it did in this case. Film Studios are less focused on satisfying critics and more focused on satisfying audiences, because the general public audience is where the studio is going to make its money. You as an audience member have more control over the fate of a movie franchise than critics do, because critics don’t often pay to see the movies they screen. So as an audience member you don’t need to get in an uproar over bad movie reviews or start petitions, because as long as you keep paying to see these movies, these movies are going to continue getting made.