As the world prepares to dive into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the film’s star, Chris Pratt, has explained his opinion as to why The Avengers worked and Suicide Squad didn’t in an interview with io9 (via LRM).
Pratt is gearing up for the international release of the second installment in his own rip-roaring superhero franchise, which hits theaters next week. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 finds itself being released in a cinema era defined by shared universes. Comic book heroes who were once confined to the pages of their own books or standalone films have seen barriers leveled as studios open up to the scope of world-sharing.
That said, many have experienced uncomfortable growing pains. Most notably Warner Bros. and the DC Extended Universe whose films Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman and Suicide Squad have struggled to hit the mark. Suicide Squad in particular stands out because it was the studio’s first ‘team-up’ movie, and would, therefore, be thrust into the esteemed company of The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Anyone you ask will have their opinions as to why Suicide Squad may not have worked. When Chris Pratt was asked, he had this to say:
“I really like all the Warner Bros. movies. I think they’re really cool and I’m not a real tough critic on those movies. But one of the flaws might have been they were introducing too many characters in Suicide Squad. They spent 10 minutes telling us why should we care about these characters, rather than creating trilogies for each character and convincing us to care about the characters.
It’s like hardwood. They grew it really slowly so it’s strong. They didn’t create The Avengers first. They did Iron Man. And they tested it to make sure it worked. Then they did [Iron Man 2] and [Iron Man 3], then they did Cap, and then they did Thor. And they created a thirst for these characters, and that’s when they put them in The Avengers.”
You may notice, gentle reader, that there is a flaw to Mr Pratt’s theory. A more apt comparison might have been Guardians of the Galaxy: a team-up movie with a group of fresh characters, all introduced in one fell swoop without prequels or existing movie canon to go off.
Alas, we’ll take his point. There’s something to be said for showing, rather than telling, something which Guardians of the Galaxy certainly seems to have nailed in the past.
Chris Pratt will shortly be returning to our screens as the Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2, released May 5th. He is joined by Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, Kurt Russell, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn and Sylvester Stallone. The film is directed by James Gunn.
What do you think of Chris Pratt’s comments? Get the debate going in the comments below!
