Suicide Squad has had its fair share of problems in the past month or so, and depending on your view of the film, it may or may not deserve them. But this latest challenge is something so out there, we'd like to think that there's a good amount of people who'd think that even this is going too far. As it turns out, a disgruntled fan is looking to sue the studio for false advertising, as they were more than a little disappointed with what they saw in Suicide Squad. In fact, they believe the trailers for the film were nothing but false advertising.
A Redditor by the name of "BlackPanther 2016" has posted a lengthy accusation on their profile, stating that their brother is a lawyer and that the two will begin their legal proceedings within the next couple of days. The crux of their legal argument is that they should be compensated by the studio, and the theater they saw the film in, for the fact that they had to drive 300 miles from Scotland to London, in order to see a Suicide Squad that's vastly different from the picture they saw in the trailers. This individual also cited specific scenes they saw were missing from the advertised moments in the finished film.
Now this isn't the first time that a movie patron has tried to sue Hollywood over what they felt were promises they couldn't keep. A couple of years back, a movie-goer sued distributor FilmDistrict because Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive wasn't the full octane car drama that the trailer made it out to be. So much like the patron who went in to see an action film and ended up getting a meditation on masculinity and The Driver's short temper, "BlackPanther 2016" isn't happy that Suicide Squad promised more action with The Joker and Katana, only to come up short.
With a very similar case already on the books, one has to wonder if Suicide Squad will face its day in court. Well, if we were to make a guess, we'd have while the case may go to court, we don't think the Plaintiff would be finding the ruling in their favor. The case against the film Drive certainly didn't provide the result that the Plaintiff in that ruling would have wanted, and the fact of the matter is that changing the content of a film between the release of a trailer and the final version of the film is not only commonplace, it's expected.
In the case of Suicide Squad, this is especially true, considering the publicly disclosed lengths to which Warner Bros engaged in reshoots and tone adjustments, in order to make what they felt was a more crowd pleasing film. With that information available to the viewing public front and center, the case for false advertising is weakened, as the customer can be seen as not doing their due diligence to keep up with the film's evolving status as a product. While stranger things have happened, we have a feeling that this case isn't going to end the way that this disgruntled consumer would like.
Suicide Squad is in theaters now, and we must caution you, there are scenes that aren't in the final product that you may see in the trailers; so buyer beware.
