The R Rated Superhero Movie and How It Destroyed the DCEU
For some reason, the R rated superhero movie seems to be the hardest thing for studios to invest in, and also to get right. It’s so hard, in fact, that there are only two examples of series’ that did, in fact, get it right… Blade and Deadpool.
In the case of Blade, it felt more like a horror, vampire movie than a superhero movie. Let’s be honest, Blade came before the superhero movie craze and most people didn’t even know he was a superhero while watching that films. The series was treated as a blood gushing vampire movie series. So much so that even though the series worked and brought in a lot of money, the studios looked at it as a one-off. They didn’t take any lessons away from it, and there still wasn’t another R rated superhero movie for decades.
The R rated superhero that did get studios to wake up and take notice, was Deadpool. Now, every once in a while you’ll find something that did come out between these movies, (like the Punisher War Zone,) which was R rated, but the studio put so little effort into even promoting it, that it was practically a straight to video release. So let’s consider something like that an exception, and focus here on the hits. Blade and Deadpool.
With Deadpool, the studio was investing heavily and taking a real chance. Not with a well-known character or anything, but with a movie that they put a lot of money into. Ryan Reynolds believed in the character so much, he acted as Deadpool in X-Men Origins Wolverine, knowing it was a lousy movie, just to get his foot in the door. He also probably leaked some footage to the public, showcasing what a solo Deadpool movie might look like, although nobody knows for sure. And it worked. Deadpool was funny, exciting, and a smash hit.
But it was the last of its kind. There hasn’t been another R rated superhero success since. But what has happened is, in the wake of Deadpool, DC has tried and tried again to get their own entry of this caliber into the game. Only they can’t seem to figure it out. From Birds of Prey to the Suicide Squad, the R rated DC flick has just not been working out. Let’s take a moment to examine the reasons why.
First up for DC and R rated films was Birds of Prey. This was the Harley Quin movie, that was clearly an attempt to ripoff Deadpool, with the character talking to the audience throughout the movie, breaking the fourth wall, reflecting on her life, even pausing the film to stop and comment on things. Also, like Deadpool, the story was completely fractured, so that we would see scenes, and then go backwards to see lots of things that happened earlier, before coming back to those scenes from the start.
Only Birds of Prey doesn’t have it. And that’s because the movie is afraid to follow through on its R rating. The movie is not actually violent. Or nearly action packed enough. Instead, it goes for the same level of giddy cartoonish violence and poppy neon colors that Suicide Squad went for. Harley Quinn, in particular, is afraid to kill. She’s supposed to be a bad guy, only the movie doesn’t want her to be very bad. And so she’ll do something like break into a police station and shoot a bunch of cops, but she’ll be shooting them with what looks like nerf bullets. Whatever she is firing, bounces off the police officers’ chests and apparently knocks them out. There is zero blood, because despite the R rating, apparently this movie thinks it is play time.
So that was a DC movie that wasted the R rating. The Suicide Squad was another one (the sequel movie not to be mixed up with Suicide Squad, the first film.) The sequel, simply adds the word THE to the title (about as dumb of a sequel title as the Dark Knight Rises was, also by DC.) But here’s the thing about The Suicide Squad. It was a pretty great movie. It did everything right. Both the humor and action were terrific. And yet it still failed. The reason… I hate to have to admit it, but it probably had to do with Warner Brothers day and date release plan in 2021, during the pandemic.
Every one of their movies went straight to streaming. Now there have been or they are making three sequels to movies released that way… Godzilla X Kong, Mortal Kombat 2, and Dune 2. So what gives that the Suicide Squad got no love? My guess is it was the day and date situation combined with the month of release… August. Yes, there have been sleeper hits in August, (Guardians of the Galaxy,) but those movies got real theatrical runs. The Suicide Squad was a victim of its release schedule.
That brings us to Black Adam. A superhero movie that had all the right ingredients for success. Except one. The rating. Had this movie been rated R, I’m pretty sure it would have been a success. Unlike the Harley Quinn movie, (the fake R movie,) with this Black Adam they were going dark. Real dark. The tone was perfect for an R rating. The Rock was perfect for the character. Even the idea to include an Avengers-like team of other super heroes was smart. Now, I’m not saying it was a good movie, but it did have plenty going for it. And yet, they screwed up the rating, which means the action wasn’t nearly as interesting or cool as it could have been, and that made a difference.