David Ayer Reacts to Poor 'Suicide Squad' Reviews

‘Suicide Squad’ (Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

By Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter

David Ayer, the writer-director of Suicide Squad, has a message about the film’s disappointing reviews.

On Tuesday night, after a day of reviews for the highly anticipated anti-superhero film hit, Ayer tweeted: “Prefiero morir de pie que vivir de rodillas - Emiliano Zapata.”

The quote translates to: “I’d prefer to die standing, than to live always on my knees.”

He then followed that up with an explanation, “Zapata quote is my way of saying I love the movie and believe in it. Made it for the fans. Best experience of my life.”

Early reviews of Ayer’s Suicide Squad came in on Tuesday and as a whole, they were discouraging to fans.

The Hollywood Reporter’s review said, “the film starts with promise but disengages as it loses its creative bearings” and that it’s a “puzzlingly confused undertaking that never becomes as cool as it thinks it is.”

Still, it remains to be seen if the reviews will hurt its performance when in theaters this weekend: THR’s box office preview says the Warner Bros./DC Comics movie is still “almost assured of nabbing the top August debut of all time in North America.”

Suicide Squad follows an all-star team of incarcerated supervillains who are released by a secret government agency to save the world. It stars Will Smith (Deadshot), Jared Leto (The Joker) and Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), as well as Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood and Cara Delevingne,

Related: Box-Office Preview: Can ‘Suicide Squad’ Best 'Deadpool’ in U.S. Debut?

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