Great fun!

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2016)

Suicide Squad is a film about bad guys joining forces under the watch of the government to fight against an evil being that's been unleashed upon Midway City, a fictional city loosely based on Chicago but transported to Michigan. The team is assembled by government intelligence operative Amanda Waller, played by Viola Davis, and includes a hit-man who never misses called Deadshot (Will Smith), a former gang member who can create and control fire called El Diablo, Australian thief Boomerang, mercenary Slipknot, a sewer dwelling monster called Killer Croc, Cara Delavigne playing a scientist possessed by the spirit of a powerful witch called Enchantress, and the star of the show, Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie.
Smith and Robbie absolutely steal the film and are thrilling to watch. There are also a host of familiar characters who crop up throughout including The Joker, played by Jared Leto, Batman & The Flash. The cast is well chosen and all do a great job, although something about Cara Delavigne as Enchantress doesn't quite land, thankfully she's shrouded in CGI and her voice is manipulated so it's not that big a deal but I think the film would have benefited from having someone else play the evil spirit, Delavigne does a fine job as June the scientist but as Enchantress she's just not very enchanting, the way she moves is unintentionally hilarious and quite distracting.
The best parts of the film are when the squad are sharing banter, director David Ayer revels in the outlandish personalities and looks of these characters. The script is very serviceable, balancing dialogue, action, humour & horror fairly well. In fact, there really isn't a single moment of the film that isn't fun and exciting. It breezes along at a steady pace and doesn't feel convoluted or complicated in any way; in fact I'd say it's pretty much the most straightforward comic book movie we've seen in a while and one where we have a big cast of characters but a simple narrative that allows us to get to know them and see how they interact without having to worry about a million different plot points. The love story between Joker and Harley brings some unconventional romance to proceedings, and it works. Visually the film excels, from the styling, to the direction and the special effects. It's a joy to watch and looks extremely comic-book like, imagine Robert Rodriguez's Sin City on LSD.
I honestly don't understand all of the flack this is getting from critics. In my opinion it's a hundred times better than the woeful Batman Vs Superman. As a David Ayer film it's not quite up there with his previous work, you can tell that there was some studio-pleasing involved in terms of structuring, but as a comic book adaptation I think it gets the job done with a real sense of fun and giddiness. It's very much a Summer crowd-pleaser but there's enough to set it apart from bland studio fare and it's clearly been made with great care and passion. I really hope that if they do another Suicide Squad centred movie that Ayer is on board.