An uneven but memorable "superhero" movie

Rating: 7/10 (3 August 2016)

For the most part, i'm a big pessimist when it comes to movies, but i went in to Suicide Squad with high hopes and to be honest, I wasn't all too disappointed.
The film opens with a colorful presentation of all the main characters, both the good guys and the bad. From Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn to Killer Croc, all were given a brief but satisfying introduction. Speaking of Margot Robbie, she was one of the characters I was a bit worried about. I thought she would be portrayed as a "goofy" and "not like other girls" type, but Margot Robbie nailed it, Harley Quinn is a completely insane and psychopathic girl with a glimpse of sanity and sympathy which makes her very likable.
Also likable is this incarnation of Deadshot. Will Smith plays, by far, the most sympathetic character. One scene in particular shows this when he is forced to shoot down Harley Quinn when she's trying to escape but accidentally "misses". There were times, though, when he seemed to feel a bit too sorry for himself, but that's only a minor problem.
By far the main attraction is, of course, The Joker. The number one reason for many people to see this movie and I can with certainty confirm that he delivers. And does so with style. Out of all the different Jokers through the decades, this is the only one I can actually say scared me. Jared Leto portrays him as a absolute lunatic with no sympathy for human lives. Cesar Romero's Joker was nothing but a prankster, Jack Nicholson's was a mere gangster with a few jokes here and there and Heath Ledger's was, as with Leto's, a psychopath. But Ledger's incarnation had a plan and ideas. The Joker in Suicide Squad is just completely mad. Mad and eerie. When he was crashing along with the helicopter to his supposed "death" I got worried. Of course I knew he was coming back, it's the Joker after all, but at the same time i didn't know if he was coming back, after all, Slipknot died only moments after being introduced. The fact that I cared so much about a psychopath is a great sign of character development done right.
The rest of the character were also well written, but uneven. Captain Boomerang just didn't really fit in. El Diablo didn't have nearly enough screen-time and Killer Croc, well, he wasn't really too memorable. Katana was pretty cool, though.
The "good" guys; somehow they are more unlikable than the main cast of bad guys. This was probably David Ayers plan, but not with Rick Flag, played by Joel Kinnaman. I'll admit, I liked him more near the end but for the majority of the film he came of as a whiny sphincter whose only interest was to save his lover.
Now, to end this ego-trip of a review, I just want to point out my main complaint: Suicide Squad is ridiculously uneven. As stated before, the intro is great, but from there it's only downhill. As if from nowhere a main villain appears, Enchantress and her brother who want's to enslave humanity and then, suddenly, the main characters have to save a mysterious person. All of this just seem to happen in the blink of an eye. Then, when this has happened, the movie gets lost and doesn't know what to do with itself, so, again, out of nowhere the "suicide squad" has to save the world, which they eventually do and to me that just seems unrealistic for these characters. Harley Quinn herself points it out: What did the world ever do to us?" Why would a cast of villains suddenly get a change of heart and save the world AND feel good about it?
So to conclude: An uneven mess of a "superhero" movie, but driven by (mostly) likable characters. I recommend it despite its flaws because it really has its moments, like the Batman cameos and every Joker moment, and an amazing soundtrack.