This reminds me why I usually avoid most superhero films...42.5%

Rating: 4/10 (25 August 2016)

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this film is the title...which was maybe just enough of a lure to get me into the cinema to watch it. After the closing credits had finished, I remembered why I tend to like the anti-superhero films the best...they're just more entertaining. Amongst those films that I really enjoyed are "Watchmen", "Kick-Ass" and "Hancock", with the latter starring Will Smith, who also has a featured role in "Suicide squad".
The plot concerns a secret U.S. government agency setting about to assemble a black ops type team of supervillains, in the wake of the events in some previous superhero film...which I couldn't be bothered watching...one with Superman...or something...the reasoning being that the world needs powerful fighters to combat threats like another Superman...but one committed to evil, not niceness. All the supervillains that the agency has in mind to recruit are in a high security gaol. Obviously a method to gain the supervillains' co-operation needs to be found...it's not like public service is very important to them. The agency's potential employee screening tests will be critically important...
A subplot involves a "romance" between two supervillians...Harley Quinn (played by Australian actress Margot Robbie) and The Joker (played by Jared Leto). Their romance is made more problematic by The Joker not actually being in gaol.
Whilst the film does at least provide some sort of backstory or origin story for each supervillain, I just didn't find any of it (i.e. the characters or the film) engaging. My guess is that the people who will get the most out of this film will be those who have immersed themselves in this universe, via comics or other media. As someone who had not done so, I just didn't get a thrill out of seeing all these characters, most of whom I was not familiar with.
Some characters I was familiar with, like The Joker. Jared Leto's portrayal provides hints of Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz in "Apocalypse now", Jaws, from the Bond universe and a sort of a punk gangster...part Johnny Rotten, part the white singer from The Prodigy. Does The Joker command the screen? No. Of the "conventional" superhero movies I've seen, The Dark Knight stands out for one thing...the performance of Australian actor Heath Ledger as The Joker. By the end of that Batman trilogy I realised one thing...Batman himself is boring. Whilst being a good movie, The Dark Knight could have been great...if it was 152 minutes of Heath Ledger playing The Joker in it.
Anyway, since the early part of the movie concerns the recruitment of these supervillains, I was left wondering who on Earth they would be fighting...they do get to go up against a powerful character though, which is just as well (for the viewer).
Throughout the entire movie, I laughed only once due to a character saying something funny. Can't remember who said the thing which made me laugh...The Joker? Harley Quinn? These are meant to be "wacky" and "zany" characters, right? Harley seems more like a rebellious teenager than a psychopath (but she is cute). The Joker is mirthless. Supervillains? They seem more like misunderstood and redeemable characters. And Captain Kangaroo (played by Australian Jai Courtney) is a supervillain? He seems more like a grown up The Feral Kid or a glorified goon. Not having explored these characters elsewhere, it just surprised me that the agency in this film would want to recruit somebody like Captain Kangaroo.
What's the worst thing about this film? The soundtrack. It's not that I didn't like some of the songs used (early on you hear a lot of baby boomer era pop and rock songs), it's more that these songs function as a substitute for the film's inability to create characters or moments which capture your imagination. In other words, the music is supposed to create that thrill of excitement which the film is incapable of delivering. It's just lazy a lazy, ineffectual shortcut to affect. If you were born after the 1960s and 1970s and are unfamiliar with these songs, then it's hard to imagine these songs being able to manipulate your emotions and thus make up for what the film is failing to deliver. There are some songs from later though. You only hear a few seconds of these songs...not doubt used so as to be included on the soundtrack. Can't say that I heard enough songs that I particularly liked to want to own such an album though.
Would I want to see this film again? No. It has zero repeat viewing value. Neither the characters nor the film captures the imagination.
By the by: Rick Flag (played by Joel Kinnaman)? Weird name. Made me think of "Ric Flair"! Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) is...surprising. Hmm. She's with the government? M'kay.
Will I watch a sequel? I very much doubt it.