Really, really bad

Rating: 1/10 (8 August 2016)

It's a crushing feeling you have when your most anticipated movie of the year ends up sucking. I don't even know where to start. Suicide Squad is not good at all. It's bad. It's very, very bad. So, so messy. I guess I could start with the performances and characters.
Margot Robbie was as perfect as you can get with Harley Quinn and she also had the most interesting backstory, but that's a credit to the creators of the character, not the film. I was a fan of her casting from the moment it was announced. Jai Courtney was surprisingly good as Captain Boomerang. Unfortunately, he was given nothing to work with, aside from being funny sometimes. Nobody else was given anything either. Will Smith played Will Smith in a Deadshot costume and he was given some backstory, but it was the regular 'dad-wanting-to-do-right-by-his- daughter' type stuff. El Diablo had the second-most interesting backstory and character. Notice how I keep saying "backstory." This is because that's all it is -- simple characterization. No development for anybody. Every other team member is completely disposable, and one is actually disposed of very early on. Killer Croc was given nothing other than really great makeup. Katana had a dead husband, which is referenced for about 30 seconds. She also randomly shows up out of nowhere, even after all the important characters have been established. Same goes for Slipknot who is brought out of a car and placed in the team out of nowhere with zero previous acknowledgment (he's the one who gets disposed of very early and nobody cares). And I almost forgot Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag, who is a clichéd G.I. Joe soldier with a heavy southern accent. He is romantically involved with Enchantress, the villain, to help create some drama. The standout was easily Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. She was impeccably casted and nailed the character. The fact that she was the reason for everything made it that much more ironic and perfect.
Oh, and Jared Leto as the Joker is in the movie too.
The story is uh, well Enchantress is some ancient being and witch with weak motivation who wants to take over the world or something. She resurrects her brother to act as the secondary villain and muscle while she dances awkwardly. For most of the action, the team fight a bunch of faceless henchmen. Amanda Waller is also manipulative and bad, sort of. For a while you think they're mission is to stop Enchantress, even though it's never said and I guess the team doesn't care that they don't know what they're doing. Then it's revealed that they were rescuing Waller the whole time and everyone is mad for reasons I don't understand. Then they have to go stop Enchatress and her big brother (btw these two are worthy of being in the top 5 worst comic book movie villains list). Also the Joker is in the movie as well for some reason. He is trying to rescue Harley Quinn from the team, but when he gets her in the helicopter, it is quickly brought down and explodes and he dies but not really (obviously).
The editing and pacing are also god awful. From the get-go I could tell the movie was going to be rushed and underdeveloped (which are the main problems with Batman v Superman, coincidentally). It starts with Amanda Waller sitting at a dinner table with some guys as she explains the characters to the audience as flashbacks are shown, because we don't have time for them to be introduced on their own throughout the film. The editing for these flashbacks are horrific, as well. The editing was also choppy throughout the whole film, which is probably because of all the extensive reshoots that apparently took place. But I also have a feeling that there are many, many deleted scenes (just like Batman v Superman), because so much felt left out.
The soundtrack was weird. I like the individual songs they used and it was admittedly nice to hear Seven Nation Army, Black Skinhead, Sympathy For The Devil, and Bohemian Rhapsody. But they felt out of place and crammed in many scenes, just to make the movie more quirky and lighthearted.
In conclusion, I was mildly entertained whenever there was some kind of characterization, such as the scene in the bar. That was probably the only scene I liked. Some moments were good (such as whenever Margot Robbie walked away from the camera), but the only full scene I liked was that one. I enjoyed Margot Robbie's, Viola Davis', and, unbelievably, Jai Courtney's performances. In terms of filmmaking, it is nothing short of a DISASTER. My guess is the studio held test screenings, and people thought it wasn't funny and too dark. So the studio scrambled to add in music that didn't fit to make it quirky, and sent all the footage through a wood chipper, ruining everything trying to find the balance of light and dark. Such an enormous shame.
3.5/10