Think "X-Men: Apocalypse", by DC

Rating: 4/10 (9 August 2016)

Where did it all go wrong? It's a question I've asked myself after seeing all the recent Super Hero movies, bar the sassy Deadpool.
In a world where studios are constantly trying to outdo each other in the superhero movie wars, a few major things seem to be being left behind (or on the cutting room floor).
The marketing/publicity surrounding Suicide Squad in the build up to its release, pointed to a movie based heavily around Jared Leto's "Joker" and a band of new (in screen format at least) characters from the DC universe. It looked fun, the way Deadpool was fun. And that's where I found the most disappointment during the actual watching of Suicide Squad.
It's basically a complete reheat of the recent and equally dire, X-Men: Apocalypse. Government rounds up super heroes (supposedly the most evil on the planet) for use as a defence force against the possibility of a super power based terror event. It just so happens that within moments of the team being brought into custody by one of DC's main money earners, that such an event transpires and they are thrown into action. The villain in question is so similar to the last Xmen outing, its hard to believe. For reasons beyond logic, the only way this demi-god plans the destruction of the human race, is by building a weapon that will take long enough for our Squad to battle their way in and save the day. Never mind that this villain can already destroy large city blocks and structures without needing to build anything......
The movie, after giving us 30mins of backstory and reasons why the Squad are "oh-so-evil", then goes into a mish mash of action/dialogue sequences that require your brain to left on standby.
Some of the questions raised include; If the demi god has already enslaved so many locals into becoming hybrid monsters that can battle through head shots then isn't that another effective way to destroy humans without wasting time building something to blow everything up??? How many helicopter crashes can one team survive??? Why do we keep getting backstory to give heart to characters that are intentionally presented initially to be evil? We don't care about these characters anyway. Apart from Will Smith, who does what he can with the movies most fleshed out character, there's no one in this film you really care about or even want to see killed off. The quips and jokes are almost always off target, mistimed or misdelivered leaving characters feeling unnatural and "forced crazy". The normal humans are probably more evil than the actual Squad....
The biggest question; Why is Joker even in this film? It's obvious that DC have a cash cow in Joker and obviously being at the heart of the marketing campaign, everyone was buzzing about how Jared Leto would pick up the character brought to colorful life by Ledger, Nicholson and the cartoonish Romero. You have to say, Leto's interpretation is closely aligned with the comic version of the Joker and that's great. But why is he in THIS film? He has no more purpose in the plot, than Deadshots Daughter has. Being that Harley Quinn/Deadshot are emotionally tied to their mirror characters and that being the only reason for their appearances in the film.
So, as far as similarities with "Apocalypse" goes, DC follows suit with this effort - right down to cameo appearance of their respective universe's most iconic character.
It's a shame that something promoted with such color and fun was delivered in the now tiring, uninspiring fashion that has seen the super hero genre descend into the realms of the now obsolete "Found Footage" category.