Not sure what the critics were smoking

Rating: 9/10 (18 September 2016)

DC is finally learning that comic book movies can (and should) be fun. Through trial-and- error they are listening to the fans complaints and addressing them and improving with each movie. "Man of Steel had too much action? We'll tone it down a bit in Dawn of Justice. Dawn of Justice wasn't fun enough? We'll do reshoots on Suicide Squad to make it more lighthearted." It will still be a while before they catch up to Marvel, but for now I'm pleased with how they're trying. Although the characters look very different from the versions we are used to they still feel like the characters. There was never a point where I felt like Jared Leto and Margot Robbie's portrayals of Joker and Harley were not those characters. (Unlike Jesse Eisenburg as Lex Luthor in "Dawn of Justice".) Even the characters I'm not as familiar with like Deadshot and Killer Croc were still great. Will Smith and Joel Kinnamen were the most fun performances to watch next to Robbie and Leto. Even if you're not a comic fan, it's still fun just as a movie. The exposition/origins of the various characters don't take up too much time and gets those who may not be familiar with these characters up to speed. It's not even really a comic book movie, it's a human redemption story. Other than Joker and Harley the rest of the Squad aren't necessarily bad people. They've just made some bad decisions, but they're willing to repent. Deadshot doesn't want to kill for money anymore, Diablo feels he should not have his prison sentence shortened because he feels prison would be the safest place for him since he doesn't know how to control his powers and doesn't want to accidentally kill people anymore. I feel sympathy for these characters and loved how they were willing to change and redeem themselves. The one complaint I have is the villain in the third act was a bit weak and could have been improved with better writing. But considering WB/DC forced the writers to crank out the script in 6 weeks this was still better than it should have been. This has all the fun of a Marvel movie. (It reminded me most of "Guardians of the Galaxy", especially the various songs played throughout the movie. It's one of the best soundtracks of the year.) and I'm excited to see what DC does with future movies. Grade: A- 9/10 4/5 stars