A weird but fun movie

Rating: 6/10 (6 August 2016)

A decent action film. The first act felt like a mix of a Guy Ritchie heist film blended together with some dark humor. The rest of the film reminded me of "Escape from New York". Anti heroes forced to do a mission in a desolated city with a time limit. It is a weird movie at times. But, I understand why. The characters are weird themselves, so the film should have us seeing their world view. That being said, there are still a lot of tonal differences in this movie which could put you off very easily.
Right from the start you see that this is going to be a different entry in the DC universe. Once you get what style its going for then it's more easy to have fun with it. The atmosphere of the prison setting is great and the introduction of the characters was fun and makes you understand most of them.
Will Smith was the best he has been for years. Margot Robbie as Harley was just like seeing the character leap out from comics and cartoons. Killer Croc played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was a good addition, great that they used a practical suit. Joel Kinnaman was also very good as the guy who must keep the squad together. He also showed a lot of emotion. Actually all the actors did a great job. Must of the time you forget who is playing them and just see the characters, which is a good thing. All of them have a humanity about them despite the insanity that they inhabit. Jay Hernandez as Diablo surprised me with his a tragic background. Jai Courtney gave probably his best performance he has given. Jared Leto was actually very interesting as the Joker. I like the way he is portrayed as a gang leader and he has a unpredictability about him which makes the character unsettling on screen. He isn't in it enough to be judged properly though.
Those are the things I like about the movie. Now for what I thought could be better. I think the villain was too convenient and I little too over the top at times. I think the squad should have gone out for some other mission and then during the mission you could have a twist and make them fight something supernatural like the Enchantress. But the idea of the Enchantress starting to do her evil plan just at the same time the squad is assembled felt like a weird coincidence. And I thought that the light beam to the sky was uninteresting and already used in way too many comic book films. The action scenes could have had better variations, the seemed to repeat themselves.
Since the DC films are trying to catch up to Marvel it seems they add too much story in each film. The flashbacks were needed to set everyone up, but they felt short and choppy. I could feel that a lot of it was cut out. But, the film would have benefited with the flashbacks being longer, because the origin stories of these guys are interesting. Since the need to cram all of these things into one film it felt like they tried to tell the stories of another film all together.
All in all, the film was decent and entertaining. A bit bloated and better threats and action set pieces would have made it better. The bar scene was probably my favorite scene in the movie. It was a nice character moment and felt focused. I think they at DC are starting to learn how to make these films better now. Well, I hope so at least. It wasn't fantastic, but fun and entertaining.