Not the big breakthrough, but fun nonetheless

Rating: 7/10 (9 August 2016)

After the overburdened messy trainwreck that was Batman V Superman, I had much doubt for this one... At the first look there again are a ton of characters and again a weird choice of changes to an iconic arch enemy (you don't wanna think of Lil Wayne when you see the Joker, okay?). Overall it seemed like its going to repeat the same mistakes as BvS. And to an extend it did. However the main difference is that this one actually manages to provide fun.
As critics seem to be exceptionally harsh with this one, I believe that much of it depends on what your expectations are. If you think of this anything more than easy entertainment popcorn-movie action, you'll gonna be disappointed. Otherwise you're in for a fun ride, even though it has a few bumps here and there.
Part of the reason it is entertaining to me is how stylishly it was filmed. The movie starts off almost like a montage of MTV music videos with plenty of licensed music; I'd say they even went overboard with the music. Whether you like the music or not is a matter of personal taste - personally I didn't find it all that fitting and was a little bit annoyed when they played Eminems "Without me". But it is undeniable that these scenes have a certain "coolness" to them.
There is a lot of action going on, however the plot is paper-thin. It basically can be summarized in one sentence, and it's the most predictable one for most common comicbooks or action-movies. But what made me not care about that is the already mentioned stylishness that indeed provided the most fun. The way Batman was utilized, even tough in a really small portion, was effective. I loved his biggest scene, which I won't spoil here even though it is in the trailer. What's also great are the many shootout scenes and gunplay. Kinda reminded me of the 90's action movies, which is always a good thing. Even the PG13 didn't spoil it.
As far as for the characters... They mostly are good and satisfying. Lets start with the iconic one first:
Joker - as I mentioned, not really happy how they changed him. Lacks the sarcastic menace and intensity. Far from bad, but they could've been more imaginative and let him go all out more. His henchmen were awesome though.
Harley - Pretty good actually, from the trailer it seemed like she'd be mostly about making faces and grimaces and be an annoyance, but she was fine and a pretty good movie adaptation of the character. Lots of here humorous scenes were really weak though... that was some truly lazy writing.
Deadshot - this one is a bit of a polarizing one. The character definitely got the Will Smith treatment, and it's hard to separate him from other action characters Will played. Even though I love his action scenes and his gunslinging is truly badass, he seems more like a good guy than a bad guy. It is tough to escape the feeling that it is indeed because of Will. Would've been interesting to seem him play someone purely evil for a change.
The others didn't get much screen time, but to me they were satisfying. Katana, Croc added to the action. Boomerang to the comic relieve (was actually pulled of well without overdoing it, kudos for that), Enchantress was really nice to look at, provided plenty of awesome imagery, El Diablo also had a great action scene and added a little bit of dept. Slipknot was the one with the least screen-time, basically a filler but his entrance was entertaining no less.
All in all entertaining, carefree action-fun. Don't expect anything deep from it. It's mostly the action and spectacle parts that deliver, and they are pulled off well. There are some emotions thrown in, nothing great or new, just here to mix-up things a little. Surprisingly the humor is really weak, but it's tolerable. Better than BvS in any case.