Guardians of the Galaxy-like fun hits all the right keys, just not in the right order to gain access to greatness

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2016)

It's now two days until my birthday, and I really wanted Suicide Squad to be my early birthday dream come true. What I got was not as bad as all the critics have been saying, but at the same time it just feels like it misses the mark somehow.
First of all, let's deal with the obvious: this film is basically DC's answer to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Both have criminals band together to face a powerful enemy (both with a combination of swords and guns), both use classic pop and rock songs, and both end up establishing the direction of their respective universes.
So the music, in the trailers for this movie, the editing acumen to meld action with music was nothing short of genius, but in the finished product, while all the songs are good, they come up so often,so unnecessarily, and sometimes as a very odd choice. Literally, Bohemian Rhapsody plays at the very end for no reason at all over the exact footage of the second trailer.
Moving on, though, this film is not necessarily about the action, of which there is plenty of but you doesn't really engage you. It's about the chemistry between the cast, and they fall in three categories.
The breakout stars of this film, Will Smith's Deadshot, Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, and Jared Leto's Joker, all steal the show in every scene they appear (of which, Joker appears much less than you might think). In short, Suicide Squad is basically all about these three, the rest of the cast just supports them.
Then there are the perfectly competent characters who are there and make for great action sequences. Chief among these are Diablo, played by Jay Hernandez, and Katana, played by Karen Fukuhara. Viola Davis' Amanda Waller is meant to be a chief player in this film, and in all honesty she pulls off her performance wonderfully, but her lack of screen-time in much of the film's action leaves her just shy of making the first tier.
Finally, there's the characters who were either supposed to be important but really aren't and those who are incredibly forgettable. Case in point: the relationship between Special Forces officer Rick Flag, played by Joel Kinnaman, and June Moone/Enchantress, played by Cara Delevingne, is supposed to be one of torn emotions between saving their love or saving the world, but when it all plays out the resolution does not feel satisfying. Also, Jai Courtney's Captain Boomerang's only cool moment is him sipping a beer during an intense firefight.
In summary, let me say that this film is NOT as bad as the critics say it is. They lambaste the poor editing, shallow characters, and rushed pace, and while there is ground for criticism in these ares, Suicide Squad delivers more than enough thrills and laughs to make the price of admission worth it. If I were to change one thing, though: I would go back in time and tell the marketing department to not give away so much of the film in the trailers, because really a TON of stuff in the trailers basically sums up the movie and there's not as much left to find out in the theater.