Entertaining, and better than expected

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2017)

With Superman dead, the world needs a new band of superheroes to step into the breach. Senior US Intelligence officer Amanda Waller comes up with a daring plan - use extreme criminals with special abilities to fight crime, in exchange for them receiving reduced sentences. The band of crime-fighting criminals is officially known as Task Force X, but due to the nature of their mission a more appropriate name would be Suicide Squad.
Reasonably entertaining. Starts off very well - the background and scene setting were great and promised much for the remainder of the movie. Unfortunately, the remainder doesn't quite live up to this promise, as the plot loses focus to an extent.
This all said, the movie has great momentum and is never boring. There are some great action scenes and dialogue and the performances provide a great energy to the movie. The standout (for many reasons!) is Margot Robbie who is excellent as Harley Quinn. Jared Leto is great as The Joker (the character seems to inspire great performances - thinking Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger in the past). Solid work too from Will Smith, as Deadshot, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller.
After all the criticism of the movie, it was much better than expected. I can only think it was your typical comic book and superhero movie fans who were disappointed, as this movie is a bit different to most of the genre. I've never read the Suicide Squad comics, and generally am not a fan of comic book / superhero movies, so was able to watch with any preconceived ideas of what this should be like. Objectivity helps.