Ignore the critics, make up your own mind.

Rating: 8/10 (6 August 2016)

Let me say up front that the critics are full of it; SUICIDE SQUAD is a fun movie, a good action film filled with great characters played by well cast actors. I think part of the problem is that for the past year we've been watching one great trailer after the other and really had very high expectations for the movie; as it is, SUICIDE SQUAD has a story filled with some well worn comic book tropes and a script that needed some revisions; I will say that SUICIDE SQUAD's script is not as clunky as the one for BATMANVSUPERMAN, but it is the same problem, and keeps the movie from knocking it out of the park.
I must admit that I'm a big fan of the rag tag group of misfits coming together to perform an impossible mission story, be it THE DIRTY DOZEN or THE AVENGERS. As everyone knows from the comics, the SUICIDE SQUAD is one such group, made up of imprisoned super villains and under the control of the formidable Amanda Waller, who wants a team capable of going up against an evil meta human on the level of Superman if it should ever be necessary. One of the best things about the film is how it speeds through the back stories of Deadshot, Diablo, Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, Katana, The Enchantress, and even Harley Quinn, to get the action moving; it's good to have a super hero movie that doesn't spend the first hour on origins and exposition, and then rushing through main plot in the second half. The who and the what are quickly established, the principle threat arrives and the team goes into action and the movie heads toward the inevitable showdown with the Big Bad.
That is when SUICIDE SQUAD nearly goes into a ditch, for there are some left turns in the third act that all but short circuit the story before it gets back on track just in time for a satisfying conclusion. We get one of those everybody fights everybody throw downs, where the anti social antiheroes must unite as one and take out the villain, using their powers for a good cause for a change. The special effects are fine, even if the lighting is too dark as it was in BvS. Of course there are some things that do make for head scratching, like how convenient for the plot that Waller has the entire world's defense secrets tucked away in her mind for the villain to read and how Harley Quinn is ready to die for her new friends only minutes after nearly deserting them for the Joker.
And that is another problem with SUICIDE SQUAD: of the vast rogue's gallery in the DC universe, why go with the one they chose; especially when you've got the Joker already in the script. I would much rather have seen have seen a movie where Waller, Deadshot and company had squared off against the Joker and Harley; when you've already hauled out the big artillery, you might as well use it to its best advantage.
Do we need yet another super hero movie where the villain is determined to take over the world by opening some portal that emits a beam of light into the sky, while debris swirls around in the air? I think GHOSTBUSTERS and THE AVENGERS have pretty much covered that territory.
As I said, the cast is great, with Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, and Will Smith's Deadshot coming of best. The rest of the crew is well played by Jay Hernandez as Diablo, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, Karen Fukahara as Katana, Carla Delavigne as The Enchantress, while Joel Kinnaman is Rick Flagg, the hard case in charge of the Squad. The real draw is finally seeing Harley Quinn brought to life on the screen, and in Margot Robbie they couldn't have made a better choice, this is a star making performance. How good is Jared Leto as The Joker, to me it is a far different take than Jack Nicholson's evil clown or Heath Ledger's canny psycho; Leto brings a real sexual element to the villain as he clearly is in lust with Harley as much as he is in love with her. Whose Joker is best? Let the argument begin; let's just say they have to bring Leto and Robbie back and let them square off against the Big Bat in Gotham.
For that matter, who made the best Amanda Waller? Davis is great, but I liked Pam Greir's version from SMALLVILLE a few years back.
As for Batman, he does make a cameo, reminding us that Ben Affleck was one of the best things about BATMANVSUPERMAN; and I was intrigued by the brief appearance of Ezra Miller's The Flash.
The DC movie universe still had a long way to go before it catches up with Marvel, but SUICIDE SQUAD is a step forward, not the giant leap we hoped it would be. There is a mid credits scene that gives me hope for JUSTICE LEAGUE.