What is DC really trying to do? (A Rant)

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2016)

Like many who have also spent their money to see Suicide Squad despite hearing not-so-great reviews, I decided to keep an open mind and stay optimistic. And well... I wanted to leave halfway through the film.
SPOILERS.
By the end of the character introduction, which I don't think should have been placed at the beginning like that as some expositional ploy to get to the action, I was already disappointed. As a viewer, you could kind of tell that they gave WAY more screen time to Deadshot and Harley Quinn just because they were Will Smith and Margot Robbie, respectively. I wanted to know more about the OTHER characters as well because they had just as much potential in terms of power capabilities and back stories to carry this movie. Don't get me wrong, Smith and Robbie did great at executing their parts. But just as well, I believe that the other actors could have shared the screen time with similarly great executions. I mean, at many times I did not get the sense that Captain Boomerang and Killer Croc were even part of the Suicide Squad. Rather, they just felt like dummies who were added for light-heartedness (Boomerang) and to give the audience an insecure person who 'becomes' confident at the end (Croc) for character development satisfaction. Also, if they had eliminated the military (and probably even Katana, who, let's face it, did not even need to be there), the movie could have focused so much more on the bonding of the team and how they even transcend their wicked ways to do something good then probably go back to being wicked to escape their way out of Amanda Waller's control. Instead, I felt like Rick Flag was the main character! Moreover, the Joker and the Enchantress (with her strange dancing) have bigger identity crises than they let on. Like who was the villain? They obviously had different evil agendas (kind of? Not really I guess because the Joker just spent most of his time being with and then saving Harley). In the trailers, it looked like the Joker was the villain, but I was so shocked to find out that it was the Enchantress!! WHY? WHY? She could have been a great addition to the team. In fact, she could have formed a great bond with El Diablo, who shares the same fate of being 'cursed' with a power and does not wish to harness its evil potential anymore. Maybe they could have even added a plot for them trying to find a way to get out of their powers, and El Diablo, who is accepting of the consequences of his actions helps the Enchantress overcome her fear of hurting others and suppress the evil inside of her. SOMETHING that gives meaning to doing a movie about the BAD guys.
Instead, I felt like they used 'bad' characters to 'do something different' so that they could stray from the sometimes righteously good tones of Marvel but they really did not know how to do that and just copied the typical superhero plot of forming a team with characters we all know and love to get rid of the bad guy. And just because the Suicide Squad so happens to be the bad guys, they should just end it by putting them in jail...because they're the bad guys.
Despite all my ranting, I did feel something from the movie. Like when the team felt pity for El Diablo at the bar and how Deadshot really misses and loves his daughter but compromises seeing her just to save Harley. THOSE kinds of moments, the ones that show that we, the audience, are maybe like the villains too or that they are worth giving a chance should have been the biggest advantage of whatever this world DC is trying to set up.
Instead, I feel like DC is riding this superhero wave and that they are okay with whatever happens just as long as they get to make money. Well, guess what. DC Comics superheroes should be at the HELM of this wave because their characters have been the epitome of superhero images and many of them are the original superheroes. But I think that DC maybe knows that and the fact that they have had flops with the lighter Superman movies and successes with the darker Batman trilogy have led them to believe that it is the darker tone that people want out of their world. It's not. It's great storytelling and really showing people how DC characters are relatable because their heroes are much more powerful than Marvel's superheroes.
If you can't tell already, I'm a bit cynical of the recent and future DC films because I feel like there is this overarching need to compensate for their losses made by Marvel, whose direction in movies has built long-term investments by creating a truly immersive world to explore on film. DC films have so much potential, ESPECIALLY by making Suicide Squad, which would have at least related to the success of grim the Batman trilogy. But I think that if DC focuses on itself and what kind of message it needs to leave with the audience, then they will definitely deserve the praise and respect of its super/antiheroes.
(Also, I just realized this, but I think that the roots of the comic universes may also be a source of their conflict because the company that distributes DC films is Warner Bros. and the company that mainly distributes Marvel films is Disney. The two men who created Warner Bros. Animation were originally from Disney and left because of some bad blood at the time...so yeah, maybe it carried on?)