A bad movie with very good parts... the 1970's special effects is not one of them

Rating: 4/10 (17 January 2018)

This movie had such great potential that it is a shame that it falls so flat. First, the good.
Floyd Lawton/Deadshot (Will Smith) has a story line that is actually compelling and interesting, one in which you want to know more about, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is also a very well acted, entertaining and interesting character, and finally the most interesting, diverse, and entertaining character in the entire movie Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) a character that could perhaps carry a movie on her own.
The most entertaining and interesting scenes come from when those characters are involved and you get a sense that if they were to tell an actual story it would be a great movie but it doesn't and of course the movie is not solely based on them.
Unfortunately beyond those three characters you have the rest of the movie... where to begin.
You have Boomerang who is a terrible choice for the Suicide Squad as he didn't or couldn't add much to the movie, just a dose of bad comedy. Then there's Diablo a character that they did spend time on special effects to make his fire powers look fanciful, but not much else, he isn't at all a compelling character or one that you are ever vested in. And then the throw away characters Slipknot, his entire inclusion is to show the lengths Waller would go to... but it is so absolutely poorly executed to make his inclusion laughable.
And finally the terrible...
The Joker is reduce to a tattooed thug instead megalomaniacal genius, one word. Awful.
Killer Croc an utterly terrifying character in the DC universe is an utter joke in this movie used for comic relief. He looks like a normal guy in a poorly designed Halloween costume. The Flash TV show also set in the DC universe had a similar character named King Shark, they created him in CGI to show off his imposing stature and terrifying nature, but here in a big budget movie they painted a guy green, like the 1970's Hulk, with a big head and skinny arms, this is the worst of the worse.
And this is all culminated by the fact that the main antagonist of the film in truth is something the Suicide Squad would not be capable of handling, but shoehorned in to try an make an entertaining premise, this instead makes the entire movie feel false and uninteresting and in the end just makes for very bad storytelling.
With the way the "enemy" is handled you wouldn't even have needed any type of "suicide squad", just the National Guard or someone like that, but they obviously didn't know who to write or create and interesting antagonist or story and no matter what good points you have, without that you have nothing.
At this point, they are stuck with the foundation they've built so there is little hope for any sequels but perhaps in the future they will focus on the good points and try to create more interesting stories, for now Suicide Squad is a movie you can pass on for something more watchable.