My First Experience in the DCEU... eh.

Rating: 7/10 (25 December 2016)

I haven't seen Man of Steel or Batman v Superman, and I didn't go see this in theaters, either. Watched it tonight. It's kinda like what I expected it to be. Highly stylized, with some fun action sequences (though with some pointless, doofus-y slow-mo thrown in here and there-what is this, 1995?) It was pretty to look at. Not much more value to get out of it, though.
Too much was shoved into this. This would've maybe been better as a standalone Deadshot movie, insofar as he has the most compelling backstory and development. It seemed a bit like Will Smith playing Will Smith, however. Him, Flag, and evil CIA lady seemed like they could belong in the same movie, but the others felt out of place. Harley Quinn was fun, but didn't seem like she belonged. Diablo, Killer Croc, and Katana could've been in a move with the Enchantress and her brother, but Deadshot, CIA lady, Flag, and Harley Quinn seem really weird to be there. And then there's Captain Boomerang, heh... He seemed fun too, but he does next to nothing. Take him, Katana, and Killer Croc out, and it's practically the same movie. Perhaps even Diablo, though he gets a bit more development than they do. A bit.
I'd heard complaints about the character origin flashbacks at the start of the movie... and yeah. It involved a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. Sure, there were scenes with important events for Deadshot and Harley, but there's no set up for any of these scenes; CIA lady just tells us what happened with them, essentially. It's just flashy cuts between a few important images, and a couple cameos for superheros to show up. We're even told that Flag and this archaeologist girl, Moone, or whatever "fell in love" because CIA lady made them fall in love or something, so she could use it against Flag. We are not shown any development of this relationship of theirs. We're also not given any buildup for the Enchantress.
Then, there's a few character actions and scenes that don't make much sense to me. How did CIA lady get Enchantess's heart? Furthermore, how did CIA lady know that the Enchantress had possessed Moone? Are there cameras in that ancient site? They went there later and found the heart, but why would the Enchantress leave it behind? Like, what happened in the scene directly after she possessed that girl? Of all the quick origin flashbacks, this was one that needed further explanation the most.
Then with the team, itself: they didn't care about each other. At all. Thhey showed mostly disdain for one another throughout the first half of the movie. Then they found out they were going to save CIA lady and not... someone else, and also that CIA lady is ultra ruthless and evil. Deadshot watched her kill a bunch of her subordinates one scene, and is so casual about it, I assumed he didn't care. He also told Harley that he didn't feel love, or else he wouldn't be able to sleep at night with all the people he's killed, yet he clearly loves his little girl, and he also purposefully misses shooting Harley when told to, even though he showed no attachment previously. Captain Boomerang felt moved to compliment him for his mercy, even though, like Deadshot, he had made no prior indication of caring for any of his team members (or anyone else at all, really). So then they have the bar scene, tell each other why each other person is terrible, we get a little bit of character development for Diablo, and then Deadshot decides to help Flag fight the Enchantress--not because she's about to destroy the world, but because of honor or camaraderie or something. And Harley's got nothing better to do,and the others give no reasoning for going whatsoever (particularly puzzling with Captain Boomerang, who had bolted once Flag said they were free to go).
As far as character development goes... Deadshot is a ruthless assassin, but loves his daughter. Threatens everyone constantly. Has a change of heart suddenly in the middle of the movie. Why? Harley Quinn is a psychiatrist treating the Joker. She falls in love with the Joker. She gets abused by the Joker. She gets rejected by the Joker. She gets accepted by the Joker. The Joker falls in love because she's crazy enough to jump in the same generic vat of chemicals that he fell into to turn him into the Joker, which I guess the sole affect of is to make people totally bananas. She went from obsessed psychiatrist to crazy girl, then just kinda goes along with whatever's happening around her, though she claims that the team are her "friends" as as she slice's the Enchantress's heart out.
Kinda similarly, Diablo refers to the group as another "family" that he doesn't want to lose. For him, he was evil, had a wife that tried to reason with him, then gave up and was leaving, he gets mad and kills her and their kids in a rage, then realizes "hey, I'm evil," and tries to be a pacifist, until Deadshot yells at him a bit in one scene. Katana has a very brief backstory involving revenge for her dead husband (she showed up late because she was "busy...") And Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang have no development whatsoever. The Enchantress and her brother's existence barely have any kind of explanation, let alone their motives.
It's just kinda a mess. An entertaining mess, but a mess nonetheless. I've liked David Ayer's movies in the past, too (Fury). I dunno if this deserves a 7, but I feel like a flat 6 is too low. So yeah.