I'd give it a C

Rating: 7/10 (18 August 2016)

There is a house (or asylum) in New Orleans where some of the most notorious DC Comic villains reside. They call it Arkham Asylum. Maybe you're familiar with it. The film opens with a glimpse into the daily lives of imprisonment for the most marketable members of the cast, Deadshot played by Will Smith and Harley Quinn played by Margot Robbie. Deadshot stands in his cell undoubtedly wondering where he went wrong with his life while Harley Quinn begins her descent into constant flirtatious death threats. These are two of the members of the Suicide Squad who the movie chooses to focus on the most; while I thought they had interesting backstories, I wish that the rest of the squad had gotten expanded instead of compacted.
Suicide Squad is under the impression that this is a story-driven movie. But when the characters are cut down to make room so that a complicated, unexplained plot can commence, it leaves a comics-ignorant viewer (such as myself) pleading ever-so-slightly to care about what happens to the characters. I cannot speak for the viewers who attended this movie as DC comics fans, but I heard some laughter in the audience of the screening I attended so maybe this film plays out like an inside joke I wasn't in on.
After we get our introduction to Will Smith and Margot Robbie, the plot commences when Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, also known for her work in Doubt and The Help) meets up with who I'm assuming are government officials to tell them about the other members of the Suicide Squad. Davis speaks about how Superman's death is a tragedy of unpredictable proportions. Not only does his loss leave a hole in the heart of the good people of Metropolis, but this means that the next Superman could be the ultimate weapon. As one military official puts it, "if Superman had decided to fly down, rip off the roof of the White House, and grab the president right out of the Oval Office, who would have stopped him?". Could this kind of behavior be the product of the next Superman's ideals? Our main characters aren't sure, but they know they need to take precautions against that now. "This is World War Three" as Amanda Waller puts it. So who better to call than our main anti-heroes? Probably Batman since he is responsible for rounding half of them up and he competed against Superman in Batman vs. Superman. Or maybe Wonder Woman because she is Superman's female equivalent. Or Aquaman even if he is useless on land. But this isn't a movie about them, this is a movie about the some of the most powerful villains in the DC Comic Universe. That is who the audience paid to see.
And for a film made specifically to center around these delightfully devious people (or in one case, creature), I surprisingly did not learn a great deal about them. We saw how Deadshot and Harley Quinn fought and interacted with everyone else, we got brief backstories on each of the others, and we even got the Enchantress who became a villain because of Amanda Waller's task at hand to get the Suicide Squad together. There were fights and plot-points galore, but why would I care about these ultimately confusing plot-points that hop out of nowhere when I have great characters who I'm dying to know more about? I'm not asking for Christopher Nolan type exposition, but more than I received.
Let me put it this way. Of the year 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy was one of my favorite movies. Why? Because the story was everyone wants a purple orb and it's up to our heroes to make sure that none of the villains obtain it. This simple plot line enabled the movie to focus on Peter Quill and Gamora's lost childhoods, Rocket's sense of humor and sadness that he is not entirely connected to any species, Drax's inability to pick up on metaphors, and even Groot's optimism and willingness to help. Suicide Squad briefly focused on the main characters but then hurried in an unnecessarily all-over-the-place story. One of the characters became a villain trying to destroy the world, Rick Flagg was ordered to keep secrets from the squad for unknown reasons, the impending "World War Three" was never explained but was the main point propelling the movie, a subplot about having to save Amanda Waller and her crew, and a subplot about the Joker trying to break Harley out of the prison.
Now, does any of what I said above mean that the film was bad? Not at all. I loved watching the characters and learning what I could about them, the visuals were the right amount of DC universe-dark, the fight sequences were decent, the soundtrack was perfect, and it even gave us Jared Leto as the Joker who, in my humble and nonofficial opinion, gave a better, more unsettling performance than Heath Ledger did. I'm glad I saw this film and believe it deserves a 75% score. All I can say is I'm definitely looking forward to a sequel.
PS: Rotten Tomatoes? I want to ask you something personally. You gave a genuinely entertaining film like Suicide Squad a 26% score, yet gave Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates 38%? Is someone paying your critics to dislike DC Comic movies? Or were you drunk while watching Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates and therefore much more forgiving? I don't get you sometimes For more reviews like this, please see my blog, Art Scene State at the following link: http://cinemasmarts.blogspot.com/