Meh...!

Rating: 5/10 (22 August 2016)

So whilst being more of a Marvel fan I in no way hate DC and, despite not really enjoying the past 2 DC films I still wanted to see this one, especially given the polar opposite reviews that it had been getting. And my feeling by the credits was "Meh, it was alright"..
Whilst the film wasn't the worst one I've seen, there was nothing in it to amaze me. It is clear that the film has had a lot of re-shoots and the editing of the film is pretty poor, with scenes jumping from one to another without any thought to the flow of the story - half of scenes from the trailers aren't even in the film either?!
The film seems to suffer in it's failure to deal with a big group of main characters, where the Avengers gave everyone similar screen time, only Harley and Deadshot get a lot, (And for some reason also have 2 intro's?) Will Smith is basically Mike Lowry as Deadshot and takes a lot of the screen time, but I guess he is the big name so you would expect so, whilst Margot Robbie also takes a lot of time, but is probably the most well known character so again you'd expect her to be in the foreground, and I enjoyed the flashbacks between her and the joker. But I did keep noticing that her voice/accent kept changing throughout the film though from the normal tone, to a randomly serious voice, to a "bubblegum" accent - but this might be down to her being crazy, which I thought was potryed well on screen. But aside from these two other team members just appear, Katana randomly gets on the helicopter before they leave and her back story is literally explained in 1 or 2 sentences by Rick Flag, whilst the other main culprit is Slipknot, who gets out of a van, punches a woman, then is tricked in to trying to escape and gets his head blown off?? What was the point in even putting him in the film? You just don't ever get to a point where you really care about any of the team.
I would've like to have seen more of the other characters developed, Captain Boomerang is actually quite funny but isn't on a great deal, and you'd easily forget that Killer croc is in the film. El Diablo was an intriguing character who'd I'd have liked to have seen more of but they decide to kill him off no sooner than he starts fighting.
The Joker doesn't really have a place in the film, he adds nothing to the plot really and is almost just an extended cameo to pay fan service - though again I guess you can't have Harley without him?? Interesting take on the character though, but just really appears to be a bog standard mob boss with green hair, nothing against Leto but I don't think the character is a patch on any of the previous incarnations.
The Enchantress is a strange character, and by strange I mean rubbish. Amanda Waller makes a big deal about how she can control her as she has her heart but she basically turns as soon as the film starts and after resurrecting her brother he saves her from getting killed straight after when her heart is stabbed?! Then after complaining to her brother that they humans now worship machines, not magic she decides to kill them all...by building a machine?! But this is also never explained any further as to what this machine actually is or will do to the world?! Really poor bad guy, her brother is pretty awful too, in both substance and visually, with the special effects looking awful especially in this day and age - it reminded me of a cross between Tron Legacy and Lawnmower man?! (And I don't even know how that's possible?!). Amanda Waller is a much more fearsome villain in the movie and is played very well.
Couple of other little annoyances/questions that I won't delve in to but which aren't explained.
-Who shoots down the helicopters (every single one of them..!) and keeps shooting at the soldiers? They explain that the Enchantress is turning men, women & children into mindless zombie kind of creatures so where are the guns?
-After spending the entire film avoiding fighting, why when Diablo decides to fight does he have to ask permission from Deadshot?
-How does Harley manage to cut out Enchantress's heart by just slashing her across the chest with a sword? Wouldn't she need to actually stab her and cut that out?
-Why does Harley Quinn go back to prison afterwards despite having her nanobomb disabled by the Joker?
All in all though not the worst film you'll see, but it's certainly not one of the best and don't expect it to make you any more excited about the Justice league films - DC has got a LOT of work to do to save the DCEU. Good luck Wonder woman!