Tries to Be Too Much

Rating: 4/10 (6 August 2016)

First, let me say I'm not a DC Comics reader. That said, I was interested in seeing this movie, because Watchmen, although I was not familiar with the graphic novels, is my #2 favorite movie of all time after Casablanca - so you never know.
Now, I have followed the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, which took about 10 years to build to what it is today (over several movies and TV shows), and obviously DC Comics is feeling the pressure and needs to come up with their own as quick as possible. So, they have the Superman movie, BvS, and now Suicide Squad.
Here's the problem: DC is trying to make an entire universe with just these 3 movies, and it shows.
The film starts out with the background of several of the characters, and takes up almost the entire first hour doing so. This is a fun show, propelled forward with a great soundtrack of pop songs, old and new.
Then, the group is brought together to rescue an unnamed High-Value Target after some terrorist activity in the city. This is where the plot actually begins. They hop on a chopper, the soundtrack suddenly changes to just a score, and the helicopter crashes (it's in the commercial). In total there will be 3 helicopter crashes, but an hour into a movie, I should be caring about what happens to at least some of these characters. Since I don't read the comics, I don't have the already "built in" care that other viewers may, but this says something about the story itself and how it's failed to capture the viewer's interest. Also, there's a really silly thing that made me laugh out loud in a crowded theater: every time the Enchantress entered or left the screen, there was a woman whispering "Enchantress" like some perfume commercial. It's ridiculous.
There's also a character who dies, and I knew it already because that character is the only one who didn't get the full treatment with a background scene. They also threw in some lady with a silly mask (named Katana), who has 1 line and 1 move in the entire movie, so I'm not sure what the point was in having her in there.
Then, somewhere in between there, I guess the director / producers realized they needed a love component (or at least friendship type of love) and made a really awkward display between two people who had literally just met about an hour before when they got on the helicopter!
The HVT was not a shocker at all, although the characters all seemed shocked, so I think the viewer was supposed to be, also. Confusion.
Throw in some awkwardly-placed, forced one-liners, and suddenly the movie turns into the final scene of Ghostbusters for the last 20 minutes, with a whirlwind of smoke and lightning, and a witch in a skimpy dress dancing in the middle the whole time. I was waiting for Stay Puft, but he never came. The plot was so forced and weak, I wonder what the production meetings were like. Add in the weird (not artistic!) use of the soundtrack, poor character development, silly mistakes (The Diablo's tattoos change as regularly as Harley Quinn's accent
Overall, this movie was a cluster of things that made it feel like they crammed a bunch of elements to create an entire universe in a single movie. And I have to say it failed at that. They could easily have introduced some of these characters in shows like Gotham or Flash, or in movies like Batman, Superman, or BvS. Then they wouldn't have to crunch in so much background stuff and could've actually had a great movie, but this failed in so many ways I think (sadly) the DC Cinematic Universe is doomed.