Entertaining and cool scenes in a very meh plot

Rating: 7/10 (9 August 2016)

THE GOOD - Some critics have complained the movie is like a glorified music video. I feel it's actually at its best when its being the most like a music video. The introductions and backgrounds of the different characters to popular rock songs were perhaps the best parts.
The movie has a number of really cool scenes, especially when it came to flashbacks. The Batman scenes were the best, but then I would say that! It's definitely a style over substance film, and it was entertaining and there was a good deal of fun to be had watching it. The scenes themselves were well directed, I think.
People complained the Joker wasn't in it as much as advertised, but after reading that I found he was in it more than I expected. It wasn't his film and I don't think he should have been in it any more than he was. I was happy with the amount.
As for characters, Deadshot was particularly good (although he should have worn the mask more), and Harley looked really visually striking and cool, and I mean that from the shoulders up at least, and they both acted convincingly. It was clearly a Deadshot and Harley- led film.
The film was nice and colourful and I really like that, especially compared to the lack of colour in BvS. I particularly liked Harley's colours and all the neon title and end credits and 'character bios'.
THE BAD - Style over substance. Scattered scenes were great, but as for the core plot it was really meh. The villain was kinda interesting to begin but quickly got boring as soon as she went bigtime. Neither the villain nor the stakes grabbed you.
The 'sh*t got real' big crisis thing just seemed to suddenly happen, there was zero buildup to it.
The later part of the film was worse than the first as, if not for the characters, it became a bit too generic and too CGI- y.
The film really needed to be a 15. For a film about villains there was no blood and they went down the boring Marvel-like disposable monsters route. They definitely needed to make it more personable and savage and not so middle-of-the-road in terms of action. It's called the Suicide Squad for goodness sake!
I know it was from their point of view and was supposed to make them more sympathetic, but the villains never really seemed villainous. Like, at all. Harley smashed a window and robbed a handbag. Ooooh, we've got a badass over here!
No backstabbing, which was what the Suicide Squad was supposed to be about.
The whole magic villain thing... it just seemed a bit too soon for the DCEU. It was too out there at this stage. They should have gone with a more grounded villain for the Suicide Squad, because they took the time to ground the members of the Squad themselves. The Squad are not Asgardians.
Some of the characters were just too gangsterised (Croc, Diablo, Harley a little, Boomerang a little, and Joker the most egregious). Croc was also too skinny in my opinion, or rather just didn't look as threatening as he should have. He didn't have much to do, though. Next to Joker he was the weirdest seeing 'street'.
The Joker's performance was.. okay... decent... neither bad nor great, but mainly because it was hard to take seriously because you were so preoccupied by his daft look. He had different outfits and when it was toned down and looked more Joker-y it was a damn sight better. The more bling he looked the more distracting it was. One outfit in particular. Still, I liked seeing him on screen but didn't want any more of him in that movie.
Harley's comic lines (which were nearly ALL her lines) just fell flat. Wryly amusing moments in the film did not come from Harley, who had lines that were trying too hard and were a little cringing. Boomerang was funnier in a more natural way. No actual proper laughs though in the film, but then I didn't really expect or need them.
The editing wasn't good in the movie. You could tell they'd had reshoots and shoehorned some DCEU stuff in. The film was messy, like critics said BvS was but I disagreed with. With this you could tell it was more like a network of scenes. The film was clearly more interested in particular scenes than the core plot, which was almost like an afterthought. Weirdly, the film would actually have flowed a lot better if you'd scrapped the core plot and put all the characters and their lives and backgrounds and so forth into a short Netflix series. It could have had a lot less budget and told a better story. As a movie it seemed to be relying way too much on setup and not on payoff.
BvS was better.
Anyway, yeah. Above all, decent and fun but not a masterpiece by any means. I don't mind if critics give it a 5/10 or whatever, even if personally I would, acknowledging my biases, give it higher. That's fine. What I hate and will always hate is critics who play it up and write about this and other decent (or even mediocre) hyped films being crimes against cinema, as though they're on par with Jack and Jill and Date Movie. Wall Street Journal called Suicide Squad "an all-out attack on the whole idea of entertainment". Attention seekers.