DC shows improvement, but still disappoints with Suicide Squad

Rating: 7/10 (10 August 2016)

Going into 2016, Suicide Squad was actually my second most anticipated superhero movie behind only Captain America Civil War. The marketing team did an absolute superb job selling this movie through some of excellently edited trailers and an surprisingly good original soundtrack, an addition that should be considered by more studios. By the time August came around, I had reached a level of excitement almost equal to that of Guardians of The Galaxy. Unfortunately, I left the theatre disappointed, but hopeful for the future of DC films. OK, so I know my tone may seem overly negative, but let me say that I really did enjoy the film. Much like Batman V. Superman, it does not deserve the reviews it's been getting from critics. The film improves upon DC's previous outing by introducing a much more lighthearted tone, at least for the film's first half, crafting a more clear and linear story, and also featuring better character development. Suicide Squad has many of the elements of a typical summer blockbuster which can't help but make it entertaining. While it may not have met my expectations, it still proved to be another enjoyable superhero movie, and that's enough for me. However, as I previously mentioned, this film has an abundance of flaws. While I did do a good amount of nit-picking, there a couple of particular problems that can't be ignored. The first lies in Suicide Squad's villain. I'm sure I'm not the first to say it, but just about everything about the Enchantress is bad. To begin, she was mistakenly marketed as being a member of the team, which lead many (including me) to believe Monster T would be the villain! Her "host" or whatever June Moore adds absolutely nothing to the story. Her brother is just a big pile of confusing CGI mess. Finally, her evil plan to destroy the world is given no backstory or motivation. Suicide Squad also suffers from an editing process that structures the movie in a very unusual way that screws up the pacing as well as the overall tone of the movie, which makes a dramatic shift from lighthearted and fun to dark and gritty. Finally, there's the Joker. I thought Jared Leto did a great job creating one of the most unique Joker's that has ever been portrayed on the big screen. However, I believe there isn't enough of him in the movie to formulate a fair assessment of his performance. One thing I can criticize is his role in the movie, which I felt did not fit. The Joker is mainly just there for some flashbacks that make the mistake of cramming a movie's worth of backstory into a couple of scenes. I understand that he wasn't supposed to have a major role, but I believe the tease David Ayer did give us did not fully represent the notorious Clown Prince of Crime. Suicide Squad is full of potential, and I believe going forward, this will be a great learning opportunity for DC. It shows how to successfully market a movie, provides a glimpse of how to incorporate a more lighthearted tone without being campy, and also displays the importance of proper character development. Repeat this process and then improve upon the movie's faults, and nothing would stop me from seeing a Suicide Squad 2.