city goes boom.

Rating: 3/10 (8 August 2016)

SUICIDE SQUAD RANT. SPOILERS!!! I am a huge fan of DC comics. I grew up reading the comic books, and batman is my all time favorite superhero so I have a special fondness for these characters. Its a shame they were wasted in this "movie". None of the characters had any development or arc besides deadshot, who's entire character was a tired trope we have seen a million times before (bad man has daughter so he tries to be good for her) and el diablo who's "we're a family" speech at the end feels so rushed and unearned it was more humorous than heartfelt. The rest were just explained to us cliffs notes style by the narrarat- I mean Amanda Waller (i.e. "this person is like a crocodile who eats people, this person was an archaeologist who's became possessed, etc"). Harley Quinn was perhaps the biggest waste. Her character is a useless member of the squad who has no special powers or traits besides being the jokers girlfriend (which makes her more of a liability than anything else). The appeal of her character is witnessing how the joker can influence a seemingly normal psychologist into becoming a psychopath, and then seeing how she realizes how poorly he has been treating her and her rebellion against him. This film completely skips over the first transformation (the first flashback is her agreeing to get the joker a gun in prison) and never reaches the second, providing us with a character that 1. contributes nothing to the group and 2. never develops. It is so painfully obvious how DC wants spinoffs and sequels to explore things that should never have been left out of this movie. The actual "SQUAD" never actually interact until about halfway through the film so when they do, the chemistry is half baked and unearned. The joker is not a memorable presence, and seems less like the criminal mastermind that he should be and more like a slightly quirky gangster. (Also if batman is murdering people now, why is the joker still alive? and how has he not been caught yet when he spends his time in nightclubs and parading himself around the city? C'mon Batman!). The villain is underdeveloped and generic (blue beam shooting into the sky, faceless minions for the heroes to kill, weak motivations). Also, if her plan was to release her brother and take over the world, why would she not do it while she was at the temple immediately after possessing dr. Moon? Other quick thoughts: 1. can we have an Asian action hero who isn't a samurai or ninja for once? 2. the first 2 action scenes in the city are nearly identical (creatures attack, flagg is grabbed by the creatures, squad shoots them, el diablo sulks in the corner. 3. why put a deep pool in killer crocs cell that he can hide in and attack you from? 4. where were the flash, batman, or wonder woman when an entire city was being destroyed? we know they are active during this time period and even make some brief cameos but never show up to help during the world ending catastrophe.