A movie that squandered so much potential despite an abundance of source material, a multitude of great characters to play with and a brilliant cast at its disposal.

Rating: 5/10 (8 August 2016)

{SPOILERS!!}
Suicide Squad fails to deliver a memorable story line and at times failed the most interesting assets they had, the characters. Having said that, Suicide Squad is an okay, watchable movie – not as bad some of the critics reviews would have you believe, but no where near as good as you wanted it to be.
The film begins by briefly introducing us to a few of the main 'villains' in prison, accompanied by a sometimes out of place soundtrack, before quickly diving into Viola Davis' character, Amanda Waller, explaining that she "Wants to build a team of some very bad people, who she believes can do some good", which unfortunately doesn't extend much past what you will have seen in the adverts. In fact, a couple of the 'back stories' are reduced to sequences stretching to just a little over 30 seconds, including Killer Crocs' - one of the movies most under utilized characters, whose entire contribution to film comes down to a few grunts and incomprehensible words (not to mention the fact his head regularly looked far too big for his body). The film then continues on for a while to basically just be a sequence of strangely pasted together sound clips of popular songs, but not much more.
Eventually, Enchantress (played by Cara Delevingne, the TopShop model), who I guess is the antagonist, takes over New York City and creates a massive energy ball around herself for a reason I'm unsure of (Maybe it was explained, maybe It mattered so little that I didn't take note) and patiently awaits for the Suicide Squad to arrive – who have been brought together and sent to fight what they have been told is a 'terrorist' - an element of the movie I felt could have been utilized more, it may not have been the directors angle but having the Suicide Squad be the answer to a more relatable 'terrorist' could have engaged a bigger conversation and related to current issues in a way that the X-Men franchise has done in the past – just my opinion. They've been sent to save one unnamed individual. This individual turns out to be Viola Davis (Amanda Waller) herself, who has sent them to save herself. I'm unsure of why she was near the Enchantress in the first place, or why she goes on to kill the team she was working with there.
My main problem with the movie was not the uninspired plot, or the senseless destruction and presence of the antagonist and it wasn't even the sub standard story telling methods by the director, but the lack of both character development and character relationships. The only members of the Suicide squad that really interacted with one another were Will Smith and Harley Quinn. When it comes to the scene where Deadshot is asked to Shoot and Kill Harley Quinn, as she attempts to escape with the Joker, he misses (on purpose, given that he 'never misses'), but even by this scene the movie has failed to development any sense of loyalty between the characters so Deadshots' decision appears out of character to the point it could almost be described as a plot hole. Another moment, later on in the movie, that really emphasizes the lack of development between the characters, was the moment Diablo finally dives into any action (minus his one other fire scene earlier on in the movie that Deadshot aggravates him into, which you will have seen in the trailers) and exclaims 'I've already lost one family, I won't lose another'. This statement seems so out of place given that Diablo at this point has not properly interacted with any of the members of the Suicide Squad, minus his aforementioned run in with Deadshot. I can only assume that in an earlier version of the script we would have seen the members form some sort of allegiance to one another, but watching this final edit I would never have guessed that was ever the movies intentions.
With all that being said, the movie does have some redeeming qualities, most noticeably in the casting. Will Smith plays, well, Will Smith, but nether-the-less gives a charismatic performance of Deadshot, who I think, if anyone, is meant to be a protagonist. Margot Robbie delivers a great and unpredictable performance as Harley Quinn, but much more could have been done with her screen time. It felt like Margot "got" Harley Quinn and is more than capable of making Harley Quinn her own – but the story and script let her down and failed to make it a breathtaking performance. Jared Leto brought his own Comic-book inspired take on The Joker, which again I felt was let down by the direction, rather than by Leto. In this movie The Joker is portrayed as no more than a strangely decorated mafia man, with a noticeable absence of any 'dark humor' or mental complexity, which is what usually makes The Joker such a fascinating character. What I would really like to see is Letos' Joker and Margot Robbie' Harley Quinn have a film of their own under a new director, because the potential is there. A little less jumped up Mafia Hit Man, and a little more of their relationship in the "Arkham" series of video games, and we might be on to something great.
Overall it feels that DC and Warner Bros have absolutely everything they need to create brilliant, even cult-classic movies but are consistently failing to deliver on even the basic levels of blockbuster storytelling – and on this occasion have produced only an okay movie, but with zero re-watch value.