Nowhere near as bad as made out

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2018)

In a world devastated by the death of Superman, and still getting used to the threats posed by metahumans, scheming Amanda Waller brings together a group of criminals with "gifts" to be used on deniable operations: force them into working as a covert task force, and throw them under the bus if things go wrong.
Suicide Squad continues the expansion of DC's cinematic universe into the darkness established by Man Of Steel and Batman v Superman: arguably the Squad is a more appropriate vehicle for this direction than DC's flagship Big Blue Boyscout (SPOILER: he's dead now, anyway, his funeral featuring briefly in the opening minutes of SS). Paradoxically, SS is somewhat lighter than Snyder's two Superman movies, although I emphasise that "somewhat" actually means "not much."
This film has been critically mauled, but it's nowhere near as bad as has been made out. Dark, certainly, but this is a group of murderous criminals, so you shouldn't expect a super-powered version of the A-Team - these aren't nice people. Having said that, Will Smith's Deadshot is a murdering hitman with a young daughter he dotes on, thus making him a morally compromised bloke you can identify with. And Margot Robbie, the sexiest thing on screen this year so far, IS Harley Quinn. They gave us (blink and you'll miss it) Alex Ross' Mad Love cover - thank you!
Unfortunately, the rest of the Squad don't do so well. They all get origins and moments in the spotlight during combat, but there is precious little for them in terms of character and backstory. Consequently it is difficult to care much about them, and the film lacks heart as a result.
But there's bags of action, a decent threat, and one really good scene where they take a timeout in a deserted bar, and we get some idea of what the inter-relationships and dynamics of the group might have been had the script spent more time on character and less on expending ordnance aka blowing crap up. DC still hasn't figured out why the Marvel cinematic movies are so successful: we care about the characters. Here - not so much.
Overall, though, I enjoyed this. I have recently been reading John Ostrander's original run writing the Suicide Squad comic in the 80s, and this film is at least as good as that.
Don't bother with a 3D viewing - it adds nothing.