Way too many characters, too little development

Rating: 3/10 (10 August 2016)

Suicide Squad opens with a fast-paced sequence intended to cover a wide breadth of characters without going into any depth whatsoever. Oddly enough, this seems to be indicative of the movie as a whole: little depth of character among a large group of cast members.
Following the introductory section where Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) introduces the future members of the "Suicide Squad," we are quickly thrust into the main plot of the movie. One of the "meta-humans," Enchantress (Cara Delevigne) begins a reign of terror upon Midway City. This action seems to be fine, but the sparse dialogue from Delevigne doesn't really give us a good reason as to why this is happening. Following this, the Suicide Squad comprised of Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and a host of other baddies spring into action, along with their boss, Special Forces guru Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman). However, their mission doesn't focus on defeating the threat but instead rescuing an unidentifiable VIP from the city. What ensues is a menagerie of choppy editing, adequate action scenes, strange flashbacks, and a lack of character development.
The problem with Suicide Squad is that the screen feels all too overcrowded at all points in time. At many points in the movie I found myself forgetting that some of the other "villains" even existed, such as Katana (Karen Fukuhara), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Diablo (Jay Hernandez), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). However, the writers did reserve some decent motivation and development for Deadshot and Harley Quinn who were brought to life by Smith and Robbie, respectively. They seem to be the only redeeming pieces of a film that possesses a sub-par script and plot. The biggest disappointment in terms of characters came from The Joker (Jared Leto). The trailers seemed to make The Joker out to be a major part of the plot, but he hardly spends 7 minutes on screen. Leto's portrayal doesn't fall that flat, but the over-inflated PR campaign that focused on his presence could only lead to disappointment.
"Suicide Squad" desperately tried to capitalize on what made Guardians of the Galaxy so great, but their lack of character development leaves the audience wondering why they should care about the characters on screen. This, mixed with flat jokes and a villain so bad that we yearn for Ledger's Joker or even Bane, inevitably leaves the viewer disappointed.