"Decent" film, in all meanings of the word. Avoid the trailers if you still can.

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2016)

This is a very decent film, and that is its problem. The feeling I suspect most will have after seeing it is: "Yeah it was good. *beat* But(!)...", this was not what I expected it to be.
Unlike The Other Anti-Hero Movie of 2016, you can tell that Suicide Squad was a corporate product and not one of enthusiasts and fans. There are heaps of experience and talent on the screen, supported by loads of money and production values, and this affects the film in a very positive way. But all of that is still very restrained. The story does not go out on a limb at any time, while most characters and their actors are completely under-used. This is most noticeable with Jared Leto that does not get to let loose as The Joker as much he could but instead gets relegated to be a crowd-baiting bolt-on. Only Margot Robbie gets to excel as Harley, and even so with a few caveats.
The story seems all over the place at first but once you reach the end you see that it is very safe "Good Guys Vs. Bad Guys" affair. Marketing tries to tell us that the Squad are baddies, but at the same time the character development desperately drives home the point — over and over — that all the protagonists are actually (kind of) good. It even gets to the point where Deadshot explicitly tells us that the Squad are "the bad guys", and it fails miserably; Will Smith does not a convincing baddie make. And when Harley is day-dreaming about being The Joker's loving housewife it feels like blatant corporate executive meddling in action, where you can sense how they flinched and winced at the thought of "bad" characters being the heroes. As such, this is not at all the anti-hero film that it was touted as, but instead a very decent — in the meaning "well-behaved" — film, and that is not what I came for.
Another thing that adds to the "But.." is that the trailers lead us to believe that the film will be a half-mad, full-tempo roller coaster ride. It is not that. That is not to say that the pacing is unfitting or wrong for the story, not at all. But it is different from what I was made to expect, meaning I came to the theater in the wrong mood, and that threw me off. After seeing the film I wish I never saw the trailers before I went.
In the end, Suicide Squad is a decent flick — in all meanings of the word — that could have gone at least two steps further. But the concept, the story and the characters were all put on a very tight leash. It is as if the film itself — just like the characters — is operating under a constant death threat from the leadership, forcing it to behave well and not stray.
Still, the film, the story and the actors all manage to perform admirably within their constraints, and as such I recommend watching.
Just do not see the trailers before you go.
Oh darn... too late.