If you ever needed a lesson in not listening to reviewers and making your own mind up about a movie, this is it. The Suicide Squad is brought to life by David Ayer in this summer blockbuster. It is 2+ hours of hard hitting FUN, with incredible portrayals of comic book favourites. Will Smith IS Deadshot, Margot Robbie IS Harley Quinn, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje IS Killer Croc, Jai Courtney IS Captain Boomerang... and The Joker??? I WANTED MORE!!! Well the biggest compliment I can pay to Jared Leto is that I didn't think about Heath Ledger once, it was a completely different yet interesting portrayal.

In this fun action flick, the bad guys are sent to take down a greater evil. Critics of the big bad in this movie seem to have completely missed the point. The big bad in this movie is merely a plot device, to help us get to see our protagonists form as a team. If anything the real villain of the piece is the one who forms this team of misfits. Amanda Waller is portrayed DIABOLICALLY by the incredible Viola Davis [spoiler] and the part where she turns on and guns down her own employees is SHOCKING [/spoiler]. Complaining about the villain in a movie where the protagonists are bad guys is akin to complaining about the villain in Deadpool... THAT'S NOT THE POINT OF THE MOVIE!

This movie leaves you with a thirst for more of these characters, and some shots [spoiler] such as when Will Smith is stood on top of a car and gunning down henchman after henchman after henchman [/spoiler] look like they have just been ripped out of a comic book and put on screen by the wonderfully talented David Ayer.

If you are a comic book fan, or a DC movies fan, heck even if you are just an average movie watcher... watch this movie! It is SO MUCH FUN!!!

UPDATE: Just seen the Extended Edition and I really enjoyed the new scenes. This extended version doesn't change the nature of the movie in the way the Ultimate Cut did for BvS but I found it let's the movie breathe a little and solves some of the editing problems people complained about. I still love the theatrical release but my recommendation is to watch the extended version of this movie!

Just got back from seeing this. Here is what I'll say right off the bat: It's not nearly as bad as I anticipated based on the reviews going in. If the entire film was exactly like the first 30 minutes, I would LOVE this movie. Sure it would have been 2 hours of set up, but how much fun was that first 30 minutes?!

THE GOOD
Harley Quinn. Robbie lives up to the hype on this. Seeing the ads I wasn't head over heels. I just wasn't seeing the charm of it in short bursts. But seeing the movie totally reminds me of watching the animated series, which I haven't revisited in awhile. Makes me want to go back. She was the best part of this movie.

Will Smith. I imagine fans of Deadshot will have plenty to say about what he got wrong about the character. I didn't know Deadshot existed until this movie. I'm not a huge comic book guy anymore, so I was going in blind on this. I loved him. I thought he was great. Still not 100% the Will Smith I want to see up there, having a blast, but this was pretty damn close.

The music. They went the Guardians route with the soundtrack and it works. I'm a sucker for a recognizable old jam in a movie and there are plenty in this.

Ike Barinholtz. Big fan of this guy and he's friggin' hysterical here. He was a big part of that first 30 that I loved so much. Seeing him interact with Harley, etc, was great.

THE BAD
Everything after the 30 minutes of "We're putting together a team." Once they're assembled and the completely ridiculous plot begins, and the long stretches of boring make you even more aware of how many leaps you have to take to believe the plot, the more checked out I became. I know you have to allow some suspension of disbelief in these kinds of movies, but this one asked a lot.

Insanely subpar CG. What the hell was going on with the look of the villain? These were Mummy-level "The Rock's face pinned to a blurry CG body" effects. Just baffling.

The end was the same as every single one of these movies, whether they're good or bad, it's just a group of characters who have to use their skills to battle a CG monster, each of them fail until for some reason the last big thing they do works. Whatever. Also the end look of how the power was shooting out of the building looked very Ghostbusters (any of them really).

The Joker. Look. His Joker was just fine. I liked his look, he was even being kind of crazy sometimes. But for the amount of screen time he actually gets DOES NOT equal the amount of articles I had to see about this dude pranking people on set and being disgusting and sending gross gifts to Viola Davis blah blah blah. Seriously, the PR train on this has been going strong for what feels like a year and a half and it all amounts to....15 minutes, all together? Sure sure this will set him up for other stuff but come on. So many articles about him being in character and pranking. So many. The other actors had to hate it. Especially considering the fact that they BARELY share the screen with him! It'd be like Jeremy Irons pranking the shit out every single cast member in BvS "for his character." Lawrence Fishburn would not stand for that shit.

Anyway, I didn't completely hate it. I had fun sometimes. I laughed at things they didn't want me to laugh at sometimes (so did the rest of the theater). But it wasn't the worst.

How was it? Well, I can relate to the suicide part of this movie title.

David Ayer, Director of "End of Watch and "Training Day", had the opportunity to subvert expectations and deliver a story that had not been done before, however, what we got was a predictable, boring mess of a movie trying to be too hip for it's own good. This cringe fest of a movie fails at nearly every to turn make itself standout and original in comparison to other superhero movies flooding the market, with the direction, cinematography and tone screamed bland and uninspired. In terms of camera work, the movie seemed to have some of the ugliest camera shakes during fight scenes and an extremely high opacity rating that made the whole film seem like it was taking place at 2:00 at night. All of that together made this movie a painful experience to look at.

In terms of narrative structure, I can't really talk about it as the movie doesn't have one. The jumbled mess of a plot makes this movie just feel like one long scene, making it just a dull rollercoaster ride. The plots constant reincorporation of a characters past and someone he cares about is so painful. We are constantly reminded that, "Hey! he has a child" making his character development center around one person and not his actual personality. Also character development was completely missing, and I didn't care about a single one of the characters. Looking at this movie, I'm not really surprised there were reshoots and script changes.

In terms of acting in this movie, it's kind of a mixed bag. Will Smith, Viola Davis and Jai Courtney (surprisingly) did a decent job, Margot Robbie, however, just played an obnoxiously annoying joke dispenser with some of the cringiest attempts at humour that I have ever seen. Now, Jared Leto as the joker had alot of controversy around it, AND had to live up to the previous performance of the late Heath Ledger. A hurdle to overcome I'm sure but he missed the mark completely for me. Playing a version of the Joker that is extremely poorly acted. Maybe it's the director or the editors fault, but his performed made him seem like a man pretending instead of him becoming the character. It also didn't help that the writing of the movie was so stale, unfunny and blatant that it seemed like it was written by HAL 9000, and doesn't have a a quality to it that doesn't feel unnatural.

The music choices used seemed like choices from a 16 year old teenaged girl would use interlaced into scenes that could of done with music that actually suited the scene or no music at all. Every choice seemed obnoxious to me. As well as that, the editing was absolutely atrocious, with either continuity issues or edits that scream out "I'm trying to be hip and cool!" with absolutely no sense.

If you enjoyed this movie, please don't let me stop you. But as for me, it's a boring mess thats been added to a pile of forgettable comic book movies.

**Suicide Squad could have been more if the studio hadn’t interfered in production, but what we got still entertained and debuted some amazing actors bringing these wild characters to life.**

The Suicide Squad comics are some of my favorites. C-list villains are forced to run shady impossible missions for the government with the hopes of having their prison sentences reduced. The comics were so fun because everything was so unpredictable, with characters dying in almost every comic. So seeing those comics come to life was an absolute delight for me. Unfortunately, the unpredictability was minimized, and the plot was fairly cliche, but I still loved this movie. Will Smith as Deadshot brought real swagger to a less-developed character. Margot Robbie’s debut as Harley Quinn took everyone by surprise, bringing Harley to live-action with near perfection. Viola Davis as Amanda Waller was a brilliant casting as well. Finally, I enjoyed the faceless monster villains as canon fodder for the Squad to demolish effortlessly, showcasing their skills at violence. I understand that Suicide Squad wasn’t the greatest comic book movie of all time, but it gave me what I expected from the film and more because of the exceptional casting.

Summertime 2016 has not been very kind to DC Comics-based personalities looking to shine consistently like their big screen Marvel Comics counterparts. Following the super-sized dud that was _Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice_ released a few months ago must really put some major pressure on Warner Bros. to gamble on ensuring that the presence of **Suicide Squad** does not meet the same kind of indifferent reception. Well, it turns out that although the anticipation was high for writer-director David Ayer's supervillain saga involving high-powered imprisoned rogues recruited as U.S. governmental operatives out to stop other skillful baddies (as it was for Zack Ryder's aforementioned "Dawn of Justice") the concoction of **Suicide Squad** feels like a colorful mishmash of collective misfits laboriously taking up space in a disjointed eye candy-coated spectacle that never manages to match its intended sizzle.

One would think that the premise for **Suicide Squad** would tap into the intriguing naughtiness with more robust gumption given the collection of super-powered oddballs asked to be immediate anti-heroes in this toothless jamboree of renegade rejects. Strangely, the grim and brooding presentation of **Suicide Squad** is more of an erratic downer than a hyperactive high-wire act as intended at the creative hands of Ayer. There is no reason why this lively group of adventurous agitators should appear so flat and inconsequential in a boisterous blockbuster that sporadically limps.

Given the twisted members that comprise this elite team of terrorizing tools it is very disappointing to see how **Suicide Squad** struggles with its so-called subversive themes. Sadly, this splattered mess never firmly grasps its bid for distinctive irreverence or off-balance exploitation. Instead, **Squad** feels strained in its execution and we are never really invested in entirely watching these treasured troublemakers find redemption because the story is soggy and uninspired. Furthermore, not all of the **Squad** participants are fleshed out satisfyingly for us to get behind with thirsty cynicism. The headlining leads in Will Smith's Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, Oscar-winner Jared Leto's green-haired Joker and Australian beauty Margot Robbie's Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn get the meaty standout parts while the lesser known supporting cast get stuck with chewing on the thankless remaining bone while seemingly acting as background furniture to the bigger names.

Naturally, desperation has set in for the U.S. government as they need to safeguard national security against advanced sinister forces that threaten the fiber of American self-interests everywhere. What better way to hire gifted protection than to consider employing the world's most incarcerated corruptible, cutthroat cretins to perform the dirty work in unforgivable mission ops that require death-defying determination. Enter U.S. Intelligence agent Amanda Waller (Oscar nominee Viola Davis). Waller's duties are to assemble the ragtag team known as the Suicide Squad--ominous (yet talented) jailbirds tapped to step in and assume superhero status (especially when the real superheroes are tied up in other crime-stopping affairs) while helping out for the greater good of our vulnerable society. In exchange for the Suicide Squad's sacrifice in turning from hell-bent heels to reluctant heralded heroes they are promised commuted prison sentences should they effectively defend and destroy the deadly foes out to promote heavy-handed havoc across the board.

Conveniently, bureaucratic bigwig Waller (through voiceover) introduces the Suicide Squad and describes what beneficial assets they bring to the turbulent table. Among the naughty notables include the well-known ace sniper Floyd Lawton/Deadshot as well as legendary lethal joy-boy Joker and his better (or perhaps worst half) in girlfriend Harley Quinn. The other toxic tag-a-longs along for the thrill ride of becoming rebellious rescuers include George Harkness/Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Chato Santana/El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Waylon Jones/Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana, Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman).

Overall, **Suicide Squad** is surprisingly depressing and goes through the proverbial motions without so much as taking advantage of its surrealistic makeup. The movie never realizes its excitable potential and drifts into yet another superhero yarn that is more patchy than pronounced. Smith's Deadshot is out in the forefront but for the most part feels restrained and not as spry and savvy as one would imagine. Leto's Joker obviously pales in comparison to the brilliant and mesmerizing psychotic take on the role that earned the late Heath Ledger his posthumous Oscar statuette. In all fairness, nobody could inhabit the Clown Prince of Crime as Ledger uncannily did with committed concentration. Still, Leto's Joker--although viciously off-balance--felt recycled and furiously empty at times. Robbie's turn as Joker's misguided main squeeze merely comes off as a bratty Barbie Doll with synthetic edginess. The other **Squad** participants settle for the back burner more or less which is a crying shame because they should have been more engaged than the tepid material allowed them to be initially.

Woefully sketchy and missing the fueled opulence that one would expect emerging from this cockeyed costume caper **Suicide Squad** is a detonating dud for the missing explosive DC Comics movie brand that needs to step up the pace if they expect to make a consistent and challenging impression on the devoted fanboys at the box office looking to move beyond the sardonic fantasy-based realm of another redundant serving of a _Batman/Superman_ entry.

**Suicide Squad** (2016)

Warner Bros.

2 hrs. 3 mins.

Starring: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margo Robbie, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Jay Hernandez, Jai Courtney, Scott Eastwood, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Common, Cara Delevinge, Karen Fukuhara, Adam Beach

Directed and Written by: David Ayer

MPPA Rating: PG-13

Genre: Superheroes Saga/Action & Adventure/Comic Book Fantasy

Critic's rating: ** stars (out of 4 stars)

(c) **Frank Ochieng** (2016)