I was at war with myself when deciding to watch this movie. I found its marketing schemes mediocre. Then the pre-screening reviews start flooding in, and I'm left disheartened. Then comes all this conspiracy surrounding Warner Brothers and their failed strategies to resurrect the DCEU. So when I say I was at war with myself, I mean I was at WAR with myself. The amount of controversy surrounding this film was off-putting, and eventually I decided to give the Suicide Squad a miss this time.. However, with the luck of scoring a free ticket from a friend and the fact I wasn't doing anything else on a Thursday night, I figured I'd spend my time seeing what all the harsh criticism was about. Which brings us here: I thought the film was GREAT. Suicide Squad is entertaining. Its the breath of fresh air that the DCEU needed in terms of being more light and it truly delivers on that front.

Yes, the plot is generic. Subpar? No, but it is familiar. A band of super-villains with extraordinary abilities are blackmailed, and are forced to deploy and undergo missions whatever, whenever and wherever the government sees fit. In this particular case, they're assigned to a locate and extract task, which obviously turns into a "bites off more than they could chew" mission. Its fairly predictable, however it is entertaining. The film is more so character-driven than anything, and its awesome seeing such a contrast and dynamic between these characters and character interactions. I honestly find it hypocritical for people to slam an otherwise decent character-driven plot, when we've seen it before (Marvel's The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy). Sure, it has pacing and editing issues. I mean, sometimes the first act doesn't come until the second act, and the second and third act kind of collided, but that doesn't detract from its otherwise interesting concepts. It doesn't compare in the slightest to Fant4stic (which didn't even have a second or third act depending on how you look at it) - that shit is an overstatement if I've ever heard one. After reading so many negative reviews, I've yet to see explicit examples of its apparent decline. Suicide Squad actually held my attention from start to finish, unlike Batman v. Superman (including its Ultimate Cut).

I fell in love with almost every character. Slipknot is literally there as the expendable candidate, to support Rick Flag's earlier statement "You try to escape, you die". Someone had to die as a message that Waller means business. Perhaps they could've built his character up a little more, just to make his death a little more impactful on the team, but its really a minor issue for me. Katana and Rick Flag have a clear history that was left unexplored, and as with all ninja she is the silent type. Killer Croc didn't get much development, which was another complaint I repeatedly hear. *face palm* You don't really need to know who this guy is. He's like Suicide Squad's answer to Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, he's still likeable, in fact his first line (iirc) made me love him.

I loved Rick Flag, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Joker, June Moone and El Diablo. Each of these characters have great character moments and development. Harley Quinn stole the spotlight, in my opinion. She's juvenile. Dangerous. Sexy. Her subplot with Joker was different. You could really gather an insane chemistry between the duo. My favourite scene was when Harley was sitting on a car in the rain crying, then when she sees her team, she wipes the tears away and puts on a happy mask. It was a pivotal moment of grief. I thought Leto's Joker was more charismatic but also compares to Nicholson's Joker with being more intimidating than Heath's portrayal. I still think his laugh is trash though, but again, everyone was on point in my opinion. I wasn't disappointed with the lack of Joker time, because his appearance is really only a subplot, and I feel like any more would just detract from the entire team.

That's all I really have to say, so to tie my thoughts off: You're either going to hate it with a passion or absolutely enjoy it. In my opinion, I honestly feel like its the best DCEU film by far. Its a lot more upbeat than the trash Snyder has been pushing out - I mean, yes I love Man of Steel but even I can agree that its unnecessarily grim. The action in Suicide Squad is very entertaining and it was interesting to see how these inmates came together and became an actual team. I don't think the poor pacing and editing issues really hinder the feature THAT much. It wasn't as bad at Batman v. Superman and it sure as hell isn't as bad as Fant4stic.

I'm giving Suicide Squad a solid B.