Spoiler Alert!

With a marketing campaign that kicked off over a year ago the hype surrounding Suicide Squad, DC’s villainous team-up, had reached boiling point ahead of its release last week.

Having promised so much the film had a lot to deliver!

Unfortunately the problems start early on…

Introducing all these new characters was always going to be difficult and the issue here is that Suicide Squad simply can’t decide how it wants to go about it – a problem that puts the film on the back foot from the start.

Instead of a straight-forward approach the film jumps about, introducing two of the characters twice, revealing  backstory for some and none for others before descending to the point where Slipknot is simply introduced as the guy who climbs stuff.

Director David Ayer has admitted that there were several versions of the movie on the go at one point and it feels like these versions have been badly pulled together to create the finished product.

All the chopping and changing leaves the audience confused. Throw in a bland relationship and a lackluster military man and you’re left wondering where is all the craziness the trailers promised.

It’s not until the action really gets going and the Squad enters Midway city via a crashing helicopter (note: Ayer likes to crash helicopters) that things begin to pick up.

The early focus of the Navy SEALs on their mission juxtaposed with the Squad’s focus on escaping makes for some nice moments as but it is quickly cut short by the first encounter with a faceless enemy.

It’s simple really Suicide Squad’s biggest problem is its characters.

The majority of  players are either confined to the background, painfully two dimensional or simply uninteresting (sorry Rick Flag) with few treated well by the script.

With a daughter whose expectations he wants to live up, Deadshot has the potential to be the heart of this rough group. Yet not enough time is spent on this backstory to give it any weight when it comes to the film’s climatic scenes. Combine this with a character that is unfunny (you had Will Smith guys) and its just not enough.

Likewise Diablo’s tragic family background should be the emotional core of this film but falls flat, in part because of where its placed and partly because the character doesn’t really do a lot.

One of the characters that does shine is Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. A complicated mix of strength, vulnerability, sass and downright craziness, Robbie really pushes the limits and builds a character with depth. Unfortunately the filmmakers conspire against her, while Quinn uses her sexuality as a weapon (to a point) far too much time was spent on the sexualisation of the character (did we really need that many shots of her backside) that it begins to wear thin well before the film’s end.

Robbie’s interactions with Jared Leto’s Joker are highlights of the film but disappointingly the latter is pushed to the sidelines, making very little impact on the plot or any other characters, despite the suggestions of the trailer.

The protagonists aren’t this films worst problem.

If you are going to bring together’s DC’s worst of the worst then you need to give them a kick-ass bad guy to fight – one worthy of causing this group to team-up.

Unfortunately that doesn’t happen and instead we’re left with CGI’d godlike being’s with vague motivations and annoying computerised voices. This is not only frustrating to watch but it makes the big finale feel anti-climatic as the threat level feels so low that there is no pay-off for audiences.

Following the overwhelming criticism of Batman V Superman both Warner Brothers and DC had a lot riding on Suicide Squad and despite being a better film than its predecessor (not exactly difficult) it’s still a mess that leaves a lot to be desired.

Those in charge of  DC ‘s Extended Universe appear to have spent too much time worrying about Marvel and not enough time focusing on what really matters, plots and characters.

Here’s hoping Wonder Woman marks a change.

E