I have mixed feelings about this one.  On the one hand, it wasn’t as terrible as I thought it was going to be, based on the negative attention it’s been receiving.  (It currently has a 26% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.  The audience rating, however, is higher.)  On the other hand, I also wouldn’t call it an amazing movie either.

I think what surprised me the most was how little screen time Jared Leto has as the Joker.  Not sure how true the rumors are, but apparently a lot of Leto’s scenes were cut out, and there’s supposedly enough footage to create a standalone Joker movie.  For all the hype surrounding Leto’s preparation to get in character for the role, the ultimate lack of Joker footage only  seems to fuel the fire for those who were skeptical about the quality of Leto’s acting in the role.  (I admit, Heath Ledger is a tough act to follow.)  One fan is apparently so upset, he’s threatening legal action, though whether or not anything will come out of it is a different story.

Margot Robbie’s performance as Harley Quinn did not disappoint.  I had heard a lot of good things prior to watching the movie, and despite the fact that some fans might not appreciate the difference in costume, I don’t think it distracted or detracted from her acting in any way.  She was easily one of my favorite characters in the movie, the other being El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), who for some reason I thought was going to be played by the man who calls himself Zombie Boy (Rick Genest).  Hernandez’s make-up seems inspired by Genest, though.

The main villain, Enchantress, and her motivations as the antagonist didn’t really strike me ask anything interesting or unique—just another baddie seeking to wipe out the human race and take over the planet.  Viola Davis is a lot more interesting as the ruthless Amanda Waller.

My other main complaint with the movie is they really could have done a lot more with fleshing out the other characters like Killer Croc, Katana, and Captain Boomerang.  For some reason I felt like Will Smith had an awful lot of screen time as Deadshot, which may not be a complaint for some, but I found that it took away from getting to know the other characters, which I didn’t think was fair.  Hopefully, if there is a sequel, they will do a better job of preventing one character from seemingly overshadowing the others, like Marvel movies do.  Allegedly this is also why Tom Hardy walked away from his role as Rick Flag, to be replaced by Joel Kinnaman.  Funny enough, I initially confused Jai Courtney for Hardy; I found they resemble each other some.

The humor scattered throughout is cheesy/lame, which I’m perfectly fine with, but others might get disappointed by.  Some might also feel disappointed that this movie is rated PG-13 and not R, but as someone who cringes at the sight of chopped limbs and chunks of flesh (no matter how fake), the level of violence depicted and movie’s rating suited me just fine.

What surprised me the most was how much I enjoyed the movie’s soundtrack.  I don’t know why, but oftentimes I don’t actually end up noticing the music in movies.  I guess I get too absorbed in the story or the music gets buried under the sounds from loud action sequences.  In Suicide Squad, however, I noticed most of the underlying soundtrack throughout, and felt that a lot of the songs fit well with the scenes they played in.  Liked it so much, in fact, when I went home, I found the songs on Google Play and listened to the whole soundtrack.

Diehard DC fans will likely yet again be disappointed by inaccuracies or areas where the story is lacking.  It’s a shame because characters from the DC universe have such depth, but somehow they never seem to realize their full potential in movies such as this one.

Final Thoughts: I enjoyed watching this in theaters, but I also think one wouldn’t be missing out on too much just waiting for it to become available to rent.  I personally won’t be adding this to my permanent movie collection, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, if for some reason a group of friends wanted to go or rent the movie in the future for a night in.  If you do go watch it in theaters, however, there is an extra scene halfway through the credits, so be sure to stick around for that.  There isn’t anything extra after the credits are done rolling.