I’ve been itching to watch DC’s Suicide Squad ever since I learned that it was going to be made into a movie because I wanted to see Jared Leto’s take on the Joker. The ensemble cast wasn’t too shabby either. While initial reviewers were mainly unimpressed by director David Ayer’s take on the comic book franchise, I still thought it was a pretty decent anti-hero movie.

Much like The Avengers, the government forms a group of the metahuman criminals to aid them in their battle against threats to the world that are far more powerful than your average terrorists. Enter Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) who forms the said team of expendables who will do the dirty work for the government. Tapped (or forced) to join the team are Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). They will take their cue from Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) who is leading the mission to save his girlfriend Dr. June Moone (Cara Delevigne) who is under the control of an ancient witch called The Enchantress, who seeks world domination.

There were a lot of things that were cool about Suicide Squad. The designs, the set and everything had a cool and gritty vibe to it, which managed to communicate the tone of the film. It was dark, yet funky and the Suicide Squad had their fair share of fun dialogue that offsets the general concept of the film. In doing so, the film managed to establish that the villains actually had a softer side, despite being, most of the times, caving in to their sociopathic tendencies.

Because Will Smith was obviously the biggest star to sign up for the film, it was understandable that he was projected as the group’s unofficial leader, and Harley, who is easily my most well liked character in this this film as his unofficial second-in-command. Will Smith effortlessly portrayed a dude from the streets whose only weakness was his daughter’s love and Margot Robbie was equal parts innocent and nuts. I loved her.

Even though there wasn’t enough time for the group to gel together before they were actually sent out out to the warzone so to speak, the film managed to establish their rapport in the middle of the battle so kudos to the filmmakers for that.

The film wasn’t without problems though. I thought that in order to establish the characters’ backstories, filmmakers had no choice but to incorporate their backstories in different parts of the film so there were monologues and dramatic moments that stuck out like sore thumbs during the breaks in the action sequences. There were also scenes that seemed too preachy, especially the part about El Diablo.

Filmmakers also made too much use of slow motion during the final battle scene which they may have thought would add to the sense of danger but really took away from the sense of urgency in the sequence.

In contrast, there was too little time devoted to the Joker storyline, perhaps to build interest in a possible sequel. It was such a shame because for a movie about a bunch of crazies, these villains were pretty sane and the Joker would have spiced up the story and the conflict tenfold.

All in all, Suicide Squad was a a far better addition to the DC franchise than Man of Steel of Batman v. Superman simply it married fun side and the serious side of the characters unlike the first two movies that bordered on depressing (how’s that for a superhero movie?) Ironic that the film should have been the darker and more violent installment since it topbills criminals but it managed to accomplish the opposite. Suicide Squad was not perfect, and was a far cry from any Marvel superhero movie, but it was stylish and it was fun for the most part and it was still interesting despite the cliches.