Suicide Squad (2016)

I watched this film this weekend, not expecting very much. Everyone I had spoken to had panned it very severely, so my expectations were very, very low. I thought I'd heard somewhere that the extended version was better than the theatrical release: now, I'm not sure where I'd heard that or even if I had in reality. However, I decided to watch the extended edition because I had it on the blu ray. The films starts by introducing all the characters, the characters with bigger parts were more interesting. I thought that perhaps there were too many to remember. I like the way time was handled with flashbacks, I didn't have any problems understanding what was a flashback and what was now. The best character by far was Harley Quinn, stole the movie I thought as I wanted to see more of her. A great anti-hero character with the vulnerability of loving The Joker. Which brings me on to that which cannot be ignored: The Joker. Any new interpretation of The Joker will be "difficult". Think Joker and I cannot help think of Heath Ledger's terrifyingly unhinged vision, or Jack Nicholson's darkly comic version or Cesar Romero's slapstick version from the 1960s series. It is mainly a question for the casting team and sadly, I think the casting was poor. Nothing against the actor, who does his best, but sometimes it is nothing to do with script or the actor's ability - it's just down to believing that the person in the role has a believable amount of life experience to portray the character. I am more divided about Will Smith's portrayal of Deadshot. He plays it as Will Smith, who is a very likeable actor but it doesn't stand out as being any different from other characters Will has played. Yes we see the backstory and understand he loves his daughter but the character has to show complete disregard for human life and the desire to die in some spectacular fashion: neither of which were achieved.
So my verdict for this film is: watchable, but you will probably be left feeling it was a missed opportunity.