I hesitate to write this since there are already so many reviews for Suicide Squad (2016). There are many rumors going around on how this movie was put together and I will go over that shortly. How was the movie? "Meh".

When the trailer came out for Suicide Squad people started getting excited. The trailer used classic songs from Queen to show how much 'fun' this was going to be. This is in direct response to the comments of DC movies being dark and dreary. After Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool, it appeared that audiences wanted something a bit more funny and light but also with just a hint of grittiness. So what is a movie studio to do if you have a dark and gritty movie but want something a little more fun? Reshoots!! Yes, there were many reshoots for Suicide Squad and now I know why.

Oh yea, the movie summary...Amanda Waller has decided to create a team, a team of super villains and have them fight for good. That is a very simple explanation of the plot. For this movie, that's enough. Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) are our main characters here. They carry the movie and are the best things about it. We get to know both of them and see their motivations. The Joker (Jared Leto) is also quite good and has a new take on the Joker character and steals every scene. My last shout out goes to Diablo (Jay Hernandez) that brought some humanity to the film. So, those were some good characters to the film. Let's find out what went wrong?

In May of this year there was a test screening in Northern California. I was actually notified of a secret screening for a summer movie but I couldn't attend. Now I'm bummed because it was most likely for this movie. BUT, here's the catch! There were two cuts of the film brought before test audiences. One was the original director's cut by David Ayers. The other was a cut by the same company that made the trailer that everyone went nuts over. They showed both films and received comments from both. The studio took all the comments and then tried to piece this film together hoping to please the audience. The result was an editors nightmare.

This movie is so disorganized I'm surprised we can follow the plot at all. Luckily going into the film I already knew the basic storyline. Bad guys are forced to serve the government or be killed. What we got was an intro to some of the bad guys (I guess those that were getting paid the most and important to the story). Other members of the squad just show up. No explanation why. They are just there and part of the group. Flashbacks are random in places were they could have been much more affective at the beginning. There seemed to be several different editing styles and different parts of the movie. It feels like 3 or 4 movies all crammed into one. And in reality the editing wasn't that good. There are soldiers that follow the squad and sometimes they just disappear and then show up again. They suddenly have suba equipment to use. From one room to the next you never know if this is a continuous scene or something completely different.

Maybe I'm being a little over the top critical. After watching movies my entire life and seeing a normal Act I, II and III (setup, controversy and conclusion) storyline that works, Suicide Squad throws that out the window and splits up Act I into many flashbacks and dialog that just doesn't work. Act II is non-existent and Act III is laughable...especially our villain. We literally had people laughing at the villain in the middle of serious scenes because her movement was so ridiculous. That's not the type of fun and lightheartedness audience was looking for. This was not the villain I was hoping for.

This should have been a Suicide Squad vs The Joker movie. That would have made much more sense especially with Harley Quinn. Most of the Suicide Squad don't have super powers...why do you send in a bat-wielding Harley Quinn vs some super magical villain in the first place? What a mess. I will say this, it makes Batman v Superman feel like a much better movie. Obviously I can't recommend this movie but if your reading this you've probably already have seen the movie since it did well at the box office and especially overseas. If you like it, great. It was a fast paced shot-em-up anti-hero movie. It could have been so much better. I would have just rather have seen David Ayer's version and let the cards fall where they lay.