DC continues the struggle of bringing its expanded universe to the silver screen with its second effort of the year, a cluster-fuck of half-baked ideas and even more unwelcome faces. It follows in the modern blockbuster tradition of cramming as much shit on screen as possible for a two hour running time. The dedication to this business model is admirable; set up anticipation with exciting and promising action trailer, clip the ticket on the way in, and laugh maniacally as the audience swallows up the two hours worth of shit that is on screen.

I agree, this is a particularly harsh interpretation of what the film was trying to achieve. I'm sure someone, at some point, wanted this to be a great movie. The film stinks of contamination from outside forces as it struggles with the weight of introducing as many iconic DC figures as possible. You'll easily forgive yourself when you ask "who the fuck is that?" every time a new character comes on screen as most characters are given little setup and even less motivation. Marvel has certainly had its influence as DC continues to force-feed us it's huge roster of heroes and villains.

Harley Quinn, for me, is the film's great achievement. Her insane and obnoxious personality helps take the edge off the mundane and laborious plotting on show here. A couple of others, Deadshot and Rick Flag, are serviceable. Leto makes his much-awaited Joker debut but, through no fault of his own, is given little purpose to the story itself. Nor was there enough screen-time for me to decide if I even liked his version of the Joker. Perhaps, the film's greatest injustice is the way it hastilly introduces the Joker, removing the mystique surrounding his character and reducing his presence to little more than a tacky cameo appearance.

Yet, the overarching question of the film still remains; what is even remotely useful about this group of villians, outcasts, and fuck-ups that justifies all the effort trying to make them a specialised combat team? Deadshot's supernatural aim may seem obvious, but for the rest I guess we'll just have to wait for the sequel.