Movie - Suicide Squad

Note:  There may be some spoilers throughout, but I will try to limit them to only what is necessary.

     I had some high hopes for Suicide Squad, and for anyone that has been reading my posts since March, you know that I actually did like Batman V. Superman.  With that said, I also had my expectations at a reasonable level for this movie, knowing that there was a very strong possibility that it would not be as good as I was hoping, but would be better than what the early critics were saying.  As it turns out, all of the above ended up being true, as I left the movie satisfied, but feeling like there was a lot of potential that just wasn't quite met.
     Let's start with the story.  While it was fine, it was nothing spectacular.  Based on the trailers, I thought that the Joker was going to end up being the main bad guy, and that the Suicide Squad was going to be deployed to stop him.  It turns out I was wrong about that, and I think that maybe the movie suffered some because of it.  The main bad guy ended up being a little obscure to the mainstream audience, and I think that really takes away from the film.  Having the Joker as the main bad guy would have really given some strong mainstream recognition, and I think would have gone a long way to giving the movie some extra legs that I think it will need to be truly successful.
     As far as the setup for all the characters in the movie, they did pretty good with most of them, especially the two main characters of Deadshot and Harley Quinn.  It was very evident early on that they would be the main focal points of the film, and both characters were executed and developed appropriately.  The other characters were also given their backstories, but they really took a backseat to the main characters, and that is fine with me.  I think each character got the time and focus they deserved, and it allowed the movie to flow a lot better and make more sense than a lot of critics are giving credit for.
     The performances were pretty well done by the actors playing each character as well.  I was especially impressed with Margot Robbie and Will Smith in their respective roles, which is to be expected from these two solid actors.  I was a little hesitant with the casting of Will Smith at first, but I think he did the character justice.  I also thought that Joel Kinnaman was good with the role he was given, but I do think he could have been given a little more to do, since he was technically the leader of the group. 
     Lastly, Jared Leto as the Joker.  I thought he was fine, but I think we all knew that he could never live up to the performance given by Heath Ledger before his untimely passing.  Leto definitely took the Joker in a different direction, and for that I give him a lot of credit.  There have been several very good versions of the Joker, so he knew that he had to go with a different take to make it stand out, and he did that well enough.  My biggest complaint, I think, is that he really wasn't in the movie that much.  I thought he would play a much bigger role, but it turned out that he was really just there to help further develop Harley as opposed to standing on his own so much, so I would need to see more from him to be able to fully tell what my thoughts on his version of the character are.
     As the credits rolled, I thought to myself that it was a solid movie, but that it wouldn't really resonate with me for a long period of time.  It ended up being a typical summer blockbuster type movie, and while it did that well, it is supposed to be a jumping off point for where the DC universe is headed next, and in that regard, I don't think that the movie felt big enough.  Much like how BvS was a lot of setup for things to come, this one felt like just a bridge in between that movie and where it is headed next.  As I mentioned above, I was satisfied with the movie as a whole, but I think that there was a lot more potential that wasn't realized fully in the movie, and I just hope that the potential can carry into the next couple of movies and really lead somewhere as opposed to just spinning it's wheels in one place.

My rating for the movie is 7/10