Suicide Squad

When it comes to 21st century blockbusters, there's only so anti an antihero can be. And that's especially the case when it comes to comic-book movies, which are proving increasingly reluctant to hone anything resembling an edge.

So it's a tad misleading when Suicide Squad — based on a team of characters that has appeared in the pages of DC Comics — regularly refers to its motley crew of wrongdoers, press-ganged into taking on the types of villain everyday heroes just can't handle, as "the worst of the worst" or (far more frequently) "bad guys".

Sure, they have chequered pasts, even a bit of blood on their hands (as much blood as a mainstream, M-rated superhero movie will currently allow, that is). But for the most part, the members of the movie's 'Task Force X' come across as just a bit rowdy and a little misunderstood — larrikins more than loose cannons.

If that was Suicide Squad's only problem, well, it's something that could be worked around. But this movie is rife with problems, some of which feel like the result of re-shoots and re-edits (honestly, there's an occasional incoherence that only comes with last-minute tinkering) and some of which feel built-in from the beginning.

Worried about the emergence of 'meta-humans' with extraordinary abilities and possibly hostile intentions, cold-blooded government shot-caller Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) comes up with a plan that's pretty good for a movie but kinda nonsensical in real life: you don't send someone good to fight someone bad, you send someone worse.

And so the squad is assembled: can't-miss assassin Deadshot (Will Smith), manic pixie nightmare girl Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), fair dinkum Aussie thug Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), witchy woman Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), human torch Diablo (Jay Hernandez) and walking, talking crocodile Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

But what do you know, their first mission is to go after one of their own who's gone rogue! So under the command of tough-as-nails soldier Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), they're off to the generic mean streets of Midway City to save the world from a threat that's poorly defined and not really all that threatening.

Speaking of not all that threatening, Harley Quinn's boyfriend, psycho-crim The Joker (Jared Leto), is also lurking around, angling for a reunion with his beloved. Let's just say Heath Ledger's incarnation of the character isn't going to fade from anyone's memory in the near future.

Something that will fade from memory fairly quickly, however, is Suicide Squad. Every creative decision made by writer-director David Ayer (the faux-gritty auteur behind self-consciously macho movies like Fury and End Of Watch) is hackneyed and dull, from the banal action sequences to the blindingly obvious soundtrack cues.

And while the actors work hard to liven things up, the majority of them are hamstrung by a lack of good material or a lack of screen time. Smith's Deadshot has something resembling a character arc, and he uses his movie-star presence to good effect, but most everyone else is left twisting in the wind.