To say that the DC Comics Cinematic Universe has gotten of to a sputtering start would be a colossal understatement. Starting with Man of Steel in 2013, which was not a bad movie at all, DC has struggled much more than its rival, Marvel. While Man of Steel was fine, it was not as much of a smash hit as Marvel’s first outing, Iron Man, which went on to make more than $1 Billion dollars at the Box Office.

Now, three years after MoS was first released, we are at a pivotal crossroads for DC. This was supposed to be the year that they caught up to Marvel with the releases of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. BvS was supposed to be the jolt that DC needed to catch up and Suicide Squad was supposed to be seen as the red-headed stepchild in the DC Universe.

All of those plans when BvS was poorly received because of things like the fact that the plot was a mish-mash of nonsensical plot points that were jammed together with Zack Snyder’s trademark slow-motion action.

After that, all the pressure was put onto Suicide Squad to be the great movie to give a jolt into DC’s Cinematic Universe.

Which is not fair at all, and the early reviews reflect the pressure that was put onto this movie unjustly.

To also be the Devil’s Advocate, a movie that features an appearance from The Joker after Heath Ledger’s incredibly brilliant performance as the psychopathic criminal. So, there the movie was already going to be under the microscope before BvS flopped the way that it did.

It does not deserve the current rating of 26% that it has on Rotten Tomatoes, it is not that bad, but it is not perfect.

For those who do not know, Suicide Squad is about a group of supervillains in the DC universe who are brought together and forced to complete incredibly dangerous missions that the likelihood of them surviving is slim to none, hence, the name Suicide Squad.

For every good thing about this movie, there is a bad thing, as is the case for most movies that come out today.

Some examples of this can be best seen in the cast and their respective parts that they play, how the plot plays out and the sheer amount of music used in this movie.

Will Smith (who, in my opinion, really needed a good performance to redeem himself for After Earth) portrays the character Deadshot. He is a hitman who never misses any shot he takes. Smith absolutely nails the part and brings some well-needed levity to some of the most serious parts of the film as well as being flat out cool in some scenes. Cool is the best way I can put it because that’s what Will Smith does best: cool.

Margot Robbie was absolutely amazing as Harley Quinn. She completely nailed the look, accent, and spirit of the former Psychatrist who falls head-over-heels for The Joker. Her stand out scene for me was a scene where she goes into an elevator by herself and is attacked two seperate times by villains and she handles them all by herself. After handling her business, she blows her hair to the side like it was no big deal, which was absolutely perfect.

Viola Davis plays Amanda Waller, the woman tasked with bringing all of the criminals together. She absolutely nails it, she is Viola Davis, after all, and she has the intimidating force behind all of this down pat. She masterfully controls the whole operation with emotional control and manipulation, especially with Col. Rick Flagg, the “leader” of the Suicide Squad.

In addition to these strong performances, David Hernandez comes out of nowhere and gives an incredible performance as Diablo, a fire controlling demon with a dark past and a newfound pacifist approach to his life.

Now, onto the bad things.

The main villain of this movie is Enchantress, an ancient witch who controls the body of Dr. June Moone, an archelologist. Both parts are played by Cara Delevingne, who is a very recent model-turned-actor. Her performance as June Moone is fine, she gets the emotion of a woman possessed by a witch down fine. Her performance as Enchantress, however, is a totally different story. The majority of her time is spent wriggling around the floor and it is not an easy part for any actress to do, but, I felt that she was not ready for this responsibility and the final product is reflective of that.

Now, I am going to disclose the plot of this movie, and see if it is something you’ve heard or seen before. A character who is close to one of the main characters takes something of a MacGuffin and uses it to open up a portal into the sky and summon an otherworldly army to destroy humanity. The only way to stop it is to have a team of people with otherworldly abilities to stop them from doing their evil plan.

That is the plot of Suicide Squad, but it is also the plot to The Avengers.

It is frustrating to see that in a movie that came out 4 years after the film it took from.

The last thing that frustrated me was the sheer use of music in this film. Now, do not get me wrong, the music that was used was good, much of it was stuff I really enjoyed. But at a certain point, it seemed like overkill, to give an idea, within the first 15 minutes, 5 different licensed songs were used to introduce the different characters, which was fine, but then there even more music used to bring the movie from one set piece to the other. In filmmaking, music is supposed to be used to convey emotion, whether it be through score or soundtrack, and this movie had a lot of both. It used music so much that it seemed like it was using the awesome music in it as a crutch for making up not knowing what to do with the story or the characters.

So, in conclusion, Suicide Squad is a fun movie that is perfect for its release date, but it is not perfect. At the same time, it does not deserve all of the criticism that it has been getting early in its run in theaters. Bottom line is: go see this movie. It is by far the best movie that DC has put out at this point and it’s worth the money, even though it is not perfect.