I could not stand Suicide Squad.

Yeh she's gorgeous and a really good actress and I wanted to see it for her despite being told it was terrible but I dont think I even lasted 30 minutes.

Robbie does pretty well with what she was given but it's not enough. It also sucks that her character does absolutely nothing in the way of development.

If they'd tried to tackle the abusive relationship in any way at all I'm sure she would have knocked out of the park.

I completely agree with you. For me the movie was a mess. Quite a few likable actors are there but still through out the movie was blunt. BvS was also not very good but at least there were couple of good scenes. There is not a single sequence or dialogue or character in Suicide Squad that I liked.
I don't really understand what DCEU's plan is. They are trying to catch up with MCU but unlike MCU they are not taking time to build the characters. MCU had two Iron Man films, One hulk, one Thor, one Captain America movie before they made The Avengers. DCEU started in 2013 from Man of Steel. Then BvS, developing a different type of batman, setting up Justice League movie, introducing Wonder Woman, showing conflict between Batman and Superman. Then there comes Suicide Squad, introducing a truck load of characters we never saw in big screen.
I also think DCEU is really struggling with the tone of their movies. Man of Steel suffered from Post-Dark-knight-Triology-Syndrome. Then from the third act of BvS they are trying to make it little funny, throwing small jokes here and there. Tone of Suicide Squad was all over the place. Now what I saw in Justice League Trailers, they toned it down quite a bit. I am not sure how batman is going to work in that tone. If they also screw up Justice League, I am done watching DCEU movies.

I should have given up on DC after Batman/Superman but I'm a nerd so I'll be there opening day for JLA.

Or, well, opening weekend.

Not seen it. It just doesn't appeal to me. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to my comic book films, as in, I mainly stick to the ones that I was familiar with as a kid.

__________________
"I don't want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me" (Frank Costello)

He catches one while Katana is holding the sword to his throat

I thought him not getting a little "reward" was down to Waller's view of his contribution?

It's seems like we are meant to assume that, but with all the other editing problems in the movie, they never establish the set up for the pay off at the end. Thus, like so many other things in the movie, it seemed random and incongruous.

(As you can probably tell, I just watched the guy with the beard video - I was glad to see he addressed my earlier point about the illogic of a team of low-level, mostly powerless criminals being formed to combat gods or mega-powered superbeings.)

I'm at work so i gotta wait to watch beardy

I think with things like that, it doesn't matter about setting it up for a pay off etc, why not leave it as something for the viewer to think for themselves?
for other things, not so much though

Well, having read the original comics, the playful enmity between Waller & Boomerang was one of the memorable aspects of the series. In fact, Boomerang was one of the stand out, mainstay characters that gave the series personality and made it unique. It's too bad that despite both characters being in the movie, they totally failed to develop this relationship that kept the comics alive and under-utilized the character of Captain Boomerang.

Also - why the randomness of having Katana in this movie? Yes, I know, another female - and a two-fer at that: a female and ethnic minority. It seems she was placed here for reasons of quota. Unless she became part of the team in modern times, I never read any SS comics where Katana was on the team (she was a member of the Outsiders). And ultimately, she seemed pointless in this movie.

There are a lot of Courtney haters out there but IMO he was a highlight, it's only the first film so maybe further down the line they'll give him more? Why gamble building something between him and Waller if he's not well received and dropped for any sequels?

I don't see it as a gamble since it was one of the aspects that made the comic series memorable enough for it to warrant a feature film - so at worst, all it would do is please fanboys, at best it could have added a needed layer of humor, connection and depth to the movie & characters.

So what would you have sacrificed to allow the screen time for that dynamic? Waller/flag? flag/Deadshot?

I wouldn't even know where to start as the movie is just a jumbled mess as it is.

It's first problem is too many characters (yes, I know it's an ensemble / team movie), but that makes me wonder why throw in extraneous unrelated characters like Katana (or, as the guy with beard pointed out - the whole build up with the prison guard, Griggs, which is then just dropped and never followed up on. Or the inclusion of Enchantress' brother who just shows up at random and becomes an unnecessary co-villain). They could've cut any of the many dead ends that didn't go anywhere to establish the Boomerang / Waller relationship.

Also, instead of altering Deadshot's ethnicity, I would've substituted the Bronze Tiger (another SS mainstay) for Katana - he would've also served as a backup for Flag since he was a "good guy."

100% agree, I just don't think they'd swap any Smith/Robbie/Leto stuff for more Courtney

Bronze Tiger isn't as big a draw as Deadshot would've been either

No, but let's face it: more political correctness by turning another white character black. I'm saying cast Will Smith (or any popular black actor as Bronze Tiger), keep Deadshot (played by some popular white actor) and have Bronze Tiger serve as Flag's second in command (as in the comics) instead of Katana.

No offense to Katana - I like the character and you guys know how I feel about Japanese chicks! But she's never been a member of the SS and I just looked her up to find she was only placed on the team in the comics recently in preparation for her appearance in the movie. (I hate when comics make alterations based on movies - since the movies are usually just alterations made to the comics!)

Deadshot is actually Latino in the comics.

It's not political correctness, it's just not giving a crap what race they cast for a white role in the comics, it's not like they had a list of black actors they were thinking of for Deadshot

Of course they added Katana to the lineup now, there are people picking up comics because of the film. This is this generations lineup, times they are a changing

It's pretty clear they got Smith as an audience draw. Who gave a s*** about Deadshot? Why not get one of the most recognizable movie stars around to play it.

Meh. I'm old school.

I buy that Will Smith is a draw (that's why it would have been cool to use his draw to promote a lesser known character like Bronze Tiger).

I do believe PC is involved whenever they alter a character's race - because it's always in the direction of changing an established white character (you never see a black character turned white). So it's quite obvious that the intent is not to find the best actor for a role, but to diversify the cast. Now, I understand there have always been far too many white characters due to whites dominating every industry from movies or comics - but I'd much rather see additional new characters of color or even more preferably, see established characters of color brought to the big screen. Here was a perfect opportunity to bring a lesser-known, heroic black character to the masses in the form of Bronze Tiger but instead... they "blew it, capisce?"

in 50 years time we'll have a white Blade, a black Batman, an asian Iron Man and a female Thor on screen