Suicide Squad (2016) *

Margot Robbie is distractingly pretty, which is a good thing for “Suicide Squad.” She helps to distract, just a little, from the lame plot, brain-dead dialogue, and otherwise crappy acting in this rush-job film about D-list comic book anti-heroes.

Robbie plays Harley Quinn, the mentally ill former psychiatrist who is the Joker's gangster moll. She gets recruited, along with a handful of other bad guys, to form a super-squad, a-la “The Dirty Dozen.” Other members of the team include Deadshot (a sharpshooting assassin played by Will Smith), Killer Croc, Diablo, and the Enchantress (an ancient witch-spirit inhabiting the body of model Cara Delevingne). This takes place after the death of Superman, and the U.S. government is nervous about not having their super-soldier anymore. Nervous enough to sign off on Agent Amanda Waller's (Viola Davis) plan to reform this group of super-villains and get them to fight for truth, justice, and the American way.

Before Waller can even assemble the team and put them to work against an outside threat, one of their own provides a crisis. The Enchantress breaks free of Waller's tenuous control and sets to work destroying Midway City. Rather than giving Waller and the government second thoughts about Suicide Squad, this disaster provides the impetus for Waller to spring her other pet villains from prison and send them on their first assignment. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Joker (Jared Leto) is working to get his girlfriend, Harley Quinn, back.

I find it remarkable that “Suicide Squad” is written and directed by David Ayer. Ayer wrote the screenplay for 2001's “Training Day,” which is an excellent, tightly-plotted film. “Suicide Squad” is a complete mess. The film rushes through the origin stories for these villains, then becomes completely incoherent about basic things like the passage of time, the order of events, and basic character motivations. When some character development is belatedly attempted, it fizzles. Most of the actors, including Jared Leto, wander through the film like they are on sedatives. Will Smith and Margot Robbie make an honest attempt to give some life to their characters, but the script gives them little to work with, and Robbie's on-again-off-again Jersey accent is almost as distracting as her beauty.

To the extent that you can extract any theme from this incoherent plot, it is that the whole idea behind the film is ill-advised. Agent Waller should have known she wouldn't be able to maintain control of the Enchantress, who can travel through space and time in an instant. Unsurprisingly, she has minimal control over the other squad psychopaths as well. Suicide Squad is a bad idea for fighting evil, just as watching “Suicide Squad” is a bad idea for being entertained.

1 star out of 5