14 Simple Fixes That Could Have Made Suicide Squad Awesome

Incredibly, there is a great film lost in Suicide Squad. It's just so clouded over by poor decisions and ridiculous, jaw-dropping moments of stupidity that it's impossible to actually notice it for the most part. The characters are mostly appealing, until you get into the substance of them, and they would have been better served by a more concise plot that didn't have false drama in for effect.

And even more pertinently, the film deserved to be critically acclaimed as an idea a hell of a lot more than the execution actually warranted. It deserved more care and attention than it got, and it deserved less of a messed up production, which more than likely doomed it from day one.

Since we're always accused of not being able to do better, it's time to actually test that theory a bit more. Because there are some pretty simple fixes - aside from simply fixing the awful editing and the tone generally - that could have made an awesome Suicide Squad.

So how do you save it? Well, this would be a good way to start...

The Problem

The Joker doesn't matter. Like at all. He's just there as a side-concern, whose importance was mostly removed in the over-zealous edit.

The Solution

Give him the top-billing he deserves.

It is preposterous to think that Ayer had the Joker at his disposal and chose instead to focus on a nefarious plot by Enchantress to reunite with her brother - a non-entity and mostly unheard of comic book villain - to get revenge on humanity for some reason or other. Whatever, it doesn't ring true.

Here's how it should have gone: Enchantress should have started as a member of the squad, rather than having Waller drop the ball and letting her escape, only for the Joker - still on a mission to reunite with his love - sabotages her from within to destabilise her. He already worked his way in with Griggs, but that ended only with a mobile phone being passed on - stupidly in other words. He should have been used to steal Enchantress' heart to give to the Joker, a far better story.

The Joker should have been the mastermind, pulling the strings to manipulate Enchantress into becoming a massive threat as a distraction to getting his Harley back. That would have removed the importance of Incubus (which the script never followed through on), would have removed the need to give Enchantress some hollow motivation, and would have celebrated The Joker as he deserved. It would also have actually validated his being there.