Watching 'Suicide Squad' feels like a fitting start to Trump era

It was perhaps fitting that I finally saw the superhero film Suicide Squad right at the dawn of the Trump era. Here is film that was widely reviled by critics and audiences, yet somehow managed to triumph at the box office, and almost certainly will spawn a sequel. In other words, not unlike the new president, this movie 'won' in spite of itself.

I had been excited to see Suicide Squad when I saw the initial trailers, it seemed fun, and it also appeared to be a refreshing break from superhero genre orthodoxy. Some of the casting looked inspired -- Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in particular -- and I was prepared to assume that the unpopular (but also wildly successful) Batman vs. Superman was more of an anomaly than a trendsetter for DC Comics films.

When the reviews came out and Suicide Squad was mostly panned, I steered clear. It's hard for me to see anything anymore when people I respect come out so hard against it. And now that I've seen it I can safely say it's even worse than Batman vs. Superman, which I almost didn't think was possible.

Here's the thing, at least that movie had some ideas in it -- the execution is another story altogether -- but it had some solid action moments and at least some thought was put into its premise. Suicide Squad is a far more cynical endeavor, and what infuriates me most of all is that it had the potential to be good had the filmmakers simply been more interested in telling a story than bombarding our senses with special effects and mindless violence.

The movie's only saving grace is the always remarkable Viola Davis, who never loses her dignity and power as the badass Nick Fury-style assembler of the tag team of 'villains' who make up the title, Amanda Waller.

Her character is genuinely cool, fascinating and compelling and I truly wish they had hung more of the narrative on her shoulders since she is the only person in the film that feels fully fleshed out. The rest if a complete waste of time and money.

The casting - I feel for Will Smith. Once the biggest movie star on the planet, he has spent the last few years vacillating between poor attempts at Oscar bait and vehicles like this that try to reignite his standing as an A-lister. But he is not for a second scary or intimidating or even a little bit villainous. Margot Robbie may look her part, but her vocal tics and one liners are grating throughout.

Meanwhile, Jared Leto brings nothing new to the iconic role of The Joker. I suppose he tries to infuse the character (which has far less screen time than advertised) with more sex appeal than his predecessors, but he fell flat for me. It felt like someone doing a so-so impression of Heath Ledger. And then the rest of the so-called Suicide Squad had no dimension or appeal.

I thought this would have been/could have been an Ocean's Eleven-style caper movie, where each character has room to delineate themselves but this was character development for the hashtag generation -- just a list of attributes substituting for actual humanity. Almost from top to bottom, there are missed opportunities here.

The story - I couldn't tell you what this film is about if I tried. It takes quite a long while setting up the individual members of the squad, but I never fully understood why it was necessary for them to be brought together in the first place, or what their ultimate goal was. This was especially frustrating because this kind of film has been done so many times, and done well before (see The Dirty Dozen), but instead of making anything clear and concise, the film is over-edited within an inch of its life and murky when it should be simple.

The look - Which leads me to the cinematography. Director David Ayer borrows a page from the book of his producer (Batman vs. Superman director Zack Snyder) by making an ugly, dirty looking movie where the action is so awash in CGI business and literal darkness that it's impossible to follow and ultimately numbing. Even Batman vs. Superman had a few nifty action scenes, this film doesn't really have one, and the special effects are distractedly bad at times.

The Flash doesn't belong here

I feel like ever since Tim Burton's classic Batman, the makers of superhero movies often think literal darkness is the same thing as thematic darkness. Christopher Nolan's Batman films were brooding, intense and, at times, disturbing -- but I never was confused about what was going on and why.

The screenplay - But of course, this movie isn't really about anything, it's not even -- like most Marvel movies -- about having a good time at the theater with a little old fashioned escapism. It's about setting up future movies that will bilk mostly male, teenage audiences, who will see virtually anything based on one of their beloved comic books.

Hence the brief presence of The Flash in this film. As someone relatively schooled in comic books I instantly recognized this character and as someone who is all-too-familiar with the trope of placing Easter eggs in these films to set up future installments,

 I was annoyed by his presence, but then I felt a pang of sympathy for anyone who saw this film who wasn't read in. They must have wondered -- who is that? And, is that going to be explained of justified? This isn't an art film. It's a piece of commerce -- and a lazy one at that.

The future - And whether we like it or not DC is off to the races with its own expanded cinematic universe. Clearly they are hoping to replicate the success of Marvel, which has successfully rolled out close to a dozen (maybe more) films featuring their characters. But unlike those films, their first two forays have been lacking in humor and intelligence. And I have very low expectations for the upcoming Wonder Woman, not because I don't love the character -- I do, but that film is the brainchild of the same people behind this monstrosity, so I how can I be hopeful about it?

That's why it's fitting that I saw this film amid the disintegration of an era of hope. These films represent the worst of what is happening to mainstream American cinema. And I fear the trend may be irreversible.