History YMMV / SuicideSquad2016

* WTHCastingAgency:
** A few were surprised that Will Smith landed the role of Deadshot due to the RaceLift involved. Furthermore, since initial buzz for the film centered on the actors approached while the characters were yet unknown, some expected he was going to play Black Manta or another black supervillain as opposed to a character who has appeared prominently on ''Arrow''. It should be noted that the role was met without controversy, unlike [[Film/FantasticFour2015 Michael B. Jordan being cast as the Human Torch]], but a bit of surprise from fans. Meanwhile, some are just unsure if he can pull off a villainous role that's so heavily against type. Fortunately, his performance was one of the film's main highlights.
** Largely averted with the rest of the cast, who have been more well-received as a whole than other casts hired for Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse productions.

** As already mentioned above, Jared Leto's Joker has become less well received by fans as the years went on, especially after the release of ''Film/Joker2019''. The decision to give him gangster-style bling, tattoos, metal teeth, and a wannabe-gangster personality has left fans incredibly unimpressed, feeling like they don't suit him at all, as well as the fact that many felt that Jared Leto's performance as the character just wasn't threatening and difficult to take seriously. That being said, Leto's return for ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', his redesign (which lacks the infamous tattoos), and [[spoiler: his chance to actually interact with Batman on-screen, combined with the less grating voice and memorably creepy performance]] [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap turned some fans around]]. With ''that'' being said, there's still many fans who remained unimpressed.

** Fans who were looking forward to Katana were disappointed with her relatively small role. Some sites even compared her treatment to that of ComicBook/JubileeMarvelComics from ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', another Asian superhero who fans were excited for but turned out to be fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Although she does get more of a backstory, and is at least involved in the central conflict to some extent.

** Although there are people who consider her to be a very stereotyped character (for her exaggeratedly Japanese theme), [[https://that-binese-guy.tumblr.com/post/149223968905/i-mean-ive-seen-the-mods-over-at-fhpoc-calling there are Asian Americans who defend Katana]] and consider her an excellent example of an Asian superhero who embraces her heritage without complexes.

* SoOkayItsAverage: Outside of critical reviews (which are almost universally negative), the general consensus from most is that it's not the best comic book movie out there, but it is watchable, has some decent action and does have some enjoyable parts due to the reasonably good acting. However, it was vastly undermined by a plot, incredibly poor editing, and [[FlatCharacter underdeveloped characters]].

** As already mentioned above, Jared Leto's Joker has become less well received by fans as the years went on, especially after the release of Film/Joker2019. The decision to give him gangster-style bling, tattoos, metal teeth, and a wannabe-gangster personality has left fans incredibly unimpressed, feeling like they don't suit him at all, as well as the fact that many felt that Jared Leto's performance as the character just wasn't threatening and difficult to take seriously. That being said, Leto's return for ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', his redesign (which lacks the infamous tattoos), and [[spoiler: his chance to actually interact with Batman on-screen, combined with the less grating voice and memorably creepy performance]] [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap turned some fans around]]. With ''that'' being said, there's still many fans who remained unimpressed.

** Within the larger MCU vs. DCEU rivalry is one between this film and ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' due to the perception that this film "ripped off" elements of ''Guardians'' such as the RagtagBandOfMisfits cast and contemporary rock soundtrack.

* InintentionalUncannyValley: [[spoiler:The Enchantress' visions showing Harley Quinn her fantasy, a normal life with Joker, marriage, kids and everything would not nearly be as unnerving as it is when we ''see the Joker as a normal man'' (no green hair, red lips and white skin).]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Judging from this movie's trailers, the film seems to be lighter in tone to ''Film/ManOfSteel'' and ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', even if it is dark comedy. In particular, the posters regularly utilize an eye-catching neon pink and blue color scheme, possibly as a reaction to criticism of ''Man of Steel'''s washed-out color scheme.
** Ever since the divisive reaction to the Joker's tattooed appearance in the first trailer, every subsequent trailer has been careful to show him with a fully covered torso (wearing a vest, a tuxedo, a purple jacket, etc.), as if to assure fans that his tattoos won't be visible for the entire movie. Moreso, his infamous "Damaged" tattoo isn't displayed too heavily due to a lot of his scenes being shot in dimly-lit settings.
** Similarly, there were complaints about Harley's redesign being too sexualized or different than her 90s harlequin outfit. [[spoiler:There is a scene with Harley in her traditional harlequin outfit with the Joker, and she {{squee}}s in delight when the suit is returned to her by Waller, even if she ends up wearing her redesigned outfit.]]
** Toward the beginning of the film, we see [[spoiler: Harley Quinn being saved from drowning by Batman, who actively works to save her life, before arresting her, and later takes Deadshot in alive, and even announces himself (rather than just ambush the villain, as he'd normally do) because Deadshot was out with his daughter and Batman didn't want to traumatize her, which seems to address the complaint about this version of Batman supposedly killing people, and also gives fans a glimpse of a more classical and moral Batman who turns criminals in.]]
** This trope has backfired for some viewers. For instance, the demand to be fun, colourful and jokey like ''Film/Deadpool2016'' or Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse films (which came mainly from clickbait sites instead of general audience goers) lead to what many consider to be a ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' ripoff.

* IdiotPlot: The movie only happens because nearly every character in it has no clue what they're doing. This is somewhat justified for the criminals on the squad, but for the Enchantress, Flagg, and especially Waller, it's pretty glaring:
** The formation of the squad:
*** The film states that the Suicide Squad needs to be formed because 'who would stop Superman if he turned evil'. This ignores the fact that 1) there are other Superheroes in this world (Wonder Woman, the Flash, etc) that would try to stop him, and 2) only two members of the Suicide Squad (Enchantress & Diablo) have any powers, and the rest of the squad aren't any better than regular soldiers when it comes to dealing with metahumans.
*** Waller justifies creating the team by saying that they have built-in deniability if they get caught using supervillains: they can throw the Squad under the bus and say they escaped and wreaked havoc. That's all fine, except, throw them under the bus for what? The plot of the film features a supernatural event that obviously couldn't be the fault of any member of the Squad. Also, if they get caught by who? The government can't criticise Waller's use of the Squad since she literally works for the government and could only start the team with government approval, and it would be difficult to claim innocence to the American public when the Squad was fighting alongside armed forces (meaning the government made no attempt to recapture them).
** Enchantress' backstory:
*** The Enchantress is only freed from her prison because June Moon, a trained archaeologist, somehow forgets that it's not a good idea to listen to the creepy whispering voice echoing around the cave, and the very first thing she does upon finding the Enchantress' tomb is break open the bottle containing her spirit (something an archaeologist would consider a priceless artefact), allowing the witch to possess her body - though it's possible that the whispering was actually hypnotising June into breaking it.
*** The only reason that Waller [[spoiler: falsely believes that she]] can control the Enchantress is because the Enchantress inexplicably left her heart in the tomb when she escaped. Why her heart was cut out in the first place is never explained, nor is it explained why she wouldn't simply carry it with her.
** The demonstration at the Pentagon:
*** None of the people Waller is presenting to finds it the least bit unnerving that Enchantress, Waller's "proof" of how capable the Suicide Squad would be, is barely controlled (Enchantress [[spoiler: refuses to back down until Amanda attacks her heart]]), and that her human host says that she 'can't transform into the Enchantress again' directly in front of them.
*** Waller's dossier on the Enchantress includes an image (and presumably hints to the whereabouts of) [[spoiler: Enchantress' brother]]. Considering how little control she has over Enchantress (above), you'd think she would think twice before putting all this information in front of her. This ''thoroughly'' bites her in the ass, as [[spoiler: Enchantress soon uses this information to find her brother's SoulJar and release him - kick starting the plot]].
** Flag and Enchantress
*** Waller actively wanted Rick Flag and Dr. Moone to get involved, even though he's her handler and thus the person who will have to put her down if she slips her leash. Anyone with half a brain would realize that's a task you want to give to someone objective. Amanda makes things worse by threatening Moone's safety in front of Flag - telling him that she'll be placed in a medically induced coma if Enchantress begins to act up. This, of course, comes to bite her in the ass since Flag doesn't report when [[spoiler:Enchantress goes missing]], out of fear for what will happen to Moone.
*** Although Flag not reporting it is forgivable since he's in love with her, less forgivable is the fact that other than one person watching her, there is zero surveillance on Moon/Enchantress. And Moon doesn't let anyone know that [[spoiler: Enchantress took her over, especially since it seems harrowing for her]] - though this again could be out of fear for what Amanda will do to her.
*** By the way, Enchantress' [[spoiler: freeing of her brother]] only worked because when [[GambitRoulette Rick tried to phone Waller, she was asleep and didn't hear her phone because it was on vibrate]], and because Waller had zero security measures protecting the [[spoiler: brother's SoulJar]] (it was on [[PricelessPaperweight a shelf in a store room]]).
** Enchantress [[spoiler: goes rogue]]
*** When Enchantress makes her [[spoiler: duplicity clear, Waller decides to stab the heart. Yay... except she just stabs it repeatedly with a tiny instrument, giving Enchantress enough time to absorb some of her brother's power and survive without the heart. Even if Waller didn't plan for that possibility, given her incredible power, her being off her leash for even a few seconds could cause catastrophic damage. You would think she would have a means of instantly terminating her. You know, like she does for ''everyone else in the Suicide Squad''.]]
*** It gets worse. [[spoiler: the means of instantly terminating her is ''built into the case'', in the form of the explosive charge taking up the other half of the case. The one that has to be disabled with Waller's thumbprint every time the case is opened. Literally all she had to do was open the case and wait for the bomb to go off. Maybe give it a toss through a window to save her own skin.]]
** Midway city:
*** Waller is in [[spoiler: Midway City. The entire mission is to get her out. It's never explained what she was doing there]].
*** After the extraction takes place, [[spoiler: Waller gets into a separate helicopter than the Suicide Squad, which means when the helicopter is shot down she has none of the help she'd personally invested in. This leads to her capture and Enchantress using her brain to attack several secret targets and create tempting illusions for the Squad when they show up.]]
*** The helicopter crew for [[spoiler:Waller's extraction from Midway City]] fire off bright chaff despite not facing a conventional foe, and all that does is draw attention, resulting in the helicopter crashing.
*** When [[spoiler:Harley attempts to escape, Waller orders Flag to kill her. He tries activating her implant, but the Joker has already disabled that. The possibility of shooting her, since she is only a few feet away, never seems to occur to him.]]
** Misc:
*** Did nobody seriously see Griggs give Harley a phone and ''loudly'' proclaim that it's from the Joker ''right in front of them''? Seriously, if anyone pointed that out, then the Joker's interference in the plot would have been minimal at best.
*** At the end of the film, Amanda [[spoiler: threatens to kill off the squad if they don't return to prison via their neck bombs. But Harley's neck bomb had been disabled by the Joker, so why didn't she kill Waller so she couldn't blow up the squad. Or failing that, why didn't she run and save her own skin?]]

* SoOkayItsAverage: Outside of critical reviews (which are almost universally negative), the general consensus from most is that it's not the best comic book movie out there, but it is watchable, has some decent action and does have some enjoyable parts due to the reasonably good acting. However, it was vastly undermined by a [[IdiotPlot clumsy plot]], incredibly poor editing, and [[FlatCharacter underdeveloped characters]].

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Harley having been involved in the Joker's murder of Robin was criticized by some as OutOfCharacter and something Harley would never do. In ''Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker'', Harley was willing to go along with the Joker kidnapping and [[MindRape mind raping]] the current Robin into becoming their child. If anything, murder is less awful than that.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Most of the time the Joker seems... not all there compared to Harley. In addition of psychopathic tendencies, the Joker has random bouts of maniacal laughter, confusion, and slurred speech-like patterns. All attributes that stem from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dementia_pugilistica punch-drunk syndrome]]. Considering he has faced [[GoodIsNotNice Batman]] one too many times, it makes sense that the Joker's mental stability is finally catching up to him.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: The attempt to make the squad come across as TrueCompanions rung hollow for many people given they have very few positive experiences with each other. El Diablo referring to the others as his family in particular comes across as laughable.

** For a real life example, Jared Leto ended up becoming this. Leto was criticized by many for his use of MethodActing where he went out of his way to torture his cast mates by sending them strange and gross “gifts”, which caused many to call him a tasteless AttentionWhore who gave method actors a bad name. Then there’s his actual performance, which was already poorly received when the film released, but as time’s gone on, even people who initially praised his work have done a 180 and ended up panning it. Once the film was released, Leto would go on to earn even more criticism for acting like a poor sport over his reduced role in the final cut, with many saying that his petty behavior came across as unprofessional. Then, after ''Film/Joker2019'' came out and was a huge hit, word got around that Leto was so upset about another Joker movie happening so soon after his debut as the character that he tried to stop the movie from happening, which made him look like a selfish ass. Things only got worse as Creator/JoaquinPhoenix was showered with praise for his performance, quickly overshadowing Leto’s recent work as the character, and even winning the Academy Award, in comparison to Leto’s Razzie nomination. All in all, many agree that Jared Leto is going to have a hard time living down playing this role. However, he's managed to slightly redeem himself with his appearance in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', where he was received more warmly.

* MisaimedFandom: When the film was released, plenty of merch circulated, particularly from Hot Topic, depicting Harley and the Joker as the ultimate crazy in love couple, even including bracelets declaring their relationship "goals." Someone over at Warners ancilliaries REALLY [[CriticalResearchFailure didn't do their research.]]

* UncannyValley:
** [[spoiler:The Enchantress' visions showing Harley Quinn her fantasy, a normal life with Joker, marriage, kids and everything would not nearly be as unnerving as it is when we ''see the Joker as a normal man'' (no green hair, red lips and white skin).]]
** On an unintentional note, the awkward effects on the Enchantress' empowered form make her face look detached from her body.

* MagnificentBastard: Floyd "ComicBook/{{Deadshot}}" Lawton is the deadliest hitman in the world. Deadshot sets the tone for his methodology when he cons a client out of double the money promised before sniping down his target with only mere seconds of a window available. Armed with an almost instinctual knowledge of firearms, physics, and mathematics, Deadshot applies his skills in battle to impressive extents regardless of the opponent or how chaotic the battle is. In the office building battle, when cornered, Deadshot--aware of Diablo's reputation--deliberately provokes him into unleashing his deadly fire to save the crew. A HitmanWithAHeart who loves his daughter and never takes contracts for women or children, Deadshot never lost any of his distinct style throughout the film.

** This trope was inevitable seeing that he's one of, if not the most, iconic villain in history, but the changes made to the Joker are [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive]] at best and [[DisownedAdaptation absolutely hated]] at worst. The character's traditional calculating and sinister personality is replaced by that of a generic gangster wannabe, complete with rapper-style bling and tattoos that most iterations of the character would never have. His usually tragically toxic relationship with Harley is also watered down to a version of the CrazyJealousGuy trope. Some also consider him to be annoying instead of intimidating.

** Batman and the Joker both make appearances, yet aside from a car chase scene they have zero interaction. Given that this Batman's StartOfDarkness was triggered in part by the Joker murdering Robin it just leaves a particularly juicy plot thread dangling. With Jared Leto expressing doubt over whether or not he'd appear in any future DC films, it seems like this plot point is going to stay unresolved.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The movie's soundtrack ended up winning the 2017 Kids Choice Awards for best soundtrack. Said soundtrack containing quite a bit of profanity.

* CriticProof: Despite the critical bashing it received, the film smashed records for an August opening and was able to keep its number 1 spot at the box-office for three weeks in a row. It wrapped up its run around $750 million. For comparison, direct competitors ''X-Men: Apocalypse'' and ''Doctor Strange'' (all three films from separate studios released within a few months of each other) got significantly stronger reviews (52 and 72 on Metacritic, to ''Suicide Squad's'' 40) and similar production budgets, yet only grossed $544 million and $677 million respectively. ''Suicide Squad'' also had [[http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Suicide-Squad higher]] [[http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Doctor-Strange-(2016)#tab=summary home]] [[http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/X-Men-Apocalypse#tab=summary video]] sales than either, by more than 2-1 in the case of ''Doctor Strange'' and 3-1 for ''Apocalypse.'' This is all without having been released in the huge, superhero loving Chinese market as well.

* FoeYay: Batman gets snogged by Harley Quinn while giving her the KissOfLife. From the disgusted look on Batman's face, the feeling is entirely one-sided.

** Creator/JaredLeto playing Batman's archenemy becomes this after ''Film/{{Morbius|2022}}'', where he plays a "bat man" of sorts (introducing spliced bat genes into his own body, becoming a vampire). [[spoiler:TheStinger of that film makes it even funnier when he meets Creator/MichaelKeaton's [[Film/SpiderManHomecoming Vulture]], essentially teasing a [[Film/BatmanFilmSeries Batman]]/Joker team-up.]]

* NeverLiveItDown:
** David Ayer repeating the fans' shouts of "Fuck Marvel!" at the film's premiere. The next day he promptly apologized, saying he got caught up in the moment and has nothing but respect for the MCU crew, but it's still being brought up as a sign of the FandomRivalry spilling into the actual creators on DC's side.
** It's very unlikely Jared Leto will be able to live down his panned portrayal of the Joker anytime soon, with people forgetting his prior accomplishments in favor of just hating everything he's in. And while ''Film/BladeRunner2049'' was a better-praised performance, it seems rather difficult he'll fully WinBackTheCrowd (not helped by 2018's ''The Outsider'').
*** His reputation took another hit in the wake of [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/youve-got-stop-jared-leto-fumed-new-joker-movie-1247699 reports]] that he was... less than thrilled about DC making ''Film/{{Joker 2019}}''.

* TooCoolToLive
** [[spoiler:El Diablo, who not only has fire-based powers, but also can turn into a freaking ''giant fiery skeleton'', makes a HeroicSacrifice.]]
** [[spoiler:Slipknot.]]

* ToughActToFollow:
** Like Creator/HeathLedger before him, Creator/JaredLeto has his work cut out for him to establish his own version of the Joker without being seen as too derivative of his predecessor. At the least, Leto had an Academy Award to his name before he got the part (for Best Supporting Actor, the same category where Ledger won posthumously for his Joker performance), so his ability to act isn't so much the question as much as the impact he can leave as the character.
** To a lesser extent, Creator/WillSmith as Deadshot, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang and Karen Fukuhara as Katana following after Michael Rowe, Nick Tarabay and Creator/RilaFukushima, respectively, in ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. The latter had the misfortune of being out of focus for a large portion of the film.
** Several reviews have wondered if the movie might have had better reception had ''Film/Deadpool2016'', which similarly deals with a violent AntiHero, not been released the same year.

* WhatAnIdiot: The film is strung together by many, ''many'' poor decisions by most characters, leading to an IdiotPlot.