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Suicide Squad is a strange film to pin down. You look at all the advertising for this thing – the tagline of “Worst Heroes Ever” chief among them – and some of the choice clips that they used to sell people on the movie.

It’s no secret that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was rather… divisive in its reception. I made no bones about my disdain at the time for the film… mostly because I didn’t think it was a good movie. Because of that divisive reception, DC shifted gears for its upcoming line up. One of the films affected would be Suicide Squad, a film that had gone through a few phases before eventually coming out in August 2016.

I shared some thoughts on the film, which you can check out here. In short, I thought the film was fine, largely enjoyable, and probably the best DC movie up to that point because of it. I haven’t seen that movie since then and things have obviously changed quite a bit. We had another Suicide Squad film a few years ago from James Gunn, which spun off the John Cena starring vehicle Peacemaker… and of course, James Gunn is currently overseeing the entire slate of DC film and television production. Clearly, he must have done something right in making something involving John Cena that didn’t suck.

And then I come back to this Suicide Squad film, which had an extended cut released some time after the theatrical run. It largely retained some of the issues I had with the movie the first time. That is to say, I could have done without the wacky editing and musical inserts, which felt deliberately tacked on and not at all a natural part of the film. The attempts at adding a more lighthearted tone to a film that was clearly intended to be much grimmer in tone… doesn’t quite sit well with me. Levity is something that should be natural in regards to certain characters – Superman, for example.

But with Suicide Squad, you kind of want that darker tone. These reprehensible people who are on a leash and under threat of literal termination via remote bomb… yeah, you want the audience to feel for these characters and their plights. They almost managed that to a point with little character moments and motivations here and there. But then we break in a music video montage that just feels out of place. People had accused DC of giving this a vibe similar to Guardians Of The Galaxy – oh, look. Another James Gunn project namedropped here… but it fits because that film was a giant success for Marvel. DC, naturally, wanted their own and shoehorned this movie to be that… which they failed because Suicide Squad isn’t designed to be that. So those attempts at lighthearted rapport and quippiness (is that a word? Who cares?) sort of stick out.

In a sense, this sort of mentality was what plagued Justice League once Zack Snyder dropped out after the death of his daughter. And full disclosure; I actually liked that movie when it came out and appreciated it for giving Henry Cavill the opportunity to actually play Superman as opposed to whatever the fuck Snyder wanted him to be. That said, I’m not sure I want to watch it nowadays given my current malaise with that style of storytelling permeating all the Disney properties.

Once again, the action scenes were on point. Yeah, a lot of it is shrouded in perpetual darkness – another complaint I have with this film, but to be fair, the movie needed that – but at the very least, they looked well choreographed and executed. The writing and the acting is pretty solid; obviously, the standout being Margot Robbie’s take on Harley Quinn, which some folks at Mattel watched and went “She’s our Barbie.” Will Smith’s Deadshot is also quite good and further testament to Smith’s acting chops – in terms of on-screen performances, not in terms of clocking Chris Rock. Hell, even some of the minor players get some moment to shine.

Again, my misgivings towards not enough being done with Katana since that was one of my favorite Outsiders… but I guess that small nugget was enough for Karen Fukuhara to get a gig with the boys. Never a bad thing in my book.

So, yeah, ten years later, Suicide Squad still holds up as a fairly entertaining movie… though its crown as the best DC movie of the bunch would eventually be claimed by the likes of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, but that was going to happen regardless. With that in mind, I do hope that David Ayer gets the chance to do the cut of the film that he always intended, much like Zack Snyder got with Justice League. If anything, I’d be more inclined to support any movement involving the realization of the Ayer cut.

But more than likely, the only Ayer cut I’ll be seeing is anything involving the similarly-named David Ayers… that zamboni driver who served as an emergency goalie in that one game in Toronto and gave that Dangle person a conniption fit.

Oh well… maybe some day…