The Suicide Squad. What a joke. This charmless franchise redo is as unfunny as it is tedious to watch…not even Harley Quinn can save this hot mess.

With a fairly similar premise to 2016’s dumpster fire, Suicide Squad, this re-envisioned, blood-soaked aesthetic brings back four characters joined by 13 new characters, but they’ve been recruited for a very different suicide mission.

They may be “dying to save the world” … but for the entirety of the Movie, I was dying for the credits to roll and left baffled by it’s high average score across the board online.

When WB attached writer and director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2 boss) to this movie, I was immediately on board for this semi-reboot. Gunn joined the project after being fired from Disney, and took what he could from the 2016 dumpsterfire original and made this reimagined Suicide Squad his own. WB needed a clean slate to save themselves from the 2016 David Ayer version, so James Gunn seemed like their perfect savior.

When pulling James Gunn into this project, WB initially pitched Gunn on a Superman movie. Gunn has a particular fondness for John Ostrander’s run of “The Suicide Squad” comics, and was more passionate about directing a film with a group of villains tasked to save the world. Again.

In an interview with The New York Times, Gunn said the choices for his film weren’t defined by what he saw in 2016’s Suicide Squad. “I wanted it to be its own thing completely,” Gunn said. “When Warner Bros. said they wanted me to do this, I watched the first movie for the first time, and I called them back and said, what do I have to keep from this movie? And they said, nothing.”

Gunn’s creative freedom in this movie shows, but something was severely lacking that not even Gunn could save.

As disjoined as Suicide Squad was, The Suicide Squad wasn’t much better. With the exception of some standout performances, Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, and John Cena, the movie falls flat. With parallels to the flawless Guardians movies, recycled gags with more profanity, this movie fails to deliver what I expected from the masterful director and cast.

This isn’t an improvement over the first film at all, and I’m debating whether or not I enjoyed this movie or it’s predecessor more. It’s that bad. It’s overly silly and tries way too hard with it’s one liners that just completely missed the mark for me. The plot was stretching too far with too few rewards. While the characters were overly entertaining and fun, character development was far and few. Like Suicide Squad, I cared very little for these characters and their plight to save the world against an extraterrestrial starfish.

If you like lots of blood and violence, The Suicide Squad is filled with just that. Unfortunately, the “how many kills can we put in one scene” became redundant. Gunn admit, “I think fans will appreciate that these are two great filmmakers who attacked it differently.” Different is one way to put it, but with such an incredible premise, the mark was missed. Again.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people are loving this movie. I’m constantly reading how “fun and daring” this movie is, but I’m scratching my head wondering wtf they watched that I didn’t.

“Stylistically, The Suicide Squad looks nothing like its predecessor. The first half is shot like a 2000s sitcom, replete with Peter Capaldi reviving his Malcolm Tucker-glare as The Thinker. The second goes full-blown kaiju (we know this because someone says it), with a monster villain described at the start as being like a butthole, even though in actuality it resembles a collection of vulvas.” via Little White Lies

With all that mess aside, I’d be lying if I didn’t say Margot Robbie steals the show again as Harley Quinn. But, the moments she’s offscreen are when I lost interest. Sadly…even her captivating presence doesn’t make up for such a weak script, poor dialogue, and trash editing. Idris Elba was also a highlight bringing more to the movie than most, but I felt that his supreme acting skills weren’t utilized, focusing more on how many kill shots he could make and awkward one liners. Yawn.

The majority of critics are giving credit for the “gutsiness” of James Gunn’s approach to this, but the stupidity behind everything that makes these characters (and actors!) great reveals what a dire state superhero films are now in. This movie is as forgettable and expendable as the new and old characters brought on screen. If you love Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn as much as I do, skip this and watch Birds of Prey. If you MUST see this premise on screen, I actually may recommend the 2016 hot mess over this reboot, but don’t tell anyone I said that.