Suicide Squad review round-up: 'Puerile' and 'worse than Fantastic Four' – the critics get their claws out

David Ayer's supervillain movie 'never becomes as cool as it thinks it is'

Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad, released in UK cinemas on 5 August

When the Suicide Squad reviews embargo lifted on Tuesday evening, more carnage was caused than even Jared Leto’s menacing new Joker could manage.

David Ayer’s supervillain movie had sky-high expectations riding on it following a bold and brutal marketing campaign but, perhaps inevitably, failed to live up to its own hype, with critics slashing it with a string of wince-inducing insults from “crushingly puerile” to “too shoddy and forgettable to even register as revolting”. Vanity Fair even goes so far as to brand it worse than last year’s notoriously dreadful Fantastic Four reboot. It was, in short, devastating.

The film, expected to top the box office when it is released on Friday, follows a group of comic book villains enlisted to carry out blackop missions for the government in return for reduced jail sentences. It stars Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Will Smith as Deadshot and Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, to name just a few of its big name cast members, along with an “underwhelming” Leto, who reportedly enjoys just 25 minutes of screen time despite the relentless stories of his crazy method acting. Some fans have taken the negative reviews to heart, starting a petition to 'shut down' Rotten Tomatoes.

So, without further ado, here’s what the papers have to say, including an unexpected four-star review from Empire’s Dan Jolin:

The Independent

“Nowhere near nasty enough […] by the final reel, the Suicide Squad are behaving little differently than any other superheroes. This surely defeats the entire point of the movie.”

The Telegraph

“Eardrum-puncturingly bad dialogue, scowling self-pity, covert pornography and scrappy CGI […] the film makes you cringe so hard your teeth come loose. Crushingly puerile.”

The Guardian

“It’s a clotted and delirious film with flashes of preposterous, operatic silliness. But it doesn’t have much room to breathe; there are some dull bits, and Leto’s Joker suffers in comparison with the late Heath Ledger.”

Empire

“Like Avengers Assemble forced through a Deadpool mangle, Suicide Squad gives new life to DC’s big screen universe. So bad to the bone it’s good […] David Ayer pulls it off with gritty-flashy aplomb.”

Vanity Fair

“Suicide Squad is ultimately too shoddy and forgettable to even register as revolting. At least revolting would have been something […[ If you can believe it, Suicide Squad is even worse than Fantastic Four. At least that mess of a movie had some shimmer of an idea to it.”

Den of Geek

“Every bit as crazy and messy as Harley Quinn’s psyche - an entertaining and neon-lit fireworks freak show […] the script leaves a lot to be desired but this is easily the most visually ambitious and viscerally kinetic superhero experience of 2016.”

Time

“Loaded with jokes but devoid of wit, Suicide Squad is dead on arrival.”

Screen Crush

“The opening sequence has all the excitement of a mildly contentious HR meeting and the movie gets no better from there. Bland, boring and sometimes borderline incoherent, Suicide Squad is a disappointing disaster.”

Buzzfeed

“Harley is a tricky character, but she’s been shaped into an intensely sexualised mascot for a film that yearns for edginess but can’t get over the rounded curves of its female lead.”

The Hollywood Reporter

“A puzzlingly confused undertaking that never becomes as cool as it thinks it is […] all flash, no fun.”

Chicago Tribune

“This is a lousy script, blobby like the endlessly beheaded minions of the squad’s chief adversary. It’s not satisfying storytelling; the flashbacks roll in and out, explaining either too much or too little, and the action may be violent but it’s not interesting.”

Suicide Squad is in cinemas from Friday 5 August