'Suicide Squad' Honest Trailer: The Movie That Honest Trailers Itself

There was a time when it looked like Suicide Squad could be the movie to get Warner Bros.' DC franchise back on track, following the disappointing reception to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice a few months earlier. As we all know now, though, things didn't exactly work out that way. Instead, we were left with a maddeningly sloppy (if intermittently entertaining) mess that did nothing to counter the suspicion that Warner Bros. has no idea what it's doing.

And if that seems harsh? That's nothing compared to Screen Junkies' assessment of the movie, which rips into the nonsensical plotting, the behind-the-scenes troubles, and Jared Leto's disappointing turn as the Joker. Yep, the latest episode of Honest Trailers takes on this summer's most confounding superhero team-up (or supervillain team-up, rather, I guess), and you can watch it right here.  

Plenty of big-budget action movies feature questionable premises, but Suicide Squad's might be goofier than most. It makes no real sense that Amanda Waller's plan for fighting the bad guy she tried and failed to control... is to try to control another bunch of bad guys. And these bad guys are, as Screen Junkies notes, "high on attitude, but dangerously how on relevant skills." Take Jai Courtney's Boomerang: he's a definite highlight of the movie (even Screen Junkies admits as much), but "drunk guy with a boomerang" probably shouldn't be your first go-to when you're assembling a squad of reluctant superheroes.

In fairness, not all of Suicide Squad's missteps are unique. Enchantress' plan is ridiculous, but nothing we haven't seen before. "Wait, let me guess: it's a sky beam, isn't it? Surrounded by rubble? And a disposable CGI army, too, right? Man, this really sounds like a job for the Avengers," the narrator says, adding, "Or, really, any other movie in the last ten years." Yeah, Marvel may be getting the better reviews right now, but they're no more immune to the "sky portal" trend than any other franchise.

But Screen Junkies saves some of their best burns for Leto's performance, mocking his obnoxious "method" antics and snarking that "he does in just ten minutes of screentime what no other actor has been able to do: make the Joker totally suck." The comparison to James Franco's character from Spring Breakers is an obvious one, but I've gotta give them credit for the Ace Ventura reference. They're not wrong.

Anyway, if you'd like more where that came from, click on over to Screen Junkies for an extended cut of that Honest Trailer. Hey, that move worked for Suicide Squad.