Hey DC films, stop treating us like we're dumb - CNET

Even more than the universally slammed "Batman vs Superman," "Suicide Squad" felt utterly confusing, in large part because it doesn't know what it wants to be. Is this a lovable ragtag group of "good yet so bad" guys? Is it the Will Smith posse? Why should I care about any of them? I'm still not convinced I should.

As CNET's Luke Lancaster says in his review, the whole film feels "more like a two-hour trailer than a feature-length film." And that's no surprise. Waer Bros. brought in the company that cut the original "edgy" trailer to edit parts of the film after the studio was scared by negative reviews of "BvS," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Writer/director David Ayer gives you zero chance to get to know these characters organically and smacks you over the head with their "accomplishments" by way of head honcho Amanda Waller. When the characters are introduced, it's through character cards** and poorly constructed flashbacks.

The film starts with our bad guys in custody already, instead of showing us how they got there. Then evil leader Waller spends the next act telling the bigwigs onscreen (but really us, the viewers) how all these baddies came to be jailed at a Louisiana black site.

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What happened to the tried and true "show don't tell" rule? Show me how they all got caught (except Slipknot, I guess^), then show me where they're being kept. It would've given the audience a better chance to get invested in the Joker and Harley Quinn's relationship, and set up Deadshot's family issues in a more relatable way -- oh, and been a way more fun look at the not-so-secret Batman cameo.

More importantly, DC and Waer Bros., it would've proven that you have faith in your audience, that you trust us to get there on our own.

"But 'Guardians of the Galaxy' did the same thing!" I can hear you saying it already. Except, no. What "GOTG" did was exactly what I'm suggesting: Marvel threw the characters into a fight, showed us their skills and desires and then gave us tiny, mini-bios on them, sans-flashbacks.

"GOTG" didn't shove that ragtag team's life stories in our face first; Marvel gave you a reason to understand and maybe even like those random rejects. DC gives us no reasoning and, even worse, no desire to care about these bad guys.

The worst part is about "Suicide Squad" is the movie could have been so awesome and fun, a real lifeboat for the filmic DC Universe. Instead it's a really bad, ugly joke of an effort.

I know "Wonder Woman" is next up on the list (and we're all pretty stoked on how good it already looks), but the question is, how many chances are we gonna give WB and DC before we give up?