Perhaps my expectations were significantly lowered by internet buzz, but…I liked Suicide Squad. It’s still not anywhere near the quality of the Marvel cinematic universe, but compared to the last couple of Superman/Batman runoffs, this is a refreshing turn for the folks at DC. Having said that, there’s still plenty of mess and smug, comic-geek indulgence to go around. The main problem is that this movie desperately wants to be DEADPOOL but the PG-13 rating renders that impossible. Let me say something I never thought I’d say about a film: It needed a lot more cussing and boobs. Yup. In trying to make this franchise suitable for tweens, Warner Brothers has made a movie that is perfect for no one.

And yet Suicide Squad is much less grim and grotesque than the recent Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (even though I still think the violence is too brutal for the rating it has). I enjoyed the purples, pinks, and greens swirling around, as a respite from the steel-blue and gray we usually get in the DC cinematic universe. Yes, there is infinitely more fun, both visually and verbally, than the recent Superman joints, and it contains the ingredients typically necessary for a new comic film franchise:

• A star on the way up (Margot Robbie, my favorite performance)

• A star on the way down (Will Smith)

• A middle-aged female Academy Award winner as a badass government official (Viola Davis)

• An insane, over-the-top star turn (Jared Leto)

And of course, lots of rock music montages come together to tell us a story about “bad heroes.” Have you noticed that we’ve become fascinated with all things “bad” lately? Bad moms, bad teachers, bad Santas. Everything bad is new again.

Anyway, this thing takes off like a wildly colored bullet for the first 45 minutes, then settles into a comfortable collage of scenes we’ve seen before in other superhero films. You know, a tornado of energy in the center of the city, engulfing-all-mankind kind of thing, contained by heroes with superpowers and weapons you might find around the house.

People might be surprised by how little they see of the Joker, which, depending on how much you wanna see Jared Leto masturbate in white makeup and green hair, might be OK. Something has definitely been excised from the narrative which helps the movie roll in at a blessedly comfortable two hours and three minutes, and me thinks subplots revolving around Lared’s Joker and Robbie’s Harley Quinn might have been left for the director’s cut. We’ll see.

Though Suicide Squad is fun enough, a serious intervention needs to happen with the powers at the helm of the DC comic universe, or they’re never going to seriously compete with the far superior films of Disney/Marvel.

(Loudinni specializes in movie reviews under 500 words, sans spoilers.)