The Worst DCEU Movie Is Actually Great (if You Ignore 1 Thing)

Even roughly 10 years after its original release, Suicide Squad is still simultaneously one of the most polarizing DC Comics adaptations and divisive comic book movies ever made. Task Force X’s cinematic debut has an equal number of passionate defenders and vicious critics. Fans see it as one of the most underrated and unfairly maligned movies of its kind, while detractors say it’s one of the genre’s worst entries — regardless of its external woes and Warner Bros.’ well-documented interference. The debate was exacerbated when writer/director David Ayer confirmed the existence of a director’s cut that has yet to see the light of day.

However, the one thing Suicide Squad’s fans and haters alike can agree on is that Enchantress was the movie’s worst part. This isn’t because Cara Delevingne was miscast as Dr. June Moone. While opinions on Delevingne’s performance are (obviously) subjective, she was perfectly fine in the role. Rather, Enchantress’ failures were caused by the material Delevingne was given. As Task Force X’s first nemesis, the Enchantress could’ve and should’ve been a lot more. Despite her promising and eye-catching promotional material, Enchantress was so bad that she became a strong contender for being one of (if not) the worst comic book movie villains of all time.

The Movie Lost its Identity and Potential Because of Enchantress

Even if she exists in DC’s multiverse and is one of the founding members of the original Task Force X, Enchantress shouldn’t have been Suicide Squad’s villain. It must be reiterated that this isn’t Delevingne’s fault. If anything, she and the rest of the cast — including the controversial Jared Leto’s incredibly polarizing take on The Joker — were one of the movie’s few saving graces. Suicide Squad recruited a talented and inspired roster of actors to bring a mix of DC Comics’ most famous and most obscure supervillains to life. These villains were also given cool and edgy updates that fit Ayer’s gritty vision. Even if their characterizations fell flat in some places, they were still unique among superhero movies and compelling enough. Ayer’s take on Task Force X was so well-done that traces of it can still be felt in James Gunn’s soft reboot The Suicide Squad.

That said, Enchantress failed for two reasons. Firstly, she was a bad fit for Suicide Squad’s aims. Secondly, she was simply a poorly written antagonist. Ayer envisioned his addition to the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) as a modern war film set in a comic book universe. The villains’ modernized and militarized abilities, designs and personalities reflect this. Fittingly, he describedSuicide Squad as “The Dirty Dozen with supervillains.” This is what made the movie’s use of a demigod as its main threat so baffling and wrongheaded. Even ignoring how sending out slightly empowered mercenaries and convicts to fight an ancient god made a genius mastermind like Amanda Waller look dumb, Enchantress’ mere existence clashed with the rest of the movie’s grounded goals. Doing so also ignored what made the Suicide Squad’s comics so interesting to begin with.

The Suicide Squad was at its best when it was sent on black ops missions that perpetuated their powerful handlers’ preferred status quo. These all-too-real missions reaffirmed the villains’ purpose as being the disposable pawns of a more nefarious threat, namely the American government and the military industrial complex. Furthermore, it emphasized the comics’ relevant political commentary. Conversely, the Suicide Squad failed to live up to their purpose and potential whenever they were sent on a typical superhero mission, such as stopping a world-ending supervillain like Enchantress.

This is the very problem that held back both Task Force X’s most recent multiverse-hopping comics and their first DCEU movie. It would’ve made more sense for the villains to be conscripted against a rogue state as they were in The Suicide Squad or fellow low-level villains like Black Mask from the underrated Birds of Prey. Enchantress, with her plans of world domination and an undead army at her control, was a better fit for a movie starring Doctor Fate or Zatanna. Ayer actually agreed with this sentiment, saying that if he could do the movie all over again, he’d “…make Joker the main villain and engineer a more grounded story.”

The Movie Barely Survived Her Lacking and Weak Presence

The biggest problem with Enchantress was the simple fact that she was a badly written villain. Suicide Squad was made when every movie studio wanted their own Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It was glaringly obvious that the DCEU envisioned Suicide Squad to be their answer to Guardians of the Galaxy. Despite Ayer’s gritty style and goals, the movie was crammed with witty banter, self-aware jokes, and popular needle drops that were better off in a typical superhero blockbuster. Enchantress’ depiction as a one-dimensional magical villain who fired a big energy beam into the sky was one such jarring element. She was essentially a magician who was clumsily shoehorned into a military movie. In concept alone, she was indistinguishable from Thor: The Dark World’s Malekith the Accursed. She could even be seen as a flatter version of Guardians of the Galaxy’s Ronan the Accuser, but without any of his parodic purposes.

That’s not to say that adding a threat as left-field as an evil sorcerer to a movie about militarized characters wouldn’t work. Truth be told, this genre-blending concept can be great when done well. The likes of Aliens, Dog Soldiers, Overlord, Predator and the misunderstood Starship Troopers proved that this can and should be done more. Unfortunately, Suicide Squad was a bad example of this formula in practice. Task Force X spent most of the movie fighting undead soldiers and other similarly armed threats instead of coming to terms with a terrifyingly unfathomable enemy. Enchantress was a flat and boring villain who — alongside her brother, Incubus — only existed to threaten the world. Even Dr. Moone was just a typical and forgettable love interest. Dr. Moone wasn’t interesting in her own right, and she was only in the movie to humanize Rick Flag for a bit. Enchantress and Incubus were just placeholders for world-ending plot devices, and nothing would’ve changed if they were replaced with a nuclear bomb.

With better writing, Enchantress could’ve been as tragic and meaningful a villain as Starro in The Suicide Squad. She could’ve also been an interesting and unsympathetic monster for Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and the others to kill if the movie called for it. The fact that Enchantress was held hostage by Waller and forced to use her powers for the government’s ends pointed to how much potential she had to be Task Force X’s worthy and thematically sound adversary. But at the end of the day, Enchantress was just another disposable supervillain who fell to the wayside during the height of the superhero boom of the 2010s. For what it’s worth, Enchantress’ weaknesses don’t take away from how fun Suicide Squad can be when it’s watched with the right mindset.

Despite its many flaws, both intentional and otherwise, Suicide Squad is not the worst comic book movie or action movie of all time. It’s also not completely unwatchable. When divorced from its controversies and the exaggerated reactions it inspired, Suicide Squad is — at its worst — a high-budgeted and passable version of Aliens’ and Predator’s many knock-offs. The movie has its moments, which are further elevated by its impressive star power and gritty production value. Granted, the movie loses its way whenever Enchantress shows up, but she’s not so terrible that she makes the movie unbearable. The worst that could be said about Enchantress is that she’s really distracting. She was out of place in a movie about DC Comics’ grounded villains and wasn’t properly integrated into the movie. She sticks out in the worst ways possible. But when Suicide Squad is viewed as the guilty pleasure it is, even Enchantress’ odd inclusion can’t ruin the whole thing. That said, it’s best to just ignore her.