" Suicide Squad" is the latest box office pandering film DC has thrown up and shoved in our faces. It is lazy, typical and meandering, spending the first 20 minutes doing what Marvel spent several movies doing for "Civil War" -- introducing characters with boring, overused backstories about how their powers hurt the ones they loved, or tore them away from the ones they loved. It felt rushed and looked awful. The whole movie went on like this, with the "skwad" spending their first mission rescuing the person who put them in shackles to begin with, and only then turning to deal with the backup bad guy, the Enchantress, who was supposed to be on their team to begin with. Yawn.
But none of this is a bigger slap to the face than Harley Quinn. Harley Quinn's character was my salvation, the one thing I hoped and dreamed for. She is a deeply complex, badass woman, and I wanted that to be shown in the movie. I was deeply, deeply disappointed. Yes, Quinn was badass with her bat and, yes, Robbie did a killing which made her deadly and sickly sweet at the same time. But where the hell was the pain? Harley Quinn was brutally tortured by the Joker, making her think she was in love with him. Quinn suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, which was never once implied in the movie. After the very brief torture scene, all we see are heart eyes between Quinn and Joker. Shows of dominance and devotion by the overplayed, oversold, Leto as the Joker. Ecstatic car chases together, a romantic tandem swan dive into a vat of acid. The Joker convinces Quinn to take a dip, then appears to have a change of heart and jumps in to "rescue her."
This was absolutely sickening. To see this abusive relationship so romanticized beyond the necessary plot points, was disgusting. There was no hint at the effect of the abuse that Joker put Quinn through, only adoration when they were reunited and anguish when separated. Furthermore, Quinn's deepest fantasy, revealed in the midst of the "climactic fight" between the Squad and Enchantress was her, Joker and their children living a normal life. I call bulls**t. Quinn's deepest fantasy, beneath the abuse, beneath the Syndrome, would be a world without the Joker. A world where her body and brain were never hijacked and violated. But instead, DC decided to gloss over this backstory and instead have the tiresome cackling Joker bust Quinn out of prison at the end, solidifying their romantic relationship.
Now, people are saying that they want a love like Harley Quinn and the Joker. Because this movie has turned an abusive relationship into #goals. Out of all the sob stories and internal strife this movie spewed, it didn't show any anguish in Quinn, any internal struggles with the part of her that resents the Joker? Sickening.
"Suicide Squad" was awful. It was a revolting mess of "edgy" characters being "edgy." The Joker was poorly played and Jared Leto's method acting only built up his image as a douchebag. The reflection of our society's view on abusive relationships is spot on, however. It is harmful, influential and a poor representation of Quinn and Joker's relationship, but it's a great portrait of our sweep-it-under-the-rug mentality.
