On August 5, the long awaited DC Extended Universe film, "Suicide Squad" came out. The premiere of this movie was followed by many mixed reviews, many on the relationship of Joker and Harley Quinn. There were memes and posts throughout the social media world that showed people wanting to emulate that relationship. Others were criticizing Harley as an overly sexualized character. Some of the critiques were on David Ayer's ability to have the "Suicide Squad" of the comics come across properly on screen. In this article, I want to discuss those aspects of the film that have been recently reviewed and my take on them.
In terms of the sexualization of Harley, like it or not, she has always been a sexualized character since her introduction in 1992. Whether she was wearing her original tight-fitted jester number or another revealing outfit, she was being sexualized for the male readers' enjoyment and to show aspects of Joker's control of Harley. My biggest problem with the critiques of Harley as a sexualized character is that we are detracting from all of her badass antihero qualities. Both in comic form and in DCEU form, Harley exhibits her ability to roll with the punches and kick ass when need be. Margot Robbie took what she was given from David Ayer and did her best and I applaud her. Her Harley and Will Smith's Deadshot were the best parts of that movie.
Now let us please discuss Joker and Harley. I understand that you do not need to read a movie's source material to watch it, but it would be good to know some basic facts on the characters. I mean I'm not up to date on DC's "New 52 Suicide Squad" but I can tell you some things about Harley Quinn and Joker. One of those things is that the Joker is an abusive boyfriend to Harley and that Harley suffers from Stockholm Syndrome. She loves him because that is what her mind is telling her to do, despite the fact that he would sacrifice her for himself and that he loves to control her more than he actually loves her. So, if you know these facts, what aspect of this dysfunction are you so obsessed with living? Are you craving having a person that you can treat like dedicated pet that you can kick around whenever you like, as Joker does with Harley? Or are you a fan of loving someone that does not know the meaning of the word and that takes joy out of beating you? Please stop asking for this relationship. If you want a DC relationship, one to emulate would be Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.
One of the biggest critiques of this film, were of how David Ayer portrayed these characters and their story line as well as the pacing. While I enjoyed the film, I mostly stuck through to see how Deadshot and Harley fared. My big disappointment was not with the pacing but with the portrayal of Harley as a whole. Harley is a character with so much depth and a story that is worth telling, but we will never get that so long as filmmakers make Joker the pure focus on everything Harley. While I understand that Joker is a part of what started out Harley as a main player in the DC Universe, he is not the only thing about her that makes her matter at all. The film only showed minor snippets of the abuse she suffered at Joker's hands and made them seem like the most romantic scenes, when if we are all honest, he was going to leave her in that steaming vat. Whenever Harley seemed as though she was going to leave Joker or focus on herself in the movie, in swoops Joker to steal her thunder. Hell, she couldn't even sip her espresso and enjoy her book without him showing up. Everything she did in the movie became about him and she could never just be Harley without Joker. Her character deserved so much more than she was given.
