I'll say this... I love Margo Robbie. I think she's one of the most talented actresses working today, and I'm glad she found a piece of pop culture that she could make her own, one that seems to truly resonate with fans. It's rare that an actor or actress gets that opportunity, much less is a hit in the role to the point where it becomes part of the zeitgeist somewhat. So I completely understand wanting to capitalize on it and milk that opportunity for everything it's worth.

That said... the character of Harley Quinn is NOT one to build a movie around.

Oof.

Again, Robbie is VERY good in the role, and gives a GREAT performance. But as the central protagonist or anti-hero or whatever you want to call her, I absolutely hated this character. Especially considering the fact that her "arc" in this movie is just flat out terrible and maybe even morally reprehensible as depicted (yes, Quinn herself is obviously morally reprehensible, but I'm talking about the act of making her an almost heroic figure). I love R-rated movies, I've never been anti-violence, and some of my favorite characters have been utterly terrible people. But here, none of it really works. In fact, I found most of it off-putting, to the point where I was actively rooting against every last character in this movie.

I *will* give it points for not being straight up bad. And I don't mean that as a slight. On a technical level, it's more than competently made, with some great production value and a fun soundtrack. That, and the action, for the most part, is pretty fun and even somewhat impressive at times. For one, it's not shot in close-up, shaky-cam, Bourne style. And you can tell that the main cast trained super hard and was incredibly committed for the fight scenes/stunts. Robbie, especially, goes all out in that department, and it's shot in such a way that you can see that, seemingly 90% of the time, it's her on screen actually pulling this stuff off. Granted, after two movies with Quinn now, I still have no idea how or why she's such a skilled fighter, but whatever. It's one of the strengths of the movie, so I won't knock it too much.

But man, overall, the story itself is just so unengaging, relatively inconsequential, and the structure is weird as hell. It's Harley Quinn telling the entire story via voice over, and she skips around a lot, which is meant to mirror her personality and be somewhat quirky or whatever, but it just makes the movie feel like one, long first act that never really gets going. Mild spoiler, but the five women don't even come together until the very end - awkwardly so - right before the big, climactic battle (which, for some reason, conveniently doesn't feature any guns until it suddenly does). Mostly, I just can't believe THIS is supposed to be a "women empowerment" movie. I'm not saying female protagonists can't be morally ambiguous badasses, but this just isn't great filmmaking, and it's certainly not a group to be cheered or rally behind. At best, a couple of them are somewhat sympathetic, but at worst, most of them are either boring or truly terrible people who should be in jail, or maybe even dead.

Still, I'm not saying don't see it. I'm sure many will find it entertaining, and I completely get that. Just don't go in expecting much and you'll probably have a decent time.

It seemed like Robbie was just trying to have fun making a movie with a bunch of women, and that came first over making a movie with structure and a plot that makes more sense.

TCTTS, that is a pretty spot on assessment. I was bored to tears, I did not like their use of flashbacks or explaining of back story.

I'll skip it.

Okay, just saw it and have lots of thoughts on it.

First off..it's not very good. However, it's not entirely terrible either.

The good things are Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ewan MacGregor. But there is so much missed potential here. I guess I'll have to put spoiler tags for the rest of this

Starting out with the little cartoon at the beginning that goes over Harley's origin and then breakup with her Puddin': it was veeerrrryyy interesting that the cartoon portrayal of the Joker is 110% from the Batman: the Animated Series. It in absolutely NO way references Jared Leto's horrible Joker from Suicide Squad. Nope, this Joker is wearing the classic purple tux with tails and his hair is absolutely from B:TAS. And Joker is NEVER seen physically in the movie. It's like the filmmakers were completely wiping Leto's Joker out of existence.

One big honorable mention goes to the actor portraying Zsasz. I totally didn't expect this character to appear, and they did a really good job with him. I liked him and wanted more of him.

Ewan did a good job as Black Mask. While I never got the feeling that this man was a big-time criminal kingpin, Ewan did a good job going from happy to angry to insecure to psycho.sometimes in the same scene.

Black Canary was the biggest waste in this movie, IMO. She was simply a generic kick-ass woman who inexplicably knows martial arts and can beat up multiple guys twice her size for 99% of the movie. It's only that one scene at the end that the screenwriter remembered "oh, yeahshe has a super power." Then, it's used once and only once. This may be the biggest injustice in the film.

Rosie Perez just doesn't belong in this movie. I still don't see the point to her character. At all. And she wasn't very good in it. And again.she inexplicably knew martial arts and could beat up multiple men twice her size.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead was great as Huntress. It seemed like she was in her own solo movie and just wandered into this one in the climax. I also loved that she seemed to know she didn't belong in this movie and just wanted to leave after killing her last target. And that no one knew she called herself "the Huntress" and so everyone called her "Cross Bow Killer", which pissed her off.

I will give special kudos for the last chase scene: with Huntress on her motorcycle pulling Harley on roller skates chasing after the bad guys. Original and fun.

But, one of the key points to the plot was that Harley was now vulnerable after losing the protection of Mr. J. She was a marked woman by all the people she pissed off when she could do whatever she wanted to with Joker. And yet.she walks down the streets of Gotham in her full wild outfits. Finding out where she was hiding out seemed literally very easy. Just wait for her to walk down the streetand follow her. She wasn't keeping a low profile after she left her apartment.

Okay, things that really bothered me now. Look, I get that this is a comic book movie, but I find it hilarious that only in Gotham City can there be a decades-long abandoned amusement park that looks like it was designed by Tim Burton on a serious acid trip. And that this abandoned and decaying amusement park can have a fun house with a slide down to a lower level that is in 100% working order. I mean, it's complete with working lights, working machinery and has apparently very interactive displays.

Oh, and Harley Quinn changes her outfit completely during a fight sequence. I mean, a 100% costume change in the middle of a scene. One character notices it and says the throwaway line "Did she change clothes?", but that doesn't excuse the fact that she changed every stitch of clothing and even PUTS ON ROLLER SKATES. Shaking my head at that.

And the four main female characters don't all come together until the very end.

But the biggest gripe I have with this movie is the action scene in the middle of the film in the police station. Here is where logic and believability walk off the set. Harley Quinn walks up to the front desk, shoots the clerk with a bean bag fired from a grenade launcher, and then sets out to take on the entire building of cops..with a single-fire bean bag gun. And yes, it's as ludicrous as it sounds. Apparently, the GCPD offices are Gun-Free Zones (thanks, Democrats), because NO ONE PULLS A GUN on her. Remember the police station scene in the first Terminator? That place was a war zone with ordinance being fired everywhere. This movie? Quinn leisurely walks down the halls firing glitter rounds at fleeing cops. She makes it to the holding cells, where there is one lone unarmed guard. The next scene shows the feet of a group of heavily armed men entering the building. "Finally," I thought "the SWAT team has arrived." Nope. It's a group of Black Hand's men waltzing into the police station and not meeting any resistance. Literally, no one notices them. What follows is a fight between Harley and those men in the evidence warehouse. At no point are any Gotham City police officers seen. None. Hell, there is even a scene in the station a few hours later, and there is no residual evidence of anything having taken place there. No broken windows, no glitter being swept up; everything's back to normal.

Oh, and this movie did not need to be rated R. It's like the studio wanted to be edgy and have their own "Deadpool" movie where the f word is littered throughout for no reason.

All in all, this wasn't the worst moviebut it was not very good, either. It's made well. Nicely directed. Has some good performances. But just lacks logic at key points

I know this is supposed to be a dumb, fun comic book movie, and I don't want to keep harping on this "morally bankrupt" thing, but I finally figured out why this movie bugs me so much, aside from it simply not being a well-told story with a character who probably shouldn't have been the central figure to begin with.

And it has everything to do with Martin Scorsese.

Because he's the king of depicting violence and lewdness and excess in a way that, on the surface, comes across as "fun" and visually stimulating and even hilarious at times, but what he does so well, beneath it all, is let you know that he's not endorsing any of it. In fact, he's shoving it all down our throats so much that, by then end, we feel dirty for even thinking these characters were ever "cool." There's always this knowing, "these people are actually pathetic assh/les" vibe just below the surface, despite how glamorous Scorsese makes it all look.

And that's what this movie lacks.

For the most part, these are terrible people doing terrible things, yet the movie is constantly laughing with them, and is mostly turning a blind eye to how truly f/cked up Harley is, if not outright endorsing her actions at times. I mean, Harley Quinn is a certified and truly reprehensible psycho, and this movie not only choses to sympathize with her, but then has her learn the completely wrong lesson by movie's end. And then seemingly celebrates it.

And look, I don't need all of my movies to wag a shameful finger at the "bad" people, but I keep thinking about how a Scorsese approach would have made this movie a million times better; where it still shows all the same craziness and violence, and even has a ton of fun with it, but by the end leaves you feeling a little icky, with more of a tragic arc for Harley - instead of this bullsh/t, celebratory, "empowering" note where Harley now has the confidence to rule Gotham's underworld on her own. In fact, Harley can still end up in the exact same place, it just needed a bit of irony or knowing on the part of the filmmakers that she's ultimately a tragic figure doomed to never learn her lesson. But no, they had to go with this whole "empowering" angle, even though it ultimately has the opposite effect, given the context. It's so f/cking pointless.

In fact, the more I think I think about it, the more I genuinely despise this movie.

My wife insisted we go to this movie despite my reservations.

Absolute dog s***. I wanted to bail after 10 minutes and watching it the whole way through was tortuous. My wife's first words to me after it was finished was "I'm sorry".

I tried... but that was pretty ****ing dumb

I guess it's nerdy and old-fashioned, but my favorite part of the Batman world/universe/whatever is that Batman used to show up and try and help people.

Lance Uppercut said:

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I guess it's nerdy and old-fashioned, but my favorite part of the Batman world/universe/whatever is that Batman used to show up and try and help people.

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Wait, there's actually a Batman in the Batman universe?????

Al I know is that I watched about 10 minutes of suicide squad and turned it off because her character. I can't fathom listening to that voice for 5 minutes, let alone two hours, it's like Fran Drescher decided to make a comic book film.
I am shocked it found 33 million dollars worth of folks who wanted to see it.

No surprise, really. There was absolutely no excitement for this movie by anyone I know.