There has been a lot of hype for Suicide Squad, honestly I think I saw trailers for it before I even saw a trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I have discussed my love of Batman characters before, I love Harley and The Joker, while insanely evil, is one of my favorite villains, and I was anxiously awaiting this movie for months.

Now I will say that Suicide Squad did get off to a bit of a slow start. I think this might have to do with all the set up that the DC Movie Universe has been putting in their recent movies. While it was a bit slow in some places, I really enjoyed the backstories we got for many of a the characters in the Suicide Squad. Deathshot in particular was a character I found myself loving more and more as the movie progressed. He has a daughter that he loves so much and Will Smith adds a wonderful amount of humor throughout the movie. I also just want to say Amanda effing Waller! That woman is amazing, I mean Viola Davis is phenomenal, but Waller is freaking epic. If she had any form of superpower I think she could rule the entire world. I want to be Amanda Waller when I grow up.

The rest of the squad was really well fleshed out, at least more fleshed out than I was anticipating. Admittedly Slipknot was just randomly introduced, but from what I garnered from the comics I read random villains appear and often die in Suicide Squad plots. I liked all of the Squad, even Boomerang and Flag. I thought Boomerang might be a huge jerk, but he was actually really funny and that dang unicorn kept making me laugh. Flag seemed like he might just play a very straight character, by straight I mean straight man like the butt of all the jokes, but he was much more than that. Enchantress was also amazing. She had so much screen time and Cara Delevingne knocked both of her roles out of the park. This next paragraph contains some spoilers in connection to a certain Dark Knight, who was rumored to be in this movie.

Now I’m sure you’ve been waiting for this point in the review, the moment where I actually mention Batman, Harley Quinn, and The Joker. Yes, Batman does show up in this movie, not a lot, but he does make some appearances. These are primarily in flashbacks though, so don’t go thinking that Batman is fighting the Suicide Squad. Margot Robbie was really good as Harley and I honestly was just excited to finally see a Harley in a live action movie. Her backstory with The Joker is not healthy, I don’t condone their relationship, even if it is a huge part of the Batman universe. It is an abusive relationship, primarily emotionally, but there are some elements of physical abuse. There was one thing about them in this movie that was a little bit different than in many of the comics and in the animated versions, The Joker does show love for Harley. In many depictions their relationship is very one sided with Harley being the only one that shows emotion. Leto’s Joker at least has a mutual obsession for the clown princess of crime. I know still not healthy and if I was friends with Harley I would insist she get the heck away from The Joker, but this was at least a new element. I also thought Jared Leto did a good job, his part was much smaller than I expected in the theatrical release. If a director’s cut is released I’m going to have to see what differed between the versions. No one will ever be Heath Ledger or Mark Hamill, his voice is just perfect, but I had some very bad feelings about Leto and I want to say I thought he was an interesting take in this movie. He also fit with Margot Robbie very well, which I think is important. So yes, Jared Leto was a good Joker.

I liked the movie overall and I would watch it again. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack, which I should buy. Now this is the more personal, less review themed part. I started putting together an opening night outfit this summer and even though I was the only person in my packed theater dressed up, I wore the heck out of my Harley Quinn outfit. I even saw two guys from my local comic book store at the movie, there was a lot of chatter on Twitter about it. There are actually a lot of photos of me in my outfit on Twitter, not including the one I’m posting here. I’m really proud of this outfit, mostly because I suck at makeup and this time it turned out pretty well. What would you think of a genderbent Joker outfit? I’m thinking about it for Free Comic Book Day or whatever nerdy day I can find.

Share your Suicide Squad thoughts with us in the comments or on Twitter, @thenerdygirlexp. You can find me on Twitter, @kleffnotes, on my blog, kleffnotes.wordpress.com, on my kleffnotes YouTube channel, I run The Nerdy Girl Express Snapchat, thenerdygirlexp, and I post recipes on the iZombie Support Group site.