I have never been so misled by bad reviews in my life. I thought this film wasn’t worth the watch because of all the naysayers saying it was either bad or Woke propaganda. I couldn’t have been more wrong. While some of the other cast members are a bit on the stale side . . . This film was completely fucking hilarious. Margot Robbie absolutely stole every scene and made a rather generic plot into a slideshow of psychopathic hilarity. The scene that cinched it for me was Harley Quinn suddenly appearing at the police station and blasting people with shots of color; essentially giving viewers Harley’s perspective on her gratuitous murder sprees in a hilarious fashion. I don’t want to say anything more because of spoilers. Needless to say, this film is worth watching.

I’ve been thinking over why this film had such mixed reviews; I think it is because there are two different kinds of filmgoers. The first are the ones who want the same regurgitated bullcrap of good vs evil so they can be soothed in their pro-genocide narratives that secretly teach people it is okay to kill others for a nebulous moral obligation. The second are those who can see films as art and are open to allowing all sorts of crazy insanity that doesn’t cater to the pro-genocide narrative of good versus evil and doesn’t lie to itself about violence being anything more than itself. Violence being “justified” by moral teachings of good versus evil is often to cater to a pro-imperialist narrative to support subjugation and hate by simplifying complex reasons into Otherizing the opposing side. Showing a mix of psychopathy and an emotional bond among all sides actually does far more for a narrative, both in terms of the richness of its story and in adding a layer of nuance towards realism despite the sheer crazy hilarity of the violence depicted in the film.  The violence isn’t justified, the violence doesn’t pretend that it is justified, and the violence doesn’t resolve anything to become more peaceful. That is far more realistic than the pro-genocidal good versus evil narratives that Hollywood constantly barfs out to teach children that it is okay to hate and kill “the Other” by generalizing them all as evil. Whereas Hollywood children’s movies teach violence has no lasting or harmful consequences by never showing the negative consequences in typical good versus evil children’s films, this film shows brutal deaths and by virtue expresses that violence has real consequences and that it doesn’t solve problems.

I had heard that some of the latter action scenes were not as good as the early parts of the film; I would say that while that is true . . . a lot of it seems to have been exaggerated. The film has a tone of levity to show Harley’s warped perspective of the sequence of events. Despite the basic plot and the lacking depth of some cast members, I recommend giving this film a watch. It definitely had more pros than cons. Overall, I’d say it is a 9 / 10 film.