Harley steals it, Smith nails it. Leto becomes the Joker.

Rating: 10/10 (11 December 2016)

I stuck this flick up in my Plex Server and forgot about it. Then I watched it a few more times, and something happened. It grew on me.
Most of the reviews I have read are over-analyzing this film. It is what it is. It's the BAD GUYS. It's The Joker. It's a comic book movie, for cryin out loud! Sorry, movies that "suck" do not rake in a $745,600,054 Box Office. So, IMDb reviews say that this film sucks, and the Box Office (and other review sites) say that it doesn't. So ya just have to decide what you are gonna believe. If people kept going to the theatre to see it, and if they keep buying the Blu Ray or renting it, even to this day, then I'd say it less than sucks. Because it's just a fun movie.
The More I watch this, the more I think Jared Leto is the best Joker I've ever seen. We have all this dark Magic cack going on in the background, the Sorceress is making an army out of charcoal people. But what's The Joker doing? He's gettin' "His Puddin" back. All of the members of Suicide Squad have thing's they'd rather be doing, but The Joker? He just wants His Puddin'. He'll do anything for her.
I love this film for the backstory of Harley Quinn and The Joker, it explains a lot about the character. My first introduction to Harley was in the animated Batman from the early 90's. Margot Robie gets it, she's that exact Harley,
The strongest points are Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith doing a great Deadshot. There are some truly great moments in this, but it takes a while to get to them.
People have said that the Extended cut ruins the film. No, Nope. Especially the Harley/Motorcycle scene. I'm not really sure how the Theatrical version goes, I saw the extended version first.
As I said, the first time I ever saw the Harley character was in the late 80's/Early 90's Batman cartoons. This character is pretty close to how that Harley was. That early Harley seemed to be a person who when trying to do the right thing, always gets quashed by prejudgments and circumstances and ends up back in Arkham. The relationship with The Joker has morphed into a full on love story, and it works here.
Mostly, this film is a about the Harley/Joker (Jared Leto) connection, this Joker has moved away from the comical Cesar Romero version and the typical real-bad-guy as portrayed by Jack Nicholson and the late Heath Ledger, to a more complicated personality: You never know what side of the law he'll assist. Most of his motivation is for Harley, so whatever is good for her, he does. Sometimes that happens to help out the good guys (whoever they are), sometimes not. That's the other issue: This film is all shades of Grey, the worst people are shown to have some measure of compassion, and the alleged "good people" will break the law to keep secrets.
By contrast, the Deadshot story is also a love story, his concern is for his daughter. Which is how government agent "Amanda Waller" (Viola Davis) manipulates him - And she uses the same tactic on the rest of the Metahumans she's gathered up. But Amanda has bitten off a little too much with her incarceration of "The Enchantress"/June Moone (Cara Delevingne) who gets away and starts a supernatural ruckus.
So Waller sends out the rest of these (alleged) crazies under Colonel Rick Flag (and I am a huge fan of Joel Kinnaman) who is compromised by being in love with The Enchantress' Host June Moone- to hunt *down* The Enchantress. Seems a futile situation. One thing is clear, Waller is worse than the actual crooks in this sortie. Killer Kroc (And I had not recognised Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney- Almost didn't recognize him too), Slipknot, Diablo, and maybe a few others - It gets confusing as the film goes along, with all of these characters. But eventually it falls on "Task Force X" aka Suicide Squad to take down Enchantress and each member has a role they play in this. Despite the story clutter, it's good to see these crooks all gathered up in one place. Director and Writer David Ayer tries hard to be Zack Snyder, maybe is able to emulate some of the imagery Snyder has created. Look for Clint Eastwood progeny Scott as a nasty Prison guard, and somewhere is voice and character actor Robin Atkin Downes ("Byron" from Babylon 5) as someone named "Angelo".
The more I watch this, the more I find some great Classic Joker moments. Leto plays this as a cross between the Caesar Romero Joker, the Nicholson Joker, and the Heath Ledger Joker (who I liked the least). I think this Joker is the most like the Joker from the Comics. All I know is that, when Suicide Squad 2 comes out, I'll be in line. and so will a lot of other people.