Suicide Squad: 8 Reasons Jared Leto's Joker Is The Worst Part Of The Film
5. He's Barely In It (Which Makes Him Worse)
Now it's time to address the pink unicorn in the room. Or rather, address that it isn't actually in the room at all. Yes, the Joker isn't in Suicide Squad all that much, little more than a recurring cameo that makes Spider-Man look like the lead in Captain America: Civil War.
This should if anything mean his negative impact on the film is reduced, but it perversely has the opposite; even putting aside how prominent he was in the marketing, Joker looms over the film like a slightly bad smell and stifles what the rest of the cast can do. He's referenced in Waller's briefing, dominates everything with Harley Quinn and punctuates the plot just often enough to be essential. He's like the Knightmare sequence in Batman V Superman; for any element within it that works, it's ultimately a waste of time that distracts from the movie's real meat.
Leto himself has bemoaned how many of his scenes were removed, but as the film is, it would have almost been better to have him reserved entirely for flashbacks ahead of an expanded role in Ben Affleck's solo Batman outing, giving the Squad (and specifically Harley) the chance to be themselves.