Suicide Squad Reviews: 14 Early Reactions You Need To See
3. The Joker Isn't Actually All That Important
There was definitely a fundamental slant on the marketing that pushed both Harley Quinn and The Joker as the most central characters (as well as Deadshot, obviously), but it seems one of those suggestions was a bit of a red herring.
According to most reviews, Mr J has around 25 minutes of footage (which isn't too terrible), but unfortunately, he's not actually all that key to the plot. As ComingSoon say:
"As much as I loved the Joker, I do have to acknowledge one thing about his role in Suicide Squad – he’s almost completely irrelevant to the plot. If you delete every Joker scene from this movie, you still have the same core story... He’s an absolutely fun side show, but he doesn’t drive the main narrative at all."
ScreenRush echo the same sentiments:
"Those hoping to see lots of Jared Leto’s much-hyped Joker, who’s second-billed in the movie’s advertising below Will Smith, should adjust their expectations accordingly: His grill and tattoos appear mostly in flashbacks, and then only in a pointless subplot that could have been removed from the movie with zero consequence to the primary story."
And THR again bring the same point up:
"Unfortunately, Joker never feels properly integrated into the storyline but rather seems like a special guest star on hand to enliven the show when needed, which is increasingly often. Sporting tats, green hair and metal teeth, Leto brings a measure of the requisite unpredictability and evil glee to the role, but his Joker doesn’t threaten the big-screen hold on the public imagination that Jack Nicholson and then Heath Ledger established."
It's a shame, but let's just hope he's integrated better in the Batman solo film.