Batman and Harley Quinn first reactions

My friends, I come to you solemnly, dipped in regret, eating tacos and reading headlines.
What headlines? You don't come here for the news, you come here for the sass and you know it!
Well, I remembered that the Batman and Harley Quinn movie was due to be out - or was out... I may have lost several weeks recently but that's a story for another time when I get nachos and vodka.

No, what I saw today in my search for a fond trip down memory lane was a bunch of ominous news headlines.

Which frankly sucks because even though I knew it was just going to be a slapped together cartoon cashing in on Harley's popularity boom...
Even though it was blatantly a re-do of the classic BTAS episode 'Harlequinade'...
Even though I'd been warned it wasn't classified as BTAS universe continuity..
Heck, I was wary as funk about Bruce Timm's involvement..

That dude just seems to write the characters like it's his own dream diary.

But I was still looking forward to it because it was classic animated Harley Quinn in her classic suit, she wasn't spray painted white and pretending to play vigilante cop buddy slash over powered super bad ass slash someone pretending to play roller derby, she looked like she had moved on from the Joker and was bitter about it and her life now, reduced to playing 'herself' at a dodgy superheroine hooters to pay her bills...

I was genuinely keen to see this version of Harley Quinn.




So what do the headlines say?

'Batman and Harley Quinn' - An uneven, disappointing nod to the '90's cartoon
Monkeys Fighting Robots - Manny Gomez Aug 14 2017

The tone of the movie is also all over the place, going from slapstick humour to strong sexual innuendo to superhero action in a strange rhythm that just doesn’t grab you. It can’t decide at times what it is and that doesn’t make it compelling.

The Warner Bros. animated DCU properties have always been a bit of a mixed bag. For every Batman: The Animated Series, which got everything right and is in my opinion still the definitive version of Batman outside the actual comics, there is something like the adaptation of The Killing Joke, which took something great and all but ruined it. The latest project, Batman and Harley Quinn, falls somewhere in-between.

'Batman and Harley Quinn' review: A padded, uneven, unworthy homage

Forbes - Scott Mendelson Aug 15 2017

The picture doesn’t offer Batman or Nightwing at their best, and it’s a little odd that Poison Ivy would feel conflicted about the violence she is unleashing and threatening to unleash, but Rauch tries her best to save the film through sheer force of will. This Harley is totally disconnected from the Joker (he is barely referenced at all) and walking a tightrope between a more adult interpretation and the TV-Y7 figure of evil fun that we first met back in September of 1992. More screen time between her and Brewster's Poison Ivy would have helped immensely.

Batman and Harley Quinn is a slight entry into the DCAU library, but that is its intent. I wish the pacing was tighter, and I wish there was more of an emotional ending, rather than what amounts to an abrupt punchline. I again wonder how much of Batman: The Animated Series’ inherent goodness (especially in terms of not making Batman into a jerk) was due to Bruce Timm and friends not being able to go as “hardcore” as they might have liked due to Fox’s BS&P at the time. But that’s a conversation for another day. I can’t help noticing that “Harlequinade” did it better, 23 years ago, in just 20 minutes.

Batman and Harley Quinn review

IGN - Blair Marnell 16 Aug 2017

To be clear, Batman and Harley Quinn does have its dramatic moments and it executes them well. However, the film comes down hard on the comedic side, and that’s where it becomes hit and miss. There are times when the story is genuinely funny, and then there’s an extended fart joke in the Batmobile that serves no purpose whatsoever. It’s actually a pretty undignified moment for both of the title characters. And as useless as that scene was, it was immediately followed by back-to-back musical interludes.


It’s almost as if Bruce Timm and his co-writer, Jim Krieg, wanted to push the limits of this film by adding as many things as possible that would never be acceptable on Batman: The Animated Series. That includes Two-Face’s twin henchmen assuming an unmistakable sexual position and Harley’s seduction of one of the film’s leads. Those moments and scenes could have been left out entirely and the film wouldn’t have missed them at all. Instead, they’re indulgent and slow down the pace of the story.

Batman and Harley Quinn gives a big middle finger to the beloved antivillian

Gizmodo - Beth Elderkin Aug 19 2017


Look, I'm not saying Harley Quinn can't be sexual. I mean look at her relationship in Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti's Harley Quinn comic, where the anti-villain owns her sexuality without ever getting sleazy. Or check out her sexy and meaningful relationship with Poison Ivy in DC Bombshells. Her whole character has major sexual undertones, and there's nothing wrong with exploring them in a more adult film like this one. But this PG-13 flick isn't interested in exploring Harley's sexuality. It just wants to show you her in her underwear, or have a close-up of her jiggling boobs.

                               

And Batman and Harley Quinn doesn't even have a decent enough story to even pretend it's more than fan service. Maybe the plot would satisfy a kid, like the lesser B:TAS episodes, but it's way too objectifying to let a kid watch it. Harley Quinn deserves a lot better than this movie. And after The Killing Joke debacle, DC fans deserve a lot better, too.

A penny for your thoughts on Batman and Harley Quinn; weird, occasionally funny and frequently uncomfortable

Inside Pulse - Penny Sutereau Aug 18 2017

This film was MASSIVELY anticipated by fans since the first trailer announcing it. Like The Killing Joke before it, fans were practically salivating waiting for this stylistic return to the DCAU that focused on everyone’s favourite loopy ex-shrink. And like The Killing Joke before it, it massively disappoints.

(But) Once the movie gets to the point of our trio finally working together on the road looking for Woodrue and Ivy, it begins to fall apart. It devolves into a 5 minute fart joke, an unnecessarily sexualised musical number at a henchmen bar where Harley LITERALLY shakes her tits for the crowd.

We got something that makes Suicide Squad look like a tight cohesive Oscar contender. And Harley Quinn deserves so much better than this 90 minute slut joke.
Don’t waste your money. Find it online somewhere.
We now return you to reading Harley’s comics where she’s more than farting and f**king.

I disagree with some parts of the last two reviews... for one Hardly Quinn does seem to own her sexuality in her stupid monthly comic *but* she has always comes across as super sleazy to me, like she can't do anything without being gross or half naked and being paired up with literally everyone she comes across. It's less sexually liberated and more T&A to get views/headlines. 

That's not a slur on her for being bi-sexual - it's just that she's suddenly gone from originally being a loyal sidekick and devoted one man woman who sometimes eyed up other man-candy.. to someone who has love to share with every single bit character of any gender or sexuality in her book and lets the whole world know via terrible kink puns or while flashing her gross pasty corpse coloured skin while she throws poop at them or kills other people. 

Sometimes those loves are simultaneous yet there's never any beef between her lovers.. it's just one big 'I'm so grateful to have any of this Harley Sue's love!' bad fan fiction wish fulfilment. It's... weird.

The second review.. well, have you read her comics? It's literally nothing but fart jokes and sex jokes.

If you look closely at the printed copies.. it's LITERALLY the substance what is holding the pages together.

She's more of a character now in the Suicide Squad run than she ever is in her monthly solo.. something I'd never thought I'd say, Bombshells does it good too and of course her Injustice Gods Among Us characterisation is pretty perfect. 

Pretty sure the reviewer is mainly referring to her solo though, so thumbs down. 

I haven't watched this movie myself yet so I have yet to form my own opinion but I'll certainly let you know what I think about it. I'm hoping that for once the DC hate train is wrong and I hope it won't be as bad as all that. 

If it is, well..... at least it can't be as bad as Suicide Squad. Damn, those guys really raised the bar on failing if we're using them as a measure. 

"Ew, don't get too close to the camera.. it's been up my arse the entire film!"