Batman & Harley Quinn

[mirth]

[JasonPratt]

A.) Conroy is gold as usual; especially when he can straight-man the comedy.

B.) Someone clearly hired Melissa Rouch on (1) comedy chops and (2) a physical resemblance to Harley plus (3) a very superficial resemblance to the voice without checking (4) whether she can do the voice. It is REALLY REALLY HARD to do the Harley voice. Tara Strong has been trying for years ever since Arleen Sorkin quit (I think her last run as Quinn was in Batman: Arkham Asylum) and even with all that experience the results are hit and miss. Sometimes a very wide miss. This is worse. Sooooo mucchhhh woorrssee. She would have done better to just sound like Melissa Rouch ("Day one, Harley Quinn!"). I guess also (5), because the target audience probably loves Melissa Rouch for her work on BBT, and she's the "sellable" guest star.

C.) What is the point of hearkening back to the DCAU in art style and voice actors, if you're going to break the continuity? (I mean in regard to what Quinn is doing at the start of the story.) That might be tolerable, sort of, except...

D.) ...the butchering of Dick Grayson's character for comedy value is just,  #:-) L:-) Grayson is a well-adjusted, playful, responsible adult, who is hugely respected by most DC characters and gets along with them very well in return. That's main canon, and consistent across most canons including the DCAU. He isn't a Jock McDouchebrah whose balls override all common sense so that he starts hitting on anything cute nearby regardless of how retarded and/or treacherous that would be. An active sex life is one thing (also well-established in main canons); flirting with someone who was, at best, terrorized into frequent mass murder is something else. Quinn's behavior isn't outside established character; Grayson's is. The only way this works is if the story itself is far off DCAU canon, but then it looks and sounds a lot like Season 4 of BTAS.

In short, this is pretty cynical and misdirected, tone-deaf fanservice, slapped together for one obvious reason stated early in the promo piece: "We knew a Suicide Squad movie was coming..."  :hide: Relatedly, this was put into production well before SSquad arrived in theaters, but it's only being released now. That says something, too.

[Martok]

I say, bring on the fan-service!  Unless & until I see it, I shan't make judgments.  For now, though, this looks like it might actually be fun to watch. 

[mirth]

Yeah. I'm not too stressed about it. I think Melissa Rauch will be fine as Harley. Not Arleen Sorkin good, but fine.

Most of these DCAU flicks are pretty good. The Killing Joke was one of the biggest misses I've seen.

[JasonPratt]

The same writers behind TKJ are doing this one, as far as I can tell.

And hey, if MR's line delivery in the trailer didn't make you reflexively cringe, then that's not a problem.  :bd:  :hide:

I'm even willing to concede that, taken apart from the context of characterization, the final scene in the trailer is pretty funny. In fact, I'll go further: had they used the Jason Todd Robin, or if they had written his Red Hood character in as a third side of the triangle hunting Woodrue and Ivy, I wouldn't have had any complaints about characterization there at all!