Does The ‘Suicide Squad’ Extended Cut Improve Jared Leto’s Joker?

With the Suicide Squad Extended Cut available for Digital Download, it has become clear that Warner Bros. is still holding out when it comes to Jared Leto’s Joker. Even with the longer cut of the film the Joker is only given a snippet of new footage but does that footage manage to improve Leto’s portrayal. Yeah, actually I would argue that it does.

I was actually a fan of Suicide Squad when it was released in theaters. Does it have problems? Yeah some pretty big ones, but overall I found the characters to be interesting and fun enough to win me over, bringing us to Jared Leto’s version of the Joker. With the theatrical release of Suicide Squad, I would claim that we didn’t get the iconic Joker moment that we deserved, don’t get me wrong I think Leto did a great job. Every time the Joker was on screen I was captivated, there was simply not enough of him. The extended cut of Suicide Squad doesn’t really justify cutting Leto’s scenes, after all, I believe the best Joker scene in the entire movie, is a newly added one and I would even go one step further to say that it did manage to deliver an iconic moment.

The scene I’m talking about is an exchange between the Joker and Harley Quinn. We get to see this amazing chase and a better look at Mr. J’s conflicted feelings for Harley. We also get to see this mesmerizing scene between the pair where Joker tells Harley that she isn’t a part of his plan, and then goes on to deliver a great performance that displays some of Jokers inner madness. This all leads to what I would say is Leto’s best line in the entire movie, “if you weren’t so crazy I’d think you were insane.” It just baffles me why a scene this great was cut. Watch the amazing added scene at around the 5.20 mark below:

Overall I would say that we still need to see more of Jared Leto’s Joker before we pass judgment, but this added scene definitely helps the character shine a little but more in the DC Extended Universe, and gives Leto a more iconic and memorable moment in the film.