Before Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel become the first female superheroes to get a solo film this millennium, the bad girls of villainy are stealing their thunder in Suicide Squad. The story is about what happens when the worst of the worst criminals in Gotham are forced to stop a supernatural villain from conquering Earth. Without question, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) steals the show. Katana (Karen Fukuhara) is the character whose backstory is the most intriguing, and Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) is the baddest baddie.  The sum of all these parts is that Suicide Squad is a bigger draw to teen girls than those superhero films full of dudes. I brought my 15-year-old daughter and two of her best girl friends to see Suicide Squad and they loved it. LOVED it. But, the enjoyment factor isn’t really the question with this PG-13 film. The debate lies here: Could a film that glorifies doing wrong be right for your family?

The biggest moral issue with this film is the immorality. The premise flips villains into antiheroes, and it absolutely celebrates evil. Each character’s rap sheet is made clear: each squad member gleefully perpetrated heinous crimes and is utterly remorseless, with the exception of one character who [**spoiler**] murdered his wife and children.  The audience revels in Harley Quinn’s adorable insanity, which is a bit uncomfortable given her history of joyfully killing people and one notable superhero. Hit man Deadshot (Will Smith) has no respect for human life and doesn’t regret his criminal history, he just regrets his daughter found out about it. Joker (Jared Leto) is a chillingly depraved gangster who is portrayed as the most brilliant of the villains because he repeatedly eludes capture and is able to outsmart Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), the government official behind this top-secret operation.

No surprise here, but violence is rampant throughout Suicide Squad. Gunplay, bombs, swords, fire, knives, baseball bats – it’s all here, but it’s not graphic.  And mostly, it’s bad guys hurting bad guys. The villains' army is no longer human but some sort of faceless rock, so when they’re attacked, it doesn’t appear there’s a loss of human life. The shocking moments are at the hands of “the good guys:” the government figures controlling the operation kill members of their own special ops team and blow off the head of a Suicide Squad member. Alarming, but really, the film’s conceit launches from a disturbing notion.

Some cursing exists, of course, because as Harley Quinn says, “we’re bad guys, it’s what we do.” More offensive than a bad word is an ugly sentence: Harley gets punched in the face by one of the men who shrugs it off by telling the other guys, “she had a mouth on her” – to which they seem to agree.

Quinn’s character may be the most troubling, especially because girls are drawn to the film to see her magnetic performance. First, there’s the look – with her pony tails and cheek-revealing shorty shorts, she’s little girl lost, a nymphet who uses her sexuality to lure in men.

Then, there’s the “romance” between Joker and Harley Quinn. DC mythology makes it clear Joker is incapable of love and his relationship with Harley Quinn is abusive. However, the film states Joker and Harley are the king and queen of Gotham’s mayhem syndicate and glamorizes their relationship, showing Joker as the guy who will do anything to rescue his girl so she can be by his side. The abuse, then, is more subtle and may read as “true love” to some girls. And, that’s a dangerous “lesson” some young viewers may absorb.

Suicide Squad is not a redemption story, the villains not interested in being good and they aren’t seeking forgiveness. They try to defeat their “target” – who is one of them – for their own survival. At the end of the day, they are unapologetic scoundrels – you just have to decide if two hours with the Suicide Squad has the potential to corrupt your kid. For me, my 15-year-old daughter is now wearing pigtails and designing her Harley Quinn Halloween costume.

For another mom's opinion, check out our Mom's Movie Minute episode with Angela Hoover.