Birds Of Prey

7/10 - Check It Out

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (the only time I will write the full original title in this review) is a fun, raunchy thrill ride stuffed to the brim with enjoyable characters and visceral action that’s quite entertaining but ultimately ends up feeling slightly hollow. Harley Quinn, played by the beautifully brilliant Margot Robbie, first graced the silver screen in the less-than-stellar Suicide Squad in 2016. The character was easily the best part of the movie and enraptured pop culture for well over a year, including dominating women’s Halloween costumes for the next two years. In this film, Harley and her paramour Joker have broken up (“for good” as she iterates several times in the movie) which forces her to survive or die all on her own. It turns out that Harley has made quite the list of enemies over the years and many of them could not be more excited to finally get the chance to kill her, including Gotham’s sadistic new crime lord, Black Mask. There are certainly some slower moments but the film bounces from one insane action sequence to the next, stuffed with awesome characters and hilarious lines but ultimately ends up falling slightly flat.

Harley Quinn has been a staple comic book character for 25 years, first debuting in the animated TV show, Batman: The Animate Series, in 1992 and the comics in The Batman Adventures #12 in 1993. Harley’s role has changed over the years from Joker’s completely loyal lover and equally insane henchwoman, to a super villain in her own right, to her current form – a unique antihero. This film chooses to adapt a combination of all of them, Harley is definitely not a good person but not exactly a villain either. She does what she wants when she wants to and uses her intelligence, foul mouth and surprisingly effective combat skills to survive and thrive in Gotham. The movie also uses this as an opportunity to launch some other characters in Gotham and an origin story for the super-team Birds of Prey.

The movie does a great job of putting the action, humor and fun at the forefront. You don’t go ten minutes without a fight, gruesome murder or someone blowing something up. The action is visceral and raw; I don’t think I have ever seen so many shattered limbs in a movie. It’s pretty fucking awesome to see Harley Quinn beating the shit out of giant muscly men with a hammer while skating around on roller skates. The color in the movie seems to pop off the screen and the music is absolutely on point. Half the soundtrack seems to be ripped from one of my playlists (Vintage Chicks, all badass classic rock songs by women) and I was tapping my feet during many of the action scenes. Margot Robbie does a phenomenal job as Harley Quinn and there is some genuinely good character development with her over the course of the film. The other two standouts are Ewan McGregor as Black Mask and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress. Huntress was brilliantly done and easily the best of Harley’s companions in the film. Mary is the perfect casting choice and I can’t wait to see more of her in this role – she kicks some major ass. Ewan is incredibly creepy and off-putting and really delivers a perfectly believable and terrifying comic villain brought to this semi-real world on the big screen. He is disgusting, misogynistic, off-putting and an excellent villain for this film.

As much as I enjoyed Birds of Prey, the film does have its weaknesses. While the writing was great for the most part, it definitely had its spotty moments that left me shaking my head. At times the acting snagged, particularly with Ella Jay Basco who was great one moment and just horrible in other scenes. Jurnee Smollett-Bell is excellent as Black Canary (a comic heroine with a super voice) but she is sorely underutilized in this. For such a cool character with some unique skills, they really messed up by not using more of her. Although, it was awesome that Jurnee used her real voice to sing and she did an incredible job. Even more criminally underused however, is Harley’s trademark pet hyena. The movie and trailer makes a big show of Harley getting the creature and it even looks really cool, the CGI is solid. But ultimately that amounts to naught as the hyena is used for nothing more than a footstool, seriously, that’s literally one of its only two moments. It seems like a total waste and left me wanting so much more from such a cool pet. The plot was chaotic - which worked at times, as we are given an insight into the darkly brilliant yet disordered mind of Harley Quinn. However the frenetic plot left some gaps and didn’t help to give me the full satisfaction that a viewer deserves. I know they purposefully intended to not include the Joker at all, but it still felt weird. Just like with 2018’s Venom not including Spider-Man, it feels weird to see a character that was created as part of another (Harley as an extension of Joker) and then to completely deny the original character - even for a few seconds. I understand why they did it but I did end up missing him. The movie makes plenty of mention of him, has cartoonish caricatures of him and even some jokes on the lack of appearance but ultimately, I would have liked to see something. I think even Jared Leto as Joker could have done a cool breakup scene. All of this combines to leave the film feeling slightly empty at the end, like if you ate nothing but cookies for dinner: totally delicious and fun in the moment, but leaves you wanting a little more in just a couple hours.

The box office has been unfortunately cruel to this film with a weak 33 million dollar opening weekend, which is an incredibly low opening it does not deserve. I don’t think it should be a smash hit but it’s a damn fun movie and deserves to do better and be seen more. In response and an attempt to capitalize on the Harley Quinn name, the studio and theaters have changed the name of the movie to: Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. I am not in love with this decision, but I don’t hate it. I do like the original long name better; it’s more obnoxiously unique, which fits the movie, but the name change is probably something that should have happened before release. I also think the R rating hurt the initial open. While I love R rated movies and was personally glad to see all the blood and hear all the “fucks”, most people who will see a Harley Quinn movie on name alone are probably teenagers. Also there’s is no real substance behind the R rating, unlike Marvel’s Logan or DC’s earlier R rated success with Joker.

This movie was made and launched by Margot Robbie’s production company and she was heavily involved with most of the creative process. She wanted to create a film that felt less male gaze-y and gives women in the city of Gotham some serious power. Unlike last year’s Black Christmas (one of the worst movies to ever be made), this movie doesn’t cram its female power or feminism down your throat. It’s fun, believable and empowering. Also, Chris Messina does a very unique and absolutely spine-tingling take on Victor Zsasz, a terrifying serial killer who marks each kill on his body. I loved every second he was on screen but was disappointed by the direction they took his character in the end.

Birds of Prey is far from perfect but an absolute blast. There aren’t many movies out that you will have more fun in, and if you are remotely interested, I absolutely recommend it. The movie has clever lines, beautiful women kicking ass, awesome music, cool characters and it sets up an interesting future in Gotham. I’m excited to see what comes next and you should fly into theaters to see this one while you can.

7/10 – Check It Out