Released: February 2020
Director: Cathy Yan
Rated R
Run Time: 109 Minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Genre: Action/Comedy
Cast:
Margot Robbie: Harley Quinn
Rosie Perez: Renee Montoya
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Helena Bertinelli/Huntress
Jurnee Smollett-Bell: Dinah Lance/Black Canary
Ewan McGregor: Roman Sionis
Ella Jay Basco: Cassandra Cain
Chris Messina: Victor Zsasz
I’ve been a huge fan of comic book movies since I can remember. Two of the first comic book movies that I ever saw were the big ones: Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton’s Batman. Superman was and still is an incredibly wonderful film. I have the same feelings towards Batman. It was a dark and Gothic film that was just wild. Now, not everything that’s come out of the comic book world has successfully made the transition to film. Some of the Superman and Batman sequels ended up being god-awful movies in general. In fact, Batman and Robin almost killed the genre entirely when it was released back in 1997. Thankfully, Blade came out the following year and was a major hit, but it wasn’t really until Marvel’s X-Men film that the genre was given new life. The genre has had its ups-and-downs over the years, but it’s stronger than ever. Marvel took the lead and Warner Bros. and DC have struggled to keep up. It wasn’t until 2017 that DC and Warner Bros started hitting their stride with films like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam!, and Joker. These are absolutely fantastic films that prove that DC can still make good comic book movies. So, what the hell happened with Suicide Squad and the new Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey film? I’m calling the new film that because the original title was changed from this: Birds of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. That title was just one of the MANY problems this movie had. Let’s dig into it.
The film follows Harley Quinn as she and The Joker have broken up. As a result, everybody that she’s wronged is after including one Roman Sionis, a ruthless crime lord. Roman is after a young pickpocket who stole a diamond that has information that Roman needs to get the resources to control all the crime in Gotham. Teaming up with Dinah Lance, Huntress and cop Renee Montoya, they try to protect the young thief before Roman gets his hands on her. Okay, I’ve got a bit of a mini-rant here: When you’re marketing a film, especially with trailers, you eventually want to let the audience know what the movie is about. Harley Quinn didn’t fucking do that. The trailers didn’t tell me anything about the plot. I didn’t figure it out until I actually saw the film, and the actual plot is…..lame. The McGuffin of the film is a diamond. A diamond. I guess one could argue that the girl, Cassandra Cain is also a McGuffin. From what I understand, the film was supposed to be about these women who team up to become the Birds of Prey, a group of female superheroes, I guess? Here’s the problem: These women don’t actually team up until the third act of the film, essentially making this a movie about Harley Quinn, which is what it should have been in the first place. There is no real substance here. This was supposed to be DC’s answer to Guardians of the Galaxy. Here’s the problem: It’s nowhere near as good.
Let’s talk about the stuff in the film that was actually good. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is a revelation. When she showed up in Suicide Squad, she nailed it. She’s just as fantastic here. She gives the character that manic insanity that defines Harley Quinn. Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary was wonderful. She was gorgeous and she kicked ass like there was no tomorrow. Ewan McGregor has always been one of my favorite actors, and he steals the show whenever he’s on screen as Roman Sionis/Black Mask. His chemistry with Chris Messina’s Victor Zsasz was absolutely magnetic. Messina as Zsasz was really good. That’s a character that is absolutely evil, but he still pales in comparison to McGregor’s character. The action in the film earns the film its R-rating. It hits hard and sometimes it’s pretty funny. Watching Harley Quinn go to town on Sionis’ goons was pretty satisfying, and the final battle between the women and Sionis’ army was just….wow! It was good. When the women are on screen together, it’s one of the best on-screen team-ups I’ve seen in a while. The chemistry between the characters is crazy awesome. The film is also well-shot and is very colorful.
Okay, now let’s really get into why this film didn’t work for me. Before anybody starts in with the whole “feminist” angle, let me be as forthcoming as I can be. I have no problems with movies that have a feminist angle. To me, it’s not as important as whether or not the film succeeds on its own merits. Harley Quinn does not. First of all, the character of Harley Quinn herself. I love Margot Robbie as Quinn. I think she’s absolutely wonderful. The problem is that Quinn is what some critics call a side-character of a side-character. She’s a side-character of the Joker, a force of nature unto himself, and Quinn is basically a knock-off of said force. She’s a relatively new character in the grand scheme of DC Comics. I think the character can be interesting, but she’s always been a one-note character and she can’t carry a major story by herself. Another problem is the inclusion of Huntress. It’s not that she shouldn’t have been included, but she really doesn’t figure into the film until the final act. She gets no real character development outside of the fact that she is there to avenge her family. That’s it. The writing is also all over the place. Yeah, the main characters and villains are very entertaining, but there’s nothing to this film beyond that. The scripts seems to have been cobbled together by various people and the ideas just aren’t meshing. It’s a puzzle where the pieces don’t fit. The movie never should have been called Birds of Prey. It’s not about them, it’s about Harley Quinn. The fact that Warner Bros changed the name of the film after it’s opening weekend speaks volumes to the idea that this film was mishandled in the same fashion that Suicide Squad was.
Birds of Prey, at the end of the day, is a film that I feel never should have been green-lit in the first place. It features characters that not a lot of people know a whole lot about, except for Harley Quinn and maybe Black Canary. Outside of that, this film comes on the heels of a vastly superior film, Joker, which didn’t feel like a comic book movie, but was far more compelling. Warner Bros. and DC Films have been on a role since 2017, so Birds of Prey not performing as well as Warner Bros. may have hoped isn’t going to be a deal breaker for the DCEU. It really didn’t have a chance of being a huge movie anyway. However, the writing and the direction of the film, combined with a horrific marketing campaign basically doomed this project from the start. Sometimes a project that sounds good on paper should just stay that way. There are definitely things that I like about this film, but they don’t come together in a coherent piece like they should. Because of that, I just couldn’t connect with what was happening on the screen. The women were fantastic as was Ewan McGregor, but even the most gung-ho of performances can’t save Birds of Prey/Harley Quinn from obscurity. This is a film that’s going to be forgotten in a matter of weeks. There are going to be people that enjoy it, and I think that’s great, but for me it just didn’t click. I went in with pretty low expectations and I still came out disappointed. Sorry, WB, try harder.
My Final Recommendation: Birds of Prey? More like Birds of Meh. 5/10.