By Ben Davis
My expectations going in.
The DC world has been on fire lately. With the critical and financial success of Wonder Woman (93% on RT and $821.749 million at the worldwide box office), Aquaman (66% on RT and $1.148 billion at the worldwide box office), Shazam! (90% on RT and $366 million at the worldwide box office on a $90 million budget), and Joker (68% on RT, $1.072 billion at the worldwide box office, 11 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and, two wins for Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix and Best Original Score for Hildur Guònadóttir), it’s fair to say DC is knocking it out of the park recently.
That hasn’t always been the case for DC fare. One of the most critically panned superhero movies in recent memory was Suicide Squad. Now while I still enjoy that movie far more than most—in particular Will Smith as Deadshot, Jared Leto as Joker, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, and Jai Courtney as Boomerang—the story itself was a mess. It wasn’t all lost, though, as most critics fell in love with Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Margot Robbie had a complete lock on who this character is. From the accent to the mannerisms to the playful maniacal nature of the character, I think it’s fair to say Margot Robbie was born to play this role. This leads to Birds of Prey (among other rumored spin-offs like Joker and Harley and Gotham City Sirens): a spin-off comic book that follows Cassandra Cain, Black Canary, Huntress, and sometimes Harley Quinn as they kick the crap out of bad guys.
My initial thoughts on this were that it was a bad idea. First off, while most everyone enjoyed Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, it’s still Harley Quinn coming off of Suicide Squad. Again, a movie I enjoy but most people don’t. That by itself is already a tough mountain to climb. I also thought Birds of Prey was an odd choice because it’s a series that follows less widely known characters that general audiences aren’t familiar with. The marketing also didn’t really “wow” me in any way. The trailers and poster were fine, but not once did I feel like the marketing told me what the movie was supposed to be about. All I took away from the trailers is that Margot Robbie is still incredible as Harley Quinn and she’s teaming up with people to take down a bad guy. However with me being a big DC fan, I was still very excited and walked into this movie with my expectations checked at the door.
Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey brings us back to Gotham and follows Harley Quinn who must team up with a rag-tag group of woman (Huntress, Black Canary, and Renee Montoya) to protect a teenage girl (Cassandra Cain) from the villainous Black Mass, who has a plan to take control of the crime world of Gotham. It’s up to Harley Quinn and The Birds of Prey to stop Black Mask’s dastardly plan from coming true.
Let’s get into it.
Overall, I had a blast with this film! It’s the perfect combination between Deadpool and 2000’s Charlie’s Angles. It’s wacky, fun, violent, incredibly colorful, and the fight choreography is something special. It’s not all rainbows though, as the middle act of the film is really all over the place and looses focus several times. Birds of Prey, however, is able to overcome this mistake by delivering a thrilling conclusion that makes the movie overall highly enjoyable.
The cast is electric in Birds of Prey, particularly Ewan McGregor as Black Mask. He chews up the scenery in all the best ways creating a character that automatically catches your eye. He’s flamboyant, funny, devilishly charming, but also very scary in a real way. Margot Robbie also crushes it again as Harley Quinn. She’s hilarious, funny, over-the-top, wickedly charming and oddly very sweet. Harley Quinn’s wall drops in this and it let’s you into her vulnerability a bit so you get a good sense of who she is as a person and I really appreciated that.
The Birds of Prey are also great. The chemistry between Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, and Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain is outstanding when they’re on screen. My only wish is that they all teamed up more throughout the film.
The fight choreography is also insanely well done.
It’s violent, hard hitting, and cartoonish in all the right ways. It never looses its sense of fun within the action by becoming too brutal. Chad Stahelski (director of the John Wick franchise) oversaw action sequences in an uncredited role in re-shoots to re-tool the action sequences, and you can tell. That man knows exactly what he’s doing.
Director Cathy Han captures Gotham City in a way that makes it feel like a living/breathing city full of life. It’s a character unto itself and not since 1989’s Batman has Gotham City felt more realized than this. It’s beautiful, gothic, and everything I picture Gotham being.
Birds of Prey is also incredibly hilarious. There was several times throughout the film were I found myself snorting uncontrollably from laughing too hard. There’s one constant gag in particular involving Huntress that I won’t spoil that had me rolling each time.
Like I said earlier though, Birds of Prey’s middle act is all over the place and feels patched together. I get that it’s a creative choice because we’re following the story from Harley’s perspective, but this didn’t really mesh well and made the middle act feel muddled and scatter-brained.
I also find it odd still that they decided to go with Birds of Prey because while they’re great in the film, this is really just a Harley Quinn movie featuring The Birds of Prey. They could’ve easily called this movie Harley Quinn and left it at that. (Editor’s note: Oddly enough Ben was a bit of a prophet here as the studio did end up trimming the title some. They changed it from Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) to just Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.)
Overall, minus a wandering middle act that lacked focus and a misleading marketing campaign, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey excels in almost every other category. It’s fun, violent, silly, and an over-the-top delight full of laughs and some great action. If you’re a Harley Quinn fan, you shouldn’t miss this one.