Review of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) by Bluereckoning — 08 Feb 2020

If you're high on acid you might enjoy this movie since it has some wonderful visuals, but otherwise just avoid it, this is an awful film with few redeeming qualities. Margot Robbie puts in a decent performance as Harley Quinn, however I was confused if this was supposed to be about Harley Quinn or about the Birds of Prey, no matter what they were going for though, they failed. The film lacks solid direction and the narrative is just boring and at many times cliche. Unfortunately there is also a strong effort to push a far-left, woke and feminist social and political agenda in the film. This isn't done subtly and it is very on the nose. For example, every male character is portrayed as an idiot or an over the top misogynist. This will turn off a lot of audiences who just wanted to watch an entertaining film with a well written narrative and interesting characters without being lectured or preached to, which is exactly what this film is trying to do. You shouldn't have to tear down male characters in order to lift up female ones. An easy example is Sarah Connor from the first two Terminator films and Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise, who are two of of most iconic characters in film history, wonderfully written and individuals you can look up to. Rosie Perez's character Renee Montoya doesn't work and it is also laughable to see a 55 year old woman beating up men younger and twice her size. On that note though I laughed at the end when Montoya was briefly fighting Harley Quinn, throughout the film, Quinn easily dispatches with any man who gets in her way, yet in this fight she struggles to overcome a much older, 55 year old woman (just thought id mention it). Laughably, Montoya is portrayed to be the only competent cop on the force and the men once again, are depicted as morons or misogynists. Roman Sionis/Black Mask, portrayed by Ewan McGregor, is an awful villain and is not really intimidating at all, they do their best to show him doing "evil" things, but instead I was just laughing at him. Not only is the character nothing like how he is written in the comic books and other source material, but instead he comes across like a child throwing temper tantrums, coming across like a much worse version of Kylo Ren. I do love Ewan McGregor, I think he is a wonderful actor and in this he puts in a decent enough performance, working with what he's given, however, I'm not sure if he was miscast or perhaps it's the dialogue or the screenplay as a whole, but it just doesn't work.

It's sad to see how they butchered a lot of these well known characters, they are nothing like how they are written in the comics. The changes to them are bewilderingly stupid at times and the writer seems to know barely anything about them, showing little to no respect for the foundations of these characters laid out in the comic books. Perhaps she was drunk at 1am writing it and briefly read some summaries on the wiki and said "I totally got this", then proceeded to spew whatever she could onto the page before passing out blackout drunk. Just a guess.

That being said, I did enjoy the look of the film, the visuals were quite enjoyable, at times the action was great and I loved the music. I wish I had more positive things to say but I'm struggling to think of any. Apart from Robbie and McGregor, the acting was alright, but nothing special. However, Cassandra Cain was just a terrible character though, actress Ella Jay Basco was fine and well cast, but the problem was with the writing and not her, just to make that clear. I don't mind flashbacks, but they weren't always used very well and some were repeated later in the film when we didn't need to see them, we already got the point you don't have to keep showing it over and over again. The Screenplay is objectively bad as well, which is quite sad since I do believe the Screenplay is the heart of any movie.

Initially, when I heard this film was in production I was excited. I love the character of Harley Quinn and the DC universe is one of my favourites. Although Suicide Squad wasn't the greatest I still loved the portrayal of Harley Quinn and was curious to see how a standalone movie would go. But sadly I hated this film. No, it's not a 0/10 or a 10/10, that's just being silly. It's a below average film that had all the right tools and cast to make an enjoyable film, instead they wasted them. Many departments in the production did an amazing job and they should be proud of what they achieved, I truly mean that. Sadly though it is a forgettable film that you should just avoid. But if you're high one night and need to kill some time and have your brain switched off, maybe this is the film for you.

There is a lot more to go into but since I'm almost at the word limit ill end it here.