Pete Herr from The Geekiverse has his review of Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).
Every single time I go into a DC (is it even the DCEU anymore) film, I am rooting for it be the one that gets the whole thing out of its slump. While Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) was fun, it wasn’t the film I hoped for.
The DCEU is still a mess. A patchwork quilt of films that I no longer even know if they are interconnected or not. I’m not even sure if DC knows right now. I know that I was hoping for a hint of that particular thing as Margot Robbie reprised her role as Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). She was, by far, the best thing to come out of 2016’s Suicide Squad, and I was looking forward to seeing her again in that role. From that respect, Birds of Prey did not disappoint. Robbie was brilliant again.
If my only hope for the film was that it was better than Suicide Squad, well, that is a low bar, and it delivered on that front too. That, of course, wasn’t my only hope. My other hope was that DC could recreate the magic that Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot created in their last female-led film. That, sadly, did not happen. Better than Suicide Squad? Yep. Even close to Wonder Woman? Nope.
The Script
Despite its title, this was not really a Birds of Prey film. It was a Harley Quinn movie with the Birds of Prey as supporting characters. In fact the film might have been better titled “The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn with the Birds of Prey”. It was that one-sided in its purpose, even delivering and an unbalanced amount of getting to know the Birds of Prey. We did get an abundance of origin story for Helena “Huntress” Bertinelli, and
The pace was all over the place. Frantic is the best word I could use to describe it, bouncing forwards and backward, dragging through the middle, a great climax, and an epilogue that made me wish the film was about 10 minutes shorter. There was an animated beginning that rehashed Harley’s life story, but then later there was a way better version as Harley explained to Cassandra Cain how she got to be who she was. Moral of that story was let Robbie be the vehicle, not flashy animation, which filled the movie as we got a bright, flashing baseball card look at everyone who was now looking to exact revenge on Harley now that she was no longer protected by the Joker.
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Clearly trying to imitate the success of the Deadpool movies, by imitating the raunch of the Deadpool films, Birds of Prey far exceeded the F-bomb quotient in trying to take advantage of its hard R-rating. Generally not one to care about (or even notice) those kinds of things, if I noticed, it was excessive.
The Acting
Like the “all over the place” script, the acting was all over the place as well. This was a return to the brilliance of Margot Robbie. Harley Quinn was a character built for her as an actress and she shone in this film. Unlike Suicide Squad, Robbie got to show her full chops as there were a few places in this movie that she had to exercise her full emotional range. Not something Harley Quinn is noted for. I really noticed just how good she was in a particular scene in which the full-weight of an unexpected betrayal washed over her.
The second piece of great acting came from Ewan McGregor, who played Roman Sionis, the Black Mask. While I wasn’t in love with his interpretation of the character, I will say this. Not once during the movie did I see Ewan McGregor on screen. He completely transformed himself into the odd and weirdly emotional villain.
Jurnee Smollett-Bell did a great job as Dinah Lance and the Black Canary, but we certainly didn’t get to see enough of her back story, nor did we see enough of her Black Canary powers. She could have been any badass, street fighter and been just as effective. I do hope we get to see more of her in that role. Given the opportunity to actually develop the character, she could do some great things.
I was disappointed in Rosie Perez’s Detective Renee Montoya. The haggard side of Montoya was dramatically overdone and she had a weird speech pattern that was intentional in her “hard-nosed detective” dialogue. Overall, the most disappointing character in the film.
The Visuals
One of my favorite things about the older Batman films, the ones with Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney, was the way that Gotham looked. It had a personality all of its own. One of the things I disliked most about the Dark Knight trilogy was the same thing. The production design was very hard for me to look at in all of its starkness. Birds of Prey made steps towards the older imagining of Gotham and I enjoyed that. There was more of a “lived-in” feel to this Gotham than the hard starkness of Christopher Nolan’s Gotham.
One of my favorite things about the mostly mediocre first season of Netflix/Marvel’s first season of Luke Cage was that it was filmed in a way that you could hit the stop button at any point and you would clearly see a pane from a comic. Birds of Prey had a bit of that going on too. That’s great and intentional cinematography and it is so enjoyable.
Save Robbie, the best part about this film was the action sequences. Harley’s solo scenes and the team-up brawls were brilliantly choreographed and filmed with a nice balance of full speed and slow motion to make it fun, and emphasize some of the coolest moves. Harley’s one-woman infiltration of Gotham City PD was a piece of non-lethal spectacle that I imagine I will hold as the bar for action sequences for years to come. I smiled throughout and it was my first thought when I sat down to write this review.
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Final Score
7.0/10
In the end, I enjoyed the film. Wasn’t nearly what I had hoped for, as DC still owns the title of best female lead superhero film. It was fun and funny at times and Margot Robbie did all of the heavy lifting in this movie. She was a joy to watch as she developed Harley Quinn even further, and I hope that we see more of this character in future installments in the DCEU. The rest of the movie was just there to service Robbie’s Harley. I will say, that the scene in the police station was worth the whole price of admission.
+ Margot Robbie.
+ Ewan McGregor
+ Stunning action and fight scenes
+ Had a bit more of a comic book feel and often I could actually see the panes in the cinematography
– Weird interpretation of Black Mask
– Lack of character development for the Birds of Prey
– Crazy, frenetic pacing
– Animations were unnecessary
Pete Herr, The Grumpy Geek, is the author of “10 Things We Should Teach You In High School and Usually Don’t”. He is the oldest geek in the Geekiverse by a factor of two. Follow Pete Herr on Facebook, Twitter,and Insta