Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn - SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

Okay, so I know I'm super late on this one considering this movie came out almost a month ago in Canada, but honestly, I don't feel like I can be blamed for giving up on DC movies (with the exception of Joker) considering the fact that each time I go to see one, I become acutely and constantly aware of how much this might be a total waste of time.

Thus, I have NO idea what inspired me to go see this movie after so long, other than a sudden curiosity to see how a sort-of solo movie about one of my favourite characters of all time would play out. So here we go! Here's my first review to be published on CULTURETAP. And in case you missed it in the title, don't worry about spoilers. I got your back. ;)

Birds of Prey (as I’ll be calling it throughout the rest of this review, because my fingers CANNOT take writing out its full name each time) was the most fun the DCEU has seen in a long time, however, if this movie is any indication, DC still has a ways to go if they want to catch up with the MCU.

As a self-proclaimed yet somewhat shameful Harley Quinn “stan” (or superfan, for all you folks that have never had the displeasure of experiencing Tumblr) I believe I have the fan knowledge stored in my prematurely deteriorating, tired university student cranium to be able to say (with confidence) that this movie would have worked just as well as a Harley solo film.

I feel like this shouldn't come as a surprise. Calling it Birds of Prey with a tacked-on tagline about HQ not only does a disservice to the fact that this is, in essence, a well-done cinematic adaptation of a New 52 and/or Rebirth Harley story, but it also fails to deliver to fans who were expecting more of a team-up movie featuring the core Birds of Prey characters, akin to a more charming and characteristically balanced Suicide Squad (which we will hopefully be receiving in the form of James Gunn's 2021 sequel).

The movie shines most in it’s action sequences, which was a welcome surprise, as the trailers somewhat failed to showcase this. Margot Robbie is amazing, as always. I know I said this when Suicide Squad came out, but casting her as Harley was a phenomenal choice, and I often have to dig deep to find complaints about her performance in most films. Black Mask is one of the most intimidating villains to be seen in the DCEU thus far, however he is still at a threat level that fits right with the protagonists at hand, an aspect that I believe Suicide Squad wildly mishandled.

My biggest complaint about this film is the inconsistency in dialogue and the misuse of major characters. Interactions between characters flip between being clever and believable and, for lack of a better term, just plain cringe-worthy. There is a fine line that you have to walk between goofiness and cringe with a character like Harley Quinn, and I would be willing to excuse the writers’ ability to do this if it didn’t seem to be an issue with most other characters as well. In terms of the aforementioned character misuse, I refer back to my main point about this being a Harley story. Although most of the other Birds of Prey are fleshed out and interesting characters in their own right, some major characters in particular are more forgettable than the others, and each character on the team was absolutely not given enough screen-time to shine on their own. This also applies to antagonist Victor Zsasz, who acted as nothing more than a non-intimidating henchman in this movie. While the actor's portrayals of these characters were fine, as a viewer, I was left wanting more integration of their characters into the story.

Costumes were also an issue for me, although this is to be expected, as they are made to match the urban, highly-stylized Gotham setting that the DCEU is trying to create that I am personally not a fan of.

However, that’s probably just because I’m always a sucker for sticking to source material.

So was it that great? Not really. Was it terrible? No. Did it actually make me more optimistic for the future of DCEU movies? Surprisingly, yes. However, my biggest takeaway here is that this is definitely more of a popcorn movie than one that seems like it should intelligently fit into an extended universe. But then again, the worldbuilding going on here isn't exactly amazing right now. As a movie fan, Birds of Prey was a solid action movie that was a lot of fun to watch and didn't take itself too seriously, but as a DC, Harley Quinn and superhero movie fan respectively, I needed more.

Overall rating: 6.5/10.