Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) - User Reviews

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is DC entertainment's latest effort to conquer the territory of film-adapted comics, a different effort with a really interesting idea at its base. Making Harley Quinn the main character in your own movie after shining on the terrible Suicide Squad makes perfect sense, ridding her of the Joker’s abusive control makes the idea even more interesting (although I’m of the opinion that Joker should have been the great villain of this film). Sometime after the events of Suicide Squad, and after ending his relationship with the Joker, Quinn breaks up with the factory where he gave himself up to his former crush, announcing to Gotham the whole time that he was no longer under the protection of the feared Crime Clown . Of course, in doing so, Quinn makes herself a target to shoot down, due to all the evil she had done in the past, inspiring the villain Roman Sionis (played by an eccentric Ewan McGregor) to chase her, that and a missing diamond causes Harley to cross paths with the group of women whose title the film refers to. I would say that the biggest problem with Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is the combination of several elements that do not always make the most sense. There are times when the film seems to want to put Harley in the midst of a new team such a Suicide Squad, other times when it is only concerned with focusing on it, as if it were trying to follow a plot in which, in the end, it would face Joker (Since Joker doesn't even make any appearance in the film, being replaced by Roman Sionis). In my opinion, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey doesn't really know what he wants to be, and I can't help feeling that Joker was supposed to be part of the film, but due to the drama with the negative reception of Jared Leto's interpretation, it was excluded completely from the project. However, McGregor's interpretation gives Ronan Sionis an aura of threat, of terror, as he really seems to be dangerous and we still feel his ferocity emanating from the screen. That said, all the interpretations are really excellent, Margot Robbie is enthusiastic on paper, her character is highly memorable and the only one in the film that is really 100% developed. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is incredible in the role of Huntress, despite the little material given to her, and brings a natural charisma to the character that makes her really special, without her this would be an easily forgotten character. Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Canary is also extremely convincing, and brings to the paper a special magnetism that leaves it as one of the most memorable parts of the film. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, on the whole, is not a bad film, although thematically confusing, it is extremely fun and will certainly get a lot of laughs from the audience. Again, Harley Quinn is also the piece that really makes this project so unique, and seeing it on the screen is something that will leave any audience member with a smile on their face. It is also important to note that the film contains incredibly well choreographed action sequences, which become a visual delight as they become crazier. Their performance is delusional and fiery, as in the rest of the film, giving it a very extravagant and remarkable style. So, while Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is no Wonder Woman (2017) and contains a host of problems, it's also extremely fun, a good time spent in the cinema without the obligation to think about the general problems of life. I can't say that I loved the movie, but I didn't hate it either, it's a decent guilty pleasure and a decent hour spent in front of the big screen.

**Very refreshing and funny**, The movie is very different from like any team-up movie I've ever seen, it will make you forget that it's a superhero movie entirely it feels like it's just a crazy movie with criminal minds all over the city moving quite freely in fancy dress until one scene of Black Canary where you realise yeah you're watching a super-hero movie they gota show their powers. **It's violent and humorous and Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is Fantastic and I really loved the Crossbow Killer**, DCEU has come up with really great works since the Justice League (ignoring the Aquaman) and if you're counting the upcoming DCEU movies then you'll see a very great future for DC with Batman, Shazam 2 and Wonder Woman sequel.

I really dug “Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” because it is unlike any movie I’ve seen before. There are the conventional-minded and flashy action scenes that accompany most superhero characters, but this is a violent, R-rated, naughty-joke, potty-mouthed comic book tour de force made for women over 25. It’s a boisterous good time for feminists and girl nerds everywhere. The film is told from the twisted and deliciously sarcastic point of view of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), ex-girlfriend of the Joker. When the evil Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) puts out a hit on a young petty thief (Ella Jay Basco), the most nefarious villains turn Gotham City upside down looking for her. When Harley crosses paths with Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), and cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), the women learn they have no choice but to team up in order to take Sionis down once and for all. The heartbeat of the film lies in Robbie’s iconic character interpretation of Harley Quinn. She is terrific in making her naughty character with a mean streak easy to love. Harley isn’t exactly a woman you want to emulate, but it sure would be fun to hang out and be friends with her. All of the supporting performances here really are first-rate too. McGregor chews scenery with audacious glee, and his villain is truly terrifying. With the addition of a diverse, kick-ass female supporting cast playing equally bad-ass superheros, the film takes a multicultural feminist slant that thankfully doesn’t seem forced by committee. “Birds of Prey” is the type of scrappy mayhem that gives a sparkle of excitement to the mostly bland and boring DCEU. It’s colorful and chaotic, reckless and energetic, and I am surprised that I enjoyed this movie as much as I did. This is a really, really fun spectacle that could bring new fans to the genre.

'Birds of Prey' its absolute thrill ride. It's unapologetically fun and crude and violent. To quote Saoirse Ronan from 'Little Woman'... "Women." - Chris dos Santos Read Chris' full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-birds-of-prey-im-here-to-report-a-terrible-crime-dc-has-saved-cinema

[8.4/10] *Birds of Prey* is made of cool. It is the epitome of over-the-top fun. It is what *Suicide Squad* should have been. It is the movie that Harley Quinn deserves. And it is the dayglo-colored, adrenaline-soaked, no holds barred action movie we’ve been waiting for. It also manages to take itself just seriously enough without taking itself too seriously. There’s legitimate subtext to the script, about the warm but toxic security of associations with toxic meant, about the hardship of freeing yourself from the green or black-tinged tentacles of it, and about the invigorating feeling that comes from hard-won self-dependence and assurance, not to mention sororal support in lieu of abusive co-dependence. And yet it’s also a movie where Harley Quinn charges her way through a police station with a glitter bomb-packed shotgun, the heroes conspire to get a teenager to defecate a diamond, and the most heartbreaking loss in the whole film comes in the form of a glorious, glutinous breakfast sandwich. As legitimate as *Birds of Prey*’s themes are, as effective as its few moments of straight emotion are, it is not afraid to have all the fun, which is refreshing in the oft-grimdark confines of the DCEU. It’s also an enjoyable frenetic, tangle of different threads and characters. The hunt for a diamond isn’t the only thing that leaves this movie indebted to *Snatch*. The interconnected storylines, the mass of characters with their own goals and puzzle piece roles in the broader whole, and explanatory jumps back and forth (and sideways) in the timeline to show how it’s all linked carry that same, crazy crimeland energy. At the same time, there’s a touch of *Kill Bill* to the proceedings, between the woman scorned theming and non-linear revenge plots. But *Birds of Prey* is a thing unto itself, due in no small part to the incredible performance from Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn at the center of the picture. Robbie’s appeared in two awards season films in the past six months and earned her share of nominations for them, but this easily tops both of them. Her version of Quinn is profane-to-the-core yet relatable, dangerously reckless but easy to root for, uproariously funny and subtly pathos-ridden. She’s a tat-buzzing, baddie-blasting, pigtail-sporting Bugs Bunny on wheels, and Robbie’s level of depth and charm to a character who could otherwise come off as just a cartoon is a revelation. She’s flanked by an array of other great performers who keep the film just as well-cast and colorful. Chief among them is Ewan McGregor as Roman Sionis aka Black Mask, his most scenery-chewing and terrifying role since *Trainspotting*. *Birds of Prey* unleashes McGregor’s outsized talents, making his sleazy, abusive crime boss the energetic anthesis of Quinn and the representative of all the toxicity she’s trying to flush out of her life one way or another. Those top notch performances help hold the film together when it jumps at (nigh-literal) breakneck pace between a cadre of different stories and, more to the point, kinetic and eye-catching fight scenes. Arguably, the movie goes to that well one too many times, as it’s easy to find yourself saying, “Wait, didn’t we just do one of these?” the next time the punches and mallets and crossbow arrows fly. And yet, the film adds such an enjoyable flair to these sequences that it’s hard to complain. *Birds of Prey* earns its R rating in many of these scenes, not shying away from various images of limb torsion, bone cracking, and joint smashing. Far from the risk of falling into gruesome “If it’s gory, it’s mature” pitfall, the film approaches these scenes with an air of irreverence and unreality that makes each its own colorful, kinetic romp, untethered from the dull realities of physics or anatomy. Despite the quick cuts deployed, these set pieces slow down to show the members of the titular group, Quinn in particular, kicking ass. Rather than an undifferentiated series of thudding fisticuffs, there’s memorable fight choreography here, with flips, kicks, and jams that play as distinctive rather than the same old superhero stompfest. Flanked by a near-endless series of amusing and smile-worthy needle drops, each throwdown drips with style and joie de vivre. That fits nicely in a film that isn’t afraid to break its own reality for the sake of the audience’s pleasure. Harley breaks the fourth wall on the regular, narrating the events and holding the viewer’s hand through some of the more knotted linkages between different pieces of the story or just depositing some of the movie’s hilarious comic asides. But director Cathy Yan also has no qualms about setting the stage with an animated introduction, breaking for a fever dream rendition of “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” or capping things off with a Clown Princess of Crime-appropriate pugilistic jaunt through amusement row. Despite the freeform insanity and deliberate sense of Quinn telling a shaggy dog (or hyena) story, writer Christina Hodson’s script is surprisingly tight. Each of the five avian avengers has a reason the villain would want them dead and why they’d want to respond in kind. The chaotic connections between them pull into focus at just the right time, and often with a funny line to seal the deal. And the shifts in tone work wonderfully, veering from heightened reality insanity to the legitimately disturbing to unexpectedly piercing pain and believable camaraderie. In short, *Birds of Prey* is just a joy to watch. It boasts inventive action, style out the wazoo, and one hell of a central character. Far from reducing her to a trope, or letting the film built around her descend into the standard sturm und drang of grim cape flicks, it embraces her comprehensible chaos, and the fun but equally crazy world and players that surround her. Take a step back, Mr. J; Harley is emancipated and, god willing, plenty of heroes, villains, and ambitious-to-entertain comic book movies will follow in her red and blue footsteps.