Birds of Prey, or to give it its full title- Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)- is the latest DC movie and stars Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Joining her are the Birds of Prey- Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez).
After breaking up with Joker, Harley Quinn is targeted by Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) in addition to every other thug in Gotham city. When a young girl named Cassandra Cain obtains a diamond that Black Mask is after, Harley must team up with a group of women to protect Cain.
The trajectory of DC has been interesting to say the least. Casual cinema goers seem to have a negative perception of the studio's modern filmography, especially in comparison to the brand loyalty that Marvel have built up over the course of over 10 years. Whilst early DC Extended Universe entries have been disappointingly half-baked, I am beginning to have a new found respect for the trajectory that the brand are heading in.
2013's Man of Steel released just one year after Marvel had already built up to their flagship cross-over event, The Avengers. Despite a divided reception to Man of Steel, Warner Brothers decided to use it as a jumping point to the DCEU in a clear attempt to catch up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They launched straight into a cross-over with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, a movie that desperately needed at least a Superman sequel and a Batman movie to lay its groundworks. BvS tried to do a lot of legwork to set up future DC properties- including a bizarre Justice League foreshadowing scene- and resulted in an extremely messy film. The same year, Suicide Squad came and went: a box office success but a critical failure.
2017 was the year where things took a turn- it was the year that both Wonder Woman and Justice League released. On paper, Justice League should have been a home run. It was a superhero team featuring the most popular comic-book characters of all time. However, a troubled production and a weak script meant that it turned out to be one of the worst superhero movies ever made.
Wonder Woman, on the other hand, stood apart from previous DCEU efforts. Though Gal Gadot had been introduced in BvS, director Patty Jenkins decided to stay apart from cinematic universe connections and deliver, instead, a classic origin story. And perhaps that was what allowed the movie to shine, and even out-gross Justice League. This seemed to be a clear sign for DC to course correct.
Aquaman took a similar approach. Despite the films simultaneously generic and ridiculous nature, it felt as though director James Wan was allowed the freedom to tell the story that he wanted. And audiences responded to that. (The same with 2019's Shazam, though that was perhaps a more modest success). Joker exists in a bubble of its own, showing that DC are moving towards prioritising director's vision rather than a Marvel-based phase plan. And this freedom to exist outside of the confines of a cinematic universe has set it apart from Marvel, whose movies have begun to feel constrained to fit in tonally with their wider universe. Marvel could never, for example, remake one of their own properties, like DC are planning to do with James Gunn's upcoming take on Suicide Squad.
And so, we come to Birds of Prey. It continues, and indeed course corrects, Harley Quinn's introduction in 2016's Suicide Squad. My biggest praise for this movie is that it feels like director Cathy Yan's (and producer Margot Robbie's) vision for the character. The film does not feel like a blank corporate product, but instead a colourful, wacky dream.
Is this one of the greatest comic-book movies of all time? No. The story, especially the second act, is derivative and the characters feel largely underdeveloped, especially the villain. But, I cannot deny that I had a lot of fun with the action in the film.
Cathy Yan should definitely helm another action movie, because the fight sequences here are shot very competently, and with so much energy and style. Yan uses long takes and wide shots to really showcase the action and the music always gives everything momentum. The action was genuinely choreographed better than a lot of recent Marvel movies because the fighting style felt very specific to Harley Quinn as a character, and therefore more memorable. Thw police station break-in and the funfair finale were incredibly enjoyable sequences and I can't wait to watch them again. In addition to the action, the production- especially the cinematography and costumes- felt like they had a lot of personality.
The decision to have the film narrated by Harley is both a blessing and a curse. Where it works, the voice-over gives the film a Deadpool-like edge that means that it does not take itself too seriously. However, structuring the plot of a movie through narration can also be a lazy way of story-telling, especially because the humour does not always land and the script isn't quite smart enough to work all the time.
The characters of both Huntress and Black Canary were intriguing, I only wish they had more to do. Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Huntress gets the most emotional motivation for her involvement in the plot, making her the most compelling character in the film relative to the amount of screen time she gets. The other characters are fun, but lack any deep characterisation that means it is hard to connect to their real motivations outside of reacting to the plot. What makes it great to watch anyway are the performances, particularly Robbie's, whose characterisation of Harley has improved since the overly cartoony version of the character from Suicide Squad.
Ewan McGregor as the villain is clearly having a lot of fun going over the top, and I did enjoy his performance. However, I do wish there was more substance to him than 'he's a bad guy'. It's also slightly irritating that this film decides to go for the 'all men are bad' route in order to further empower its female characters; it was not a deal-breaker by any means but comic-book films still haven't completely nailed female empowerment in a natural way.
Birds of Prey did use its soundtrack more effectively than Suicide Squad but there were a couple of places here and there were an instrumental score might have worked better than a needle drop. As a film score fan, it would have been nice to see more of Daniel Pemberton's music especially given his truly remarkable soundtrack for 2018's Into the Spider-Verse. That being said, his theme for Harley is fantabulous and has gone straight onto my Spotify playlist.
TL;DR Birds of Prey is a comic book movie that I hope people support. Robbie as both the star and producer clearly poured a lot of passion into this film, and Cathy Yan directed the film to perfection. A derivative plot, half-baked characters and some inconsistent humour let the film down, but I would recommend checking this out for the fun action.
Grade: B-
Thanks for reading this review- I really hope DC continues this trend of director lead movies. I am incredibly excited for Patty Jenkin's Wonder Woman sequel this year and everything I hear about Matt Reeves' Batman is making me think that it may be one of the best comic book movies ever.
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