Written by Christina Hodson
Directed by Cathy Yan
Harley (to Black Mask): "I'm the one they should be scared of. Not you, not Mr J, because I'm Harley Fucking Quinn."
Breaks up are never easy and when you're a certain former accomplice of Gotham's most depraved of criminals, well, you're never gonna go through things in a straightforward and logical manner. Then there's Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who really does take being dumped by the Joker (animated form, random body double, not Jared Leto) in quite a manner.
For Harley, it means reinventing herself. By this, she joins a roller derby, finds herself a nice little apartment above a takeaway, adopting an adorable hyena that she named Bruce, getting rowdy in a nightclub and breaking the knees of Roman Sionis's (Ewan McGregor) driver and to cap it off, blowing up Ace Chemicals and as a result putting a target on her head.
That simple act quickly resulted in Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) coming after her along with every single person that Harley has ever pissed off and soon enough, she managed to get captured by Roman and nearly killed by his henchman Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina) until she decided to help Sionis track down the world's worst pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) to retrieve a certain diamond that Cain stupidly ingested upon being arrested.
Between mad cap chase sequences, animated bits and a far too brief musical number, Harley finds herself both as a bounty hunter and grudging protector of Cassandra Cain as Black Mask turns the entire city on the pair as Montoya's career imploded and two other characters also find themselves drawn into this bout of mayhem to boot.
The characters in question are of course, nightclub singer Dinah Lance/Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and former mafia princess/vigilante, Helena Bertinelli/Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Aside from Robbie, these are two characters that worked the best throughout the movie and two characters that regardless of the outcome of this movie, I desperately want to see a lot more of. They really are that great to watch.
Dinah's journey from disenfranchised singer to taking on her mother's mantle was given a decent amount of screen time and character wise, there wasn't a single character that Dinah didn't bounce off with. She's easily the best character of the movie and it would be an injustice if the DCEU don't explore the character much further. As for the Canary Cry, it's used only once and it's put to fantastic use.
The same can also be said about Huntress. She's not given as much as screen time but the moments she had were fantastic to watch as for a woman with an excellent aim, the movie generated a brilliant social awkwardness with as well. Again, it would be a massive shame if we didn't get to see Huntress in another movie.
As for Cassandra Cain and Renee Montoya - neither character were that bad but I didn't really take to either as well. Cassandra might have been a departure too far from her comic counterpart and Renee's whole storyline had some of the weakest storytelling in the whole movie. I know the movie had a fun commentary on Renee being such a movie detective cliche but it didn't really help the character at times.
As for our villains - while both of them were quickly disposed of towards the final act of the movie, both essentially worked. Zsasz was as creepy and as sadistic as he has been in other mediums and did feel threatening as did Roman Sionis at times too, given that he wanted to make a name known for himself in Gotham with the Joker's absence. Not to mention both men did have all five female characters drawn to one another for variety of reasons that did make sense. Both Zsasz and Black Mask are definitely two of the more successful baddies used in the DCEU.
In terms of the action - this movie has some interesting sequences. The obvious ones included the jail raid scene and of course, the fight in the funhouse. The latter must have been a logistical nightmare for crew but it plays off rather well. Having a certain director to help beef up these scenes definitely paid off in that regard.
Also in terms of LGBT content because this has been a source of contention with certain reviewers, I'll admit that as a gay man who watched this movie, I generally wasn't fussed. Harley's bisexuality is hinted at albeit in a rather literal cartoonish way while Montoya had a fairly unsympathetic ex-girlfriend, Ellen Yee (Ali Wong) who appeared in a few scenes. Roman's homosexuality is never stated onscreen but his campness is certainly played up a bit. It's baby steps and hopefully a future DCEU movie will really go there but for now, it's a good start.
In terms of the script, it's very funny in parts and there's a good commentary on reinventing yourself but the story itself is definitely as straightforward as you can get though. On a disappointing note, the lack of at least one sympathetic male character is a bit of a downer even if the movie didn't come across as anti-men but another positive would be that it's girl power messaging never feels heavy handed or patronising either. Oh and for those who were worried that Harley formed a certain group, she didn't but Renee might have though as this film ends with the title group established and Harley and Cassandra off on their own adventures.
- The opening sequence was actually a cartoon as Harley spent a lot of this movie breaking the fourth wall in the only way she could do.
- There's a few Easter Eggs scattered throughout the movie but the most interesting one is the scene that actually inspired Paul Dini's creation of the character.
- I loved the end title sequence and the round up of people who have contributed to certain comics that influenced this movie.
- Christina Hodson's next DCEU project is going to be The Flash and it'll be interesting to see how she tackles a certain speedster after the mayhem of this one.
- There's no post/mid credit sequence but we did have Harley about to tell us a secret about Batman before things cut off.
- Standout music, there's loads but my top three would be Adona's Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Black Canary's It's A Man's Man's Man's World and Charlotte Lawrence's Joke's On You. Chronology, I'm gonna say it's probably 2020 here.
Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) has got to be the wildest DCEU movie to date. While I can think of at least three movies better than it, there are also three movies that are not as good as it either. It's essentially what Suicide Squad should've been although it's unlikely to do as financially as said movie. It's a shame, because's it's a genuinely fun and bonkers movie that utilized it's main cast rather well and like I said, there's certain characters I really want to see more of in future movies. It's not a movie for everyone, but I definitely left the cinema happy with what I had seen.
Rating: 8 out of 10
