Birds of Prey is a riot.
Harley Quinn is on her own after breaking up with Joker and a flood of threats come for their revenge now that she doesn’t have Joker as her partner in crime. While ducking and dodging around Gotham, Harley disrupts Black Mask’s (a.k.a. Roman Sionis) well lubricated criminal operation and that puts his employee Black Canary (a.k.a. Dinah Lance) on a collision course with her. That makes both women collide with a young pickpocket named Cassandra Cain, Detective Renee Montoya who is building a case on Black Mask, and new-on-the-scene assassin Helena Bertinelli (The Crossbow Killer Huntress).
The best part of the Suicide Squad movie, the brilliant Margot Robbie returns as Harley Quinn to steer this ship by the elastic band of your shorts. Everyone’s lovable comic book maniac brought to life is once again a treat to see. The story is told by her so there’s a fair share of schizophrenic pauses in the narrative to fill in parts of the tale that Harley suddenly realizes you need to know to get the context of what’s going on. An unconventional technique in Hollywood movies, this can throw people as it jumbles the timeline of the movie and makes you question the narrator. I think it works really well. From head to toe, this is Harley and as a fan of the character, I appreciate the effort to realize her like this. She’s far from stable and I think the movie does a good job of showing that off while keeping her likable and even relatable.
Along with Harley’s eccentricities, her movie has a unique look and feel. Going beyond this being a completely female-driven cast, which doesn’t happen too often, the cinematography rides the line between reality and comic book. Wild sets, a color palette that frequently changes from desaturated to colorful insanity and distinct looks for all the major characters. This movie is a looker for sure.
I’m a big fan of this cast. We need more Rosie Perez in our lives. Jurnee Smollett-Bell plays a great straight man as Black Canary to Robbie’s Harley. Chris Messina (Zsasz) and Ewan McGregor (Sionis) are another great duo. Zsasz is portrayed as a more civil psychopath compared to his comic book self here, which is similar to what they did for him in the TV show Gotham. McGregor’s Black Mask chews on every bit of scenery he can get his mouth on; fitting for a murderous, pompous, mob boss. The biggest comic book difference is with Cassandra Cain, who is completely different (comic Cass has a wild background and has been through a few personas over the years). Ella Jay Basco does a good job to start off this new misfit, I expect a lot more from her in future films. My biggest disappointment is with Huntress. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is awesome but she’s barely in this! I want to see her so much more! She’s really funny when she’s on-screen but aside from a quick run-in with Harley near the beginning, she doesn’t meet the others until the last 15 minutes of the movie.
That brings us to the awesome action. Choreographed by the brilliant man behind the John Wick franchise, every action scene is like a street fight with some flashy acrobatics added for flair. It’s pretty close to Jackie Chan style fights where the environment is a key part of every battle. Since just about everyone Harley fights is taller and weighs more, her fighting style is geared to disable and then take down her opponents as fast as possible to keep them from getting a chance to touch her. Hits have a fantastic sense of impact and it gets pretty brutal at times. The whole movie is beautifully shot. No out of control camera work, tasteful use of slow motion, nice wide angles, and minimal cuts make everything easy to follow. The final car chase scene is short but super sweet, I can’t say enough good things about it.
This is one of my favorite DC movies to date. It’s a fun story, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, the cast looks like they had a blast, and it scratches my action itch. Suicide Squad 2 with director/writer James Gunn is up next for Harley. Margot Robbie was a major force in getting Birds of Prey made and I hope she gets to do more of what she wants in this playground. This was a minimal taste of the Birds of Prey characters and now that they are introduced it would be great to see them get integrated into other projects in the DC movie universe as well a sequel that Harley doesn’t need to be the focus of.