Review: Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

My expectations going into Birds of Prey was pretty close to ground-zero - something that I am continuing to realize is a good thing. After a string of okay-to-horrendous recent DC films (*cough* Batman v Superman *cough* Justice League *coughcoughcough* Suicide Squad), my excitement for this film was as tepid as the water dripping from my ever-broken kitchen sink tap. It was a joyful surprise then to find myself (for the most part) quite entertained watching Birds of Prey last week. 

Like Birds of Prey the movie, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), at the start of this film has smartly broken away from any connection she might have from Suicide Squad and has now broken up with Mr. J (that's the Joker, to all you hopeless non-nerds). And so, Harley tries to strike out on her own not knowing that she very quickly will be running-in with local mobster Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor). Harley soon finds out that a number of other local women have similar ongoing beef with Sionis aka Black Mask, which leads to a whole hullabaloo of chaotic violence, etc. etc.

Though the film does take a bit to get going, once Birds of Prey finds its footing it is quite a lot of fun. One of the biggest reasons is Robbie and McGregor. Robbie was born to play the firecracker Quinn - instilling the Cupid of Crime with a good sense of pathos - and McGregor is clearly just having a great time making Sionis as much of an unreadable sadistic eccentric as he can. There are some great cutaway gags and detours, and a few pretty kickass action scenes (i.e. in the police evidence room) that all make this film worth checking out. 

However, this film is by no-means a complete success. A lot of the dialogue, some of the VFX and a few of the performances are in dire need of touch ups. As well, there is my biggest gripe - and this is unfortunately something I am finding only increasing in film/tv... that is the use of music in the film. There is a common reliance on loud and in-your-face pop music that is increasingly being used in pop-films that leads to a horrible tackiness and feeling that you are watching a music video and in no way a film. It is the classic problem of style over substance. And Birds of Prey (especially during a number of fight scenes) does it a helluva lot.

While Birds of Prey is no home-run hit, it still has its merits and, if you can turn off your brain, you may just find yourself having a lot of fun with it. Hopefully it's a three strike system for Harley because it would be a shame if there was the last time we saw Robbie dawn the harlequin's costume.