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

I really don’t know if Birds of Prey wants to be a "sharp, even controversial film” or anything else, but I enjoyed it for what it really is – a fresh, uncomplicated, deliberately trashy-in-places, playfully over-the-top and infantile post-breakup action comedy with an intentionally chaotic narrative that, like the main protagonist, gradually settles down and becomes more focused. Girl power is not so obviously on display as in Wonder Woman or certain Marvel movies (e.g. the painfully forced and TERRIBLY unnecessary “don’t say that name” scene in Avengers: Endgame). Feminism is a natural part of the fictional world. All of the men are malicious betrayers or dangerous, violent swine (which, however, does not mean that the heroines are saintly, not even a little – they are imperfect, but they don’t care) and we want them to die a horrible death. This film is based more on female friendship than on the antagonism between Harley Quinn and Sionis, which in the end is rather just a MacGuffin contributing to “female bonding”, an obstacle preventing the protagonist from enjoying an egg sandwich or watching Tweety in peace. This is where Birds of Prey differs from standard comics-based films, where a villain must be eliminated in order for the world to be saved. I surely would not mind if there was greater anarchy and more derisive mockery of all of the macho comic-book universes in which women serve merely as sidekicks, baddies and ornaments in guy adventures, but Birds of Prey is too radically feminist (er, lol) for some viewers, so for now it’s perhaps not possible to expect more from a major-studio genre film. 75% (02/07/2020)

As much as I’ve been getting used to praising the casting of films lately, here it is just bad. Forgotten ’90s comedian Rosie Perez as a serious cop? Ewan McGregor as a bad guy holding a knife to a little girl’s throat? And that bland Birds of Prey team, overshadowed by the weaker characterization? Another very bad thing: the combination of deliberately childish “playfulness” that doesn’t elicit laughter, with serious tones that in some cases are almost chilling (the undressing of the girl in the bar). And the constant sloppiness of the creative vision and dumb, insensitive directing. (03/09/2020)

After all of those painfully generic, would-be serious comic-book movies abounding with pathos and artificial CGI sequences, we finally have a properly entertaining flick from the superhero universe. Let’s just admit that only Nolan has managed to deal with superheroes in a truly complex way and everyone else is merely pretending to bring depth to the genre. And that clownish Deadpool, with its insipid “bloody R-rating” mythos is not an alternative, but just the other side of the same coin. Fortunately, salvation has come in the form of Harley Quinn’s solo movie, which is everything that comic books have traditionally been, without being what comic-book movies have been for the past twenty years. Here we again finally have a trashy, colourful and superficial farce with crackpot characters in a maniacal world. Furthermore, after those decades of CGI blockbusters (especially comic-book flicks) pushing action movies out of cinemas, Birds of Prey marks the return of proper kinetic and physical action spectacle (thus capping the trend started by the Mission: Impossible and John Wick franchises). Whereas other comic-book blockbusters have completely superficial action that is never memorable, Birds of Prey offers up several imaginatively designed and magnificently executed sequences with astonishing choreography by Chad Stahelski – the police station sequence is the highlight, but the carnival fun-house passage at the end is also great. This film does not entirely refrain from indulging in some tediously shallow CGI scenes, though fortunately only at the level of simulated exteriors. On the other hand, the film’s main virtue consists in the good, classic analogue work done by the people in the make-up, costume, set and action-choreography departments, as well as in the casting, of course. I very much hope that the incel whiners don’t win and that Harley Quinn gets another movie, because this is exactly what the contemporary bland production of comic-book flicks needs: A cheeky girl who isn’t saving the world in another dull spectacle, but just saving her own ass in a playfully trashy and boldly colourful fairy tale, a girl who knows how to swing a baseball bat and fire a grenade launcher, and who mainly loves an egg cheese sandwich (which, incidentally, is an essential defining moment for the character, as well as a great contribution to the home recipe book). (04/07/2020)

I wanted to write that everything is bad, but that wouldn’t be true, because the overall impression is multiplied by the fact that a lot of what was wrong didn't have to be. The choreography is imaginative, playful and built on honest stunt action, but doesn’t have any zest. As 1980s glitter-pop wannabe punk stylings go, it's an inconsistent "ten minutes of nothing and then two minutes of 110%", which goes hand in hand with an incongruously alternating overdriven tone and an almost serious attitude. On paper, the narrative is fast-paced, full of flashbacks, just like Ritchie, but that may have been the case on paper, because when translated into practice the effect was lost. And then there’s the casting… It's no match for the cultishly bad casting of Schumacher's Batman, but not a single role is well-cast, including Margot Robbie. Harley here is more over-the-top, ditzy and stylised into a Deadpool/Gwenpool concoction. It doesn't have much in common with the more restrained version of the same character from Suicide Squad (where she played second fiddle) and Margot doesn't deliver it. At the same time, scenes like the "egg sandwich" could be sold in a funny way (Deadpool and the animated Harley Quinn are founded on such scenes). Ditto the two villains and others; led by the casting of the nearly 60-year-old grandmotherly Rosie Perez in a gritty "written for Michelle Rodriguez, but she didn't exactly have time" role – the casting flop of the decade. Then there’s the artlessly disguised in action through constant back-taking with a wig. That would be frowned upon in an amateur fan film, let alone a blockbuster production. And no, it's not a disruptive element, plus, with the right casting, the character could have worked. And so it is with everything else. It could have worked, but it doesn’t. Unfortunately, not to the point where it would be unintentionally funny. So it's just the essence of boring dullness. (02/27/2021)

Ignore it. Birds of Prey wants to be an edgy, perhaps even controversial film full of gritty and dark humour, bold directorial choices, strong characters and uncompromising atmosphere. But for that to work, the film would have to be made by someone more skilled than Cathy Yan, who gives it a pretty interesting visual look, but has absolutely no idea how to work with the characters and how to build relationships between them. And given that this is pretty much what Birds of Prey is supposed to be about, it's quite a problem. But she may also be a problem in that when Harley goes solo, she turns out not to be a very interesting character. This team-up wants to be something like Deadpool, but the the tough girls of Gotham can’t even hold a candle to the verbose mercenary. They're still good in the action scenes, but once they start talking and building relationships, it becomes apparent how boring these heroines are and how all that toughness and grit only works on paper. Behind the R-rating and the wild colours, there is a film can’t hide the fact that it has no ideas and is boring most of the time. (02/05/2020)