"Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" - Film Review
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is one of the few comic book movies that really gets the spirit of its source material. Director Cathy Yan understands that it should be a chaotic Technicolor feast of action and adventure, and her love letter to Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is a blast.
Picking up four years after the events of Suicide Squad (the 2016 version, not the 2021 reboot), Birds of Prey is the aftermath of the break-up of Harley Quinn and the Joker. Thankfully, Jared Leto’s Joker is never actually seen in this movie, allowing the focus to remain on Harley Quinn. Quinn is no longer under the protection of the Joker, and all the people she has wronged are seeking vengeance against her. The rest of the cast includes Gotham City Police Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), burlesque singer and crime lord chauffeur Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), mysterious masked assassin The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and young pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). Together with Harley, they form a ragtag group of vigilantes whose goal is to take down crime lord Roman Sionis (a delightfully deranged Ewan McGregor) and his right-hand man, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina).
In a world inundated with superhero movies, it’s quite difficult to create something that stands out. So often, especially in recent Marvel offerings, superhero films are dark and gritty and the fight scenes are filmed with barely any light. Birds of Prey, however, chooses to have glittery fight scenes. Harley storms the Gotham City Police Department armed with nothing but a retro-fitted grenade launcher that shoots fireworks and exploding glitter bombs. It’s quite spectacular to see people thrown about as glitter sparkles and falls down around them. The final fight scene takes place in a rundown carnival, with Harley zipping through the action on roller skates and carrying a comically large hammer. The Huntress also has quite a battle on a massive slide with henchmen from Roman’s crew, while the rest of the women fight even more henchmen in a fun house. It is the sort of exciting fight choreography that is a joy to watch.
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In another universe, there’s a version of this film that would be ruined by attempts at making a female-led superhero movie too “woke.” It’s a trend that is showing up in a lot of reboots and revivals – trying to add diversity and inclusion for the sake of having it there, but not actually adding anything meaningful to the story or the characters. Despite the difficulty of introducing the audience to four main characters who aren’t as well-known as Harley, Yan allows each of the women to feel well-rounded. It is quite a feat to make these introductions without causing the film to feel like standard introductory superhero fare.
From start to finish, Birds of Prey is a wild ride through the criminal underbelly of Gotham, filled with charming performances from the entire cast. It’s a shining star that justifies the popularity of the genre. The film also benefits from not falling into the trap of a long run time. The story is dynamic and so compulsively watchable that it’s a shame we’re not likely to get any sequels. Visually stunning and centered on a woman finding her sense of self again, Birds of Prey should not be missed.
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