Birds of Prey (2020)

After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroes Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord.

Jess’ Review

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn was a mistake. A mistake to watch, and quite frankly a mistake of a film. It was bad. Bad on so many levels, and so bad that even I, Jess, lover of bad films, couldn’t find any redemption in its sloppy mess of a runtime.

Cashing in on the popularity of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Birds of Prey tries in vain to expand the universe of the DC ladies. Great in theory, but the execution was abysmal.

Margot Robbie‘s an exceptional actress, and whilst her turn as Harley Quinn doesn’t even scratch the surface of her potential, she is rightly-so the best thing about this film. I think she encapsulates the character well without becoming too much of a gimmick (though a painful script occasionally threatens this).

And for the most part, Birds of Prey looks good. I got my fix of colourful action sequences and energetic visuals. Whilst it borderlines tedious towards the end, I also thought the narrative style was a fun addition. It harkened back to the comic origins and kept the pace up - always a bonus when we’re crawling through a river of sh-t dialogue, terrible acting and lazy plot. Except we’re not coming out clean on the other side.

Clearly jumping on the feminism bandwagon, the film is littered with cringeworthy lines alluding to social justice. It’s hollow. And though it’s marketed as some girl-power type blockbuster, the reality is just sad. These characters are nearly entirely void of any real depth or intrigue, the premise follows the titular character’s break-up and they fall into every cliche in the book. It’s a joke. A bad joke, and it baffles me how the filmmakers couldn’t spot how skewed their message had become.

Ewan McGregor plays the big bad, and whilst I rate him as an actor, he’s over-the-top here. Perhaps it’s the script demanding a theatrical villain, but he’s just corny. And the acting only plummets from here. Lines are delivered badly, timing is off, faces remain void of emotion in an effect to play off that aloof, ‘bad girl’ vibe. It’s laughable. The women completing Quinn’s girl-gang add nothing. Harsh, perhaps, but please tell me what Huntress brought to the table aside from sloppily taping over a plot-hole.

The plot is weak and predictable, lazy in every regard and many scenes were simply unnecessary. Even the action scenes were ludicrous. I didn’t expect any semblance of realism or actual stakes here, but come on, they didn’t even try. The filmmakers clearly prioritised a quirky swooping shot over any real content.

Listen to the soundtrack online and google a picture of Bruce the hyena, and you’re getting the same satisfaction for a fraction of the time. Just another stain on DC’s cinematic catalogue. Avoid.

3/10

---

Sam’s Review

This is one giant, sparkly, atrocious mess. Christina Hodson, the writer, should be ashamed. I've known film students who could have submitted better final drafts than this. The amount of things that don't make sense in this film is ridiculous. I mean, a notorious criminal marches into a police station with a shotgun and nobody notices?! And the dialogue is appalling. It's as if Hodson has never had a conversation with another human, and doesn't fully grasp them. A horrid mixture of obvious statements, predictable one-liners and pathetically cliché lines. Every studio exec who proofread the script and believed this was the one to lead the franchise should be demoted. I'm emotionally distressed by the fact this awful film exists.

I'm a fan of DC, with the Batman property being my favourite specifically because of the dark broodiness mixed with the wacky craziness. It's a tantalising blend that can take you on a wide-ranged journey. The characters have such deep wells of complex history to pull from, especially Harley Quinn, the Maiden of Mischief. And in film form, Margot Robbie's portrayal of Quinn in the widely panned Suicide Squad (2016) was one of the films shining lights. So, giving her her own film was seen as a brilliant move for the studio, seeing as this franchise was paling in comparison to what Marvel was achieving. And yet, this is appalling. 

While the direction for the most part is passable, there are certain shots that bothered me. In a fight scene, at one stage, Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) grabs Cassandra (Ella Jay Basco), pulling her down so that Quinn can swing over them, defeating an attacker. The shot continues to pan around, and the fight continues from another angle. Except. That whole sequence was done just for the shot. Huntress' position meant that she could have actually defeated the bad guy a lot easier and without the fuss. And, when she does yank Cassandra down, she's looking about just to do something, because even she knows the whole thing is stupid. While we're on the subject, the choreography was pitiful. A lot of the fights do not verge close to looking realistic.

Acting...

• Winstead and Jurnee Smollet's (Black Canary) acting is cringeworthy.

• Robbie and Ewan McGregor (Black Mask) were overacting. Perhaps due to the awful script and average direction.

• Chris Messina is miscast as Zsasz. Should've been Anthony Carrigan, who portrays Zsasz in Gotham (2014-2019).

• Basco, a child, acts better than most.

• A CGI hyena was the best actor in the film. Seriously.
  

Gotham, a beautifully dark city, is visually wrong. They can't seem to find the right tone until the enchanting amusement park. At which point, they nail it, but it's too late by then.

Unfairly, this film was given a lot of pressure upon it's release. It was meant to hail a new chapter for a struggling franchise, as well as be a post-MeToo movement women empowerment film. I went into it intrigued by the intellectual property, and wondering if finally they were going to get the tone and style right. They didn't. Instead of an off-kilter, wacky but exciting story, we're presented with an immature and silly offering that underwhelms in most categories. And they made Quinn, who is a total badass, a mess who was pining for her ex-boyfriend the entire film. No wonder Mr. J left her.

3/10