In spite of being a DC Extended Universe film, I wanted to see Birds of Prey, aka Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, aka Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn in theaters because I had seen various previews for the film around 8,000 times, it had a woman director and a diverse variety of women ready to kick ass. I usually just need the latter. Unfortunately I was too busy during opening weekend to see it and decided to wait until the following weekend, which was President’s Day weekend, then exaggerated reports of it doing poorly to it being the worst DC Comics film lit a fire under me to definitely prioritize seeing it before the close of the three day weekend. I could understand viewers reluctance to see the film because of Harley Quinn’s association with Suicide Squad, which was not a solid movie. Also this movie should not be confused with the WB television series with the same title.
Whatever you call it, Birds of Prey is the eighth and best film in the DC Extended Universe. Birds of Prey is my Wonder Woman. I enjoyed the entire film, and it was a joy to have a whole cast of characters that could not be considered good or bad, but were flawed, unique human beings even though the majority of the cast were women. Also the majority of them were not metahumans or superheroes so unlike most films, there could be plausible tension that they could get killed. When they finally team up, which is a given because the previews spoiled it, it does feel like an organic teamup given the circumstances. Even though the film uses a trope that is often trotted out whenever a morally ambiguous woman takes the lead, I will happily sign a waiver because it worked for me. I was not annoyed by it because it made sense given each character’s history with this person or her backstory.
Unlike Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey never flagged in holding my interest. I normally like a linear narrative, but if a film is going to jump around on a timeline, doing it to introduce different characters and showing how each character relates to our narrator, Harley Quinn, played once again by Margot Robbie, is the way to do it. More importantly, there are no dropped threads in the story line. Whenever the film rewinds to show the film from another perspective, it usually fleshes out a scene that we thought was just a throwaway scene, but is actually pivotal to an earlier scene, and it did not feel repetitive even when it literally was. It works as if a viewer was websurfing and went down different rabbit holes learning about different plot points.
Birds of Prey’s story was strong, which means that its characters were interesting. I know that one reviewer hated the film because Quinn seemed like a collection of quirks, but had no real core character. I actually felt the opposite way, and in spite of finding her completely insane, I also thought she was relatable. She presents as a criminal demented party girl, all id, but she was a tightly bound professional who finally snapped and decided to explore life on the other side without rules, impulse control or moderation. Instead of delayed gratification, pleasure is her main focus, being in the moment, satisfying her needs. She still has the brains, but just because she has abandoned the veneer of respectability does not mean that she has lost her knowledge. I liked how she would casually psychoanalyze people and found their grievances boring. The problem is not that she is vacuous. The problem is that she is too smart for people to sustain her interest with their predictability; thus her usual lack of empathy. Her physicality, recklessness and twistedness (fellas, watch out for your legs) makes her an intriguing antihero. She has a moral code, but only as long as it works for her. Initially she is willing to be physically violent without causing mortal damage, but as fights grow longer, she gets blunt and just finishes people off without a second thought.
Jurnee Smolett-Bell as Dinah Lance, aka Black Canary, could have had her own movie. She is the next most interesting character, and it felt as if she got the most screen time. She was gorgeous and could fight. Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, a character that I am not familiar with, felt more standard, and even the narration concedes it, but Perez sells it with her experience and worked with her character’s disregard for her appearance. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress was deadly and hilarious. I wanted her to have more screen time, but if there is a sequel, I definitely think that the next film will make up for it. Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain, a kid caught up in adult hijinks, is never cutesy or dumb, does not overact and works as a rallying point while still being a person. The idea that she would look up to Harley as someone who has her life together and should be admired offset the usual instinct to go for the stereotype of maternal instincts being triggered. Quinn gets a mentee. They may be protective of the child, but it never feels like she is an answer to a longing that any of the characters had, thank God! I hate those storylines. All women do not want to be mothers.
Ewan McGregor, progressive bae, made a good villain, Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, another character that I am unfamiliar with. McGregor does a mean early Sam Rockwell impression. I did not know going in that Birds of Prey could not get Rockwell to take the role—apparently he only plays loveable racists now, but McGregor is hotter so their loss is our gain. McGregor uses his iconic smile to show how his character masks his sociopathic tendencies to seem personable. The unexpected intriguing idea of the literal devil on his shoulder, Victor Zsasz, played superbly by Chris Messina, made me curious to know more about them. It is possible that with Zsasz, Sionis would be a better person. Are they friends or lovers? If I have to ask, I probably know the answer.
None of the aforementioned would matter if Birds of Prey’s fight scenes were not great, but they were. Thank you, Cathy Yan, for not using chaos cinema, but giving us Fred Astaire style shooting. You can see every mallet and bat make contact with each face. Each fight scene matches the individual style of each character. The stunts were perfectly executed. The aesthetic choices of every fight sequence were evocative and as visually arresting as the actual fight. There were no pulled punches. The rest beats within the fight scenes were just as important as the fight. For instance, the evidence room fight gives Quinn a chance to have her subversive Popeye moment when she seems cornered. Quinn is right that torture scenes are usually boring, but instead we simultaneously get an oneiric take on a classic Hollywood scene and a reference to Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, which McGregor starred in. Yan manages to do what Patti Jenkins could not-own the entire film without any incursions to show that she can do a comic book movie without losing herself in the process. Her constantly changing visual style to match the tone of each scene made the film a sumptuous visual feast, and I cannot wait to see what her next project looks like. Birds of Prey is only her second feature film.
Also I adored how Birds of Prey does not flinch from its ignominious beginnings. Very late in the film, Quinn does a recap of everything that happened in Suicide Squad and plays it as a joke. If I had to complain about one thing, it bothered me that we never found out why the Joker broke up with Quinn.
Birds of Prey is a consistently hilarious, colorful, riveting action film, which may make you doubt whether or not it is actually a DC Comics film since they are generally gloomy, brooding and dark, but it is. If you enjoy these characters and comic book films, definitely check it out. I think that I will watch it again at home with the subtitles on to catch all the things that I missed when I watched it in the theater because we were all too busy laughing. There is a light social justice message undercurrent about women abandoning their traditional role and striking out on their own, but nothing in proportion to the way that people complained about it online. The X-Men movies explicitly talk more about oppression. So if simply having a majority women cast makes you concerned that it is going to be nothing than feminist talking points, you don’t have to worry, but you also are probably a trash individual who won’t be able to handle women characters who are more textured than the usual DC Comics hero.
Side note: my ranking of DC Extended Universe film quality ranked from best to worse after this one is Justice League, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, Man of Steel, Suicide Squad, Aquaman and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.