Batgirl, also known as Oracle or Barbara Gordon. Black Canary. Huntress. Lady Blackhawk. Gordon and Canary are the original members of the Birds of Prey, while Huntress and Lady Blackhawk have been the other longtime mainstays. This movie, though, is all about Harley Quinn. That’s not entirely a negative issue, however, as the movie proves to be entertaining even if wildly untrue to the comics.
The movie is mostly exciting and fun to watch. I, for one, think it’s better than Suicide Squad, where Harley and Margot Robbie became breakout names. Saying this movie is better than Suicide Squad isn’t a huge compliment though. Suicide Squad made money, but many critics and audiences gave the movie poor reviews. Maybe because Birds of Prey is coming off as a spinoff of Suicide Squad or because some people aren’t liking Birds itself, either way, Birds of Prey is currently not doing well in theaters. It is expected to only have a $33 million opening weekend at this point.
Much like the disappointing box office take of The Justice League, Birds of Prey suffers from one particular issue in my opinion: too much focus on one character at the detriment of all others. With a movie that features Black Canary, Huntress, Renee Montoya, and “Batgirl”, there was so much focus on Harley that these other characters were under or even mis-used.
Many critics, and fans alike, voiced that The Justice League rushed to get the team onto the screen, relying solely on people wanting to see Batman and Superman. Wonder Woman had been introduced in Batman V Superman, but Cyborg, Flash, and Aquaman were left to be introduced inside their team movie. Likewise, every character in this “team movie” is a new character to the big screen save for Harley.
I equate this not just to Justice League but also to Wolverine and the X-Men or even Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters. You may have a super popular character, but show runners and movie runners shouldn’t toss out the rest of the story and team based on the one character’s popularity, That usually creates a missed opportunity for the rest of the characters and, often, a failed project.
Throughout Birds of Prey, Harley and Black Mask often lean a bit too much into silliness. That’s to be expected with Harley’s character of course. However, when Harley is a prominent character but not the primary one, her silliness is enjoyable and welcome. With so much of the focus of this movie being solely on Harley, the silliness can sometimes come too often.
Don’t get me wrong, Margot Robbie returns to her most famous role with glorious humor and psychotic glee. She is, again, perfect for the character of Harley. Robbie’s take on Quinn is amazing. She’s weird, frantic, and ridiculous. The movie often takes viewers into her mind allowing us to see how she sees things which comes across as cartoony and wacko. For much of this movie, she’s dealing with her breakup with the Joker and trying to find her place in the DCEU without him, hence the “emancipation” portion of the title.
Renee Montoya has been a police detective in the Batman comics for decades. Like Harley Quinn, Montoya was originally created for Batman: The Animated Series back in 1992. Unlike Quinn, though, DC Comics jumped the animated gun and introduced her character in Detective Comics ahead of her animated debut.
Through the years, she’s been a prominent component of Batman’s police family along with Commissioner Gordon and Sgt. Bullock. Not only did Rosie Perez do the character justice, the part of Montoya was written well and given a decent amount of screen time. She really is the only other character, besides Harley, that is presented correctly.
The Huntress was also a pitch perfect representation but was criminally under-utilized. Mary Elizabeth Winstead played Helena Bertonelli, the lone survivor of a mafia massacre who is bent on revenge against all mob members. Winstead was remarkable and truly bad ass. She gets to have a few action packed scenes, but so little of the movie included her. Depending on the credits you see, she’s either the 2nd or 3rd name of the movie yet sees so little screen time.
Proof of the writers opting for all things Harley over the other characters, and storytelling itself, can be seen clearly in one particular scene involving Huntress and Harley. Huntress is on a motorcycle, Harley on roller skates being pulled behind Huntress as they chase Black Mask, who is in his car. The duo decides to sling the girl on roller skates to catch the car, purposely causing the motorcycle to wreck. I’m by no means an expert on the speeds of different modes of transport, but I’m fairly certain the motorcycle was the fastest of all vehicles, or skates, present.
Birds of Prey is very much a girl power movie. Taking that concept to a bit of an extreme, there is not a single positive male character in the movie. Every man shown is presented as either a villain, an idiot, a betrayer, or a potential rapist. Leading the pack of the villainous subsection of these misanthropes is Ewan McGregor as Black Mask. Comic book fans familiar with the character will know the villain as the sadistically creepy crime lord who always wears a black mask, hence the name. Birds of Prey got every aspect of the character right, even his backstory, except he almost never wears the mask in the movie!
I get it, Ewan’s a known face and the filmmakers don’t want him to go unseen. He could’ve worn the mask a bit more though. Instead of the creepy vibe, McGregor sans mask often comes off as goofily weird. Although he does very creepily dehumanize a couple at his club that he thought were laughing at him, he more often giggles and frets over germs or nasty things like snot bubbles.
Accompanying Black Mask is his minion of this movie, Zsasz. In the comics, Zsasz is a serial killer who cuts a tally mark onto his own skin for every kill he’s made, and he’s covered in tally marks! Ever since seeing him in the initial storyline of Batman’s comic book titled Shadow of the Bat, I’ve wanted to see more of this character. Of course, it’s unlikely that he’d ever be a top-banana villain in a movie. Since he’s often teamed with Black Mask in the comics, Birds of Prey made for a good spot to fit him into, even though he previously made a brief appearance in Batman Begins. He is creepy and viscous in this film, but giving the movie’s R rating, I was hoping for even more out of him.
Then, there’s the complete failure characters of the movie, Black Canary and Batgirl. Black Canary has always been on of my favorite heroines from DC Comics. While Jurnee Smollett-Bell was great in the part, the movie gave her very little to do. Huntress suffered that same plight, sure, but at least the movie got her character right. Canary, on the other hand, worked for the villain! I know she was a good girl who found herself in a bad situation, but that’s not Canary. Plus, she only uses her Canary Cry once in the movie and, even that once, passes out from its use!
What was done to Canary doesn’t begin to stack up to the utter destruction of Cassandra Cain. Cain originally debuted as the new Batgirl back in 1999 during the time that the original Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, had been crippled by the Joker. Gordon in her role as Oracle, remember, was an original member of Birds of Prey. For whatever reason, the filmmakers chose to use Cain instead of Gordon. Most likely Gordon is being held back for something more in line with the Batman movies.
Either way, at least Birds of Prey used one of the Batgirls, right? Unfortunately, that turned out to not be a good thing. Cain is supposed to be an almost ninja-like fighter trained by the League of Assassins. She’s truly one of the best fighters in the world of DC Comics. In Birds of Prey, though, she’s an often clueless kid who seems only good at being a pick pocket.
On a more positive note, listen up for a fantastic soundtrack throughout the movie! Great songs accentuate the action and introduction of each character. Adona brings one heck of a "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" remake.
It takes the entire movie for the titular team to come together. Until the team members are shown on the screen at the same time, much of the movie is frenetic as it tries to jump back and forth between each character’s portion of the story. Much of this chaotic storytelling is due to Harley being the narrator and telling the story in the order that makes sense to her.
While the team includes Harley for that climactic scene, subsequent flash forwards correctly show she’s not a real member. Although she was the main focus of the movie, it was nice to see that acknowledgment.
Birds of Prey was good but not great, fun but not memorable. I liked it, but it felt more like DC filler till Wonder Woman 1984 arrives this summer. At least when that movie focuses entirely on one character, it will do so appropriately. Harley’s fun, but bring on Diana.
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