I've recently learned that the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" might actually be pretty good advice. Te explain, I was in no way, shape, or form looking forward to seeing Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). I've loved the Harley Quinn character since she made her debut on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, but I got absolutely sick of seeing her all over the place after Suicide Squad put her on the mainstream map. And then there's Birds of Prey's advertising campaign making the movie look almost unbearably obnoxious, like it was going to double down all the things I hated about Suicide Squad. It all blended together to make a movie I was convinced that I was not going to enjoy.
But I did go see Birds of Prey anyway, because I'll go see every comic book movie no matter how bad I think it'll turn out. And you know what? It proved me wrong. The movie's flaws are right there for everyone to see, but I'd be lying if I said the movie wasn't also a whole lot of fun. It's an absolute blast, and I'm glad the movie was able to make me change my tune.
Since we last saw her, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has been unceremoniously dumped by the Joker. Dating that psychotic clown provided by her with a lot of protection, since nobody would dare cross him. But once word gets out that she's newly single, everyone Harley has ever wronged is out to get her.
Among her new enemies is Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), a narcissistic mob boss looking to take over all of Gotham City's criminal underworld. Part of his plan to accomplish this involves a diamond worth millions of dollars. The downside of that is that he sent his chief lieutenant, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), to procure the diamond, only for it to be stolen from him by teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). Harley offers to retrieve the diamond for Roman in exchange for her life, and he accepts... only to put a bounty on Cassandra as she leaves, just to spice things up.
Meanwhile, Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) is using her status as both a singer in Roman's nightclub and his personal chauffeur to discreetly leak information to police detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez). And Detective Montoya herself is up to her neck in an investigation into a crossbow-wielding killer calling herself "the Huntress" (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who's been cutting a bloody swath through all of Gotham's organized crime families with Roman being the next name on her list. All of these plot threads are slammed together, and Harley, Dinah, Montoya, and the Huntress are forced to team up to protect Cassandra and fight Roman and every other angry mobster in Gotham City.
The last time we saw Harley Quinn on a movie screen, I called the movie DC's answer to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. And now, four years later, she's appearing in what I would call DC's answer to Deadpool. But this time around, it's not a negative comparison at all. Harley ditching the dead weight of the Suicide Squad and Jared Leto's Joker would have been a decent enough change by itself, but add in an over-the-top sense of humor, a frenetic, almost chaotic energy, and a wafer-thin fourth wall, and you have all the makings of a cinematic carnival ride. Birds of Prey is a wild, colorful, and downright entertaining movie that I really enjoyed.
Harley says at the beginning of the movie that she's looking for a fresh start, and the "riot grrrl" aesthetic that director Cathy Yan brings to the movie goes a long way in establishing it. If it weren't for Margot Robbie, you'd almost never guess that this Harley and the one from Suicide Squad are the same character thanks largely to how Yan crafts the world around her. This is only Yan's second feature-length movie, but there's no signs of inexperience to be seen here. She has a unique eye for storytelling, comedy, and action, showing off all three as our adventure progresses. Yan constructs the movie in a way that makes it feel different from the other movies in the DC Extended Universe. It may not be as visually stunning as Aquaman or as awe-inspiring as Wonder Woman, but Yan gives the movie a vibe that makes it more entertaining than you'd expect it to be.
Unfortunately, I wish I could say the same for the script. Written by Christina Hodson, the script is all over the place in terms of quality. It's like a wild seesaw ride between great and crap, a shift that I found made the rest of the movie have to work harder to overcome. I can't say that I didn't particularly car for how lame Roman Sionis and Victor Szasz were, but I especially hate how Hodson wrote Cassandra Cain. The Cassandra from the comics was trained from birth to be a silent assassin, eventually finding her way to Gotham City and becoming Batgirl. The Cassandra of Birds of Prey is a foulmouthed teenage pickpocket who's never even heard of the Joker and lacks all of the complexities of the character from the comics. It's like Hodson just picked a name at random from the comics and ran with it.
But Hodson does do right by Harley, I can say that. Not only does Yan make her look like a total badass (it helps that John Wick director Chad Stahleski helped choreograph some of the fight scenes), but Hodson also turns her into a fourth-wall breaking loon. I compared her to Deadpool earlier, and I still feel that's an apt comparison. (Since she's part of a team here, maybe it's closer to Deadpool 2?) But I could also say that Harley comes off like an insane Bugs Bunny. Harley bouncing back and forth between an off-the-wall clown and a bit more serious, outright mocking Roman's plans and diagnosing his inadequacies (she's got a Ph.D. in psychology, after all) while winking to the audience, makes for some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.
The cast, meanwhile, is a mixed bag. Chris Messina is forgettable as Victor Zsasz and Ewan McGregor is almost too cartoony for my taste. I frankly had a hard time taking McGregor seriously as our villain, if I'm going to be truthful. And Ella Jay Basco is, from my perspective, the worst part of the movie. I was already frustrated with how much they'd changed the character of Cassandra around so much, but I also found Basco to be pretty lousy. The more I saw her, the more I wanted the movie to hurry up and get to someone else. If the goal was to have Basco play an annoying brat that you'd want Harley and everyone else to ditch after the first twenty minutes, then mission accomplished.
The rest of the cast isn't so bad, though. Rosie Perez and Jurnee Smollett-Bell hand in fine performances, while Mary Elizabeth Winstead is really funny as the Huntress. But despite the movie's title, the Birds of Prey are secondary characters at best. The movie belongs almost exclusively to Harley Quinn and, by extension, Margot Robbie. Robbie was undoubtedly my favorite part of Suicide Squad, and she ups her game now that the spotlight is primarily on her. Free from having to play Harley as just Joker's girlfriend and nothing more, Robbie turns Harley into a comedic force of nature, a technicolor tornado you can't take your eyes off of. She completely carries the movie on her back, doing so in such a way that part of me had hoped they would've just made her the sole protagonist and not worried about the Birds of Prey. Robbie is nothing short of amazing in the role; I couldn't imagine anyone else playing a better live-action Harley.
Birds of Prey is nowhere near perfect. Some of the acting is pretty bad and the script isn't exactly what one would call strong. But I can't overstate just how truly entertaining it is. The movie exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations and then some. It's an enjoyable, energetic, exciting spectacle that revels in being both entertaining and absurd. Birds of Prey is a fine entry into the burgeoning "girl power" niche within the superhero genre, and I'm looking forward to seeing just where Harley and her new friends go from here.
Final Rating: ***
