OnScreen Review: "Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
Sometimes it pays to be a few days late to seeing a movie. In this case, the review is coming after this movie experienced a name change from Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn to simply Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. Even though I am a sucker for overly long titles (Here’s to you, Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), the original felt too cute by half.
Regardless of the title change, this movie is a continuation of the story of Harley Quinn from the lackluster Suicide Squad, in which Margot Robbie’s performance as Quinn was one of the few bright spots. What we definitely do not get this time around is more of Jared Leto’s Joker (And may that nightmare of a character/performance never rise again from the vat of Ace Chemicals…). In fact, after the events of Suicide Squad and/or possibly events not occurring in Suicide Squad, Harley and “Mr. J” have broken up, leaving Harley not just heartbroken but also vulnerable as she’s no longer under his protection in Gotham City. Due to her fantabulous emancipation, it is quickly open season on one Harley Quinn.
That’s not the only thing going on in this movie, though, as hinted at by the “Birds of Prey” in the title. Other women in the city have their stories intertwined with Harley’s. There’s Det. Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), who is investigating a mysterious hit job on several Gotham City mobsters when Harley very publicly announces her aforementioned fantabulous emancipation. There is Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who created the crime scene that Montoya is investigating. There’s also Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), who is a club singer for crime boss Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), aka, Black Mask. Lastly, there’s Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), a sticky-fingered teen who ends up stealing the wrong thing from Sionis’ top henchman, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina).
Given’s DC and Warner’s difficult past in bringing their superheroes to the big screen in any way that matches the quality of Marvel, it makes sense for them to latch onto the Harley Quinn character since they were fortunate enough to nab Margot Robbie for the role; she is one of the hottest names in Hollywood over the last few years. It’s almost like how the X-Men franchise managed to get Jennifer Lawrence for First Class before she became a full-on star, which ended up elevating the character in the process. DC Films has to see her as someone they can offer up as bankable alongside Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam. Personally, I think Robbie is a total package as an actress, someone with acting chops and Hollywood good looks.
As talented as Robbie is, Harley Quinn is definitely a character that should not have her own standalone movie. As they would say in the world of professional wrestling, the gimmick wears thin real fast. It’s good, then, that, while she is the main character of the movie, her presence is tempered by the ensemble case, as it were. The more characters she has to play off of the better.
The Birds of Prey don’t actually coalesce until the final big fight of the film, but the build up to it gives the rest of them enough screen time so that Harley doesn’t completely overwhelm the movie. The other women combined probably equal the screen time of Harley herself, but without each character getting equal time, a few of them feel under-served and not fully developed; in particular, Huntress. And Ewan McGregor is letting loose and chewing a bit of scenery while playing a character he doesn’t often get to play. It’s also odd to see Chris Messina here, as he is most known for being an indie film mainstay.
Going in, I thought that the best case scenario for the film would be for it to be something in the vein of Guardians of the Galaxy; a slightly lesser known property that mainstream fans wouldn’t be as familiar with and might surprise them with a strong story. Turns out, I had the wrong comp. This movie is more like the DC Films equivalent of Deadpool 2, right down to Harley being saddled with a troubled teen in Cassandra Cain like how Wade had Firefist and the movie leaning into its R rating.
Making only her second feature length film, director Cathy Yan brings a lot more energy and fun to this version of Gotham City than David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. The film unapologetically leans into the female-centric aspect of things, enhanced by a mostly (all?) female-driven soundtrack, which culminates with Heart’s “Barracuda” playing over the beginning of the final fight. Det. Montoya works for a captain who took all the credit on a big case she cracked when they were partners, Black Canary feels like she is owned by Black Mask, and Huntress has tragedy in her past at the hands of ruthless men.
There is also some creativity in the script from Christina Hodson, who also wrote the Transformers spinoff, Bumblebee. The movie plays with a nonlinear storyline, with Harley serving as an unreliable/forgetful narrator, a la Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, though not quite as effective or entertaining. It feels like the jumping around with the narrative is used to mask the lack of a strong central story, which is a fairly straightforward bad-guy-wants-back-stolen-property-he-originally-stole kind of story.
This movie is a solid improvement over Suicide Squad, but doesn’t rise to the level of Wonder Woman, Shazam, or even Aquaman, which I’d put a notch below the other two. There are quite a few good elements to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, including the cast in general and the marked change in tone from its predecessor. It’s fun and entertaining to a point, but at a few points the movie veers from entertaining to just being busy on screen with a lot of bells and whistles. Forgive the expression, but I also think there is a ceiling to a Harley Quinn-centric movie. Emancipation is the central theme, and this film does it best, but it’s incredibly hard and maybe impossible to completely extricate the character of Harley Quinn from the Joker.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars