To See or Not to See: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Directed by Cathy Yan, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) picks up Harley Quinn’s story after the events of 2016’s Suicide Squad. After being dumped by longtime boyfriend the Joker, and thus losing the “protection” that the relationship provided, Harley Quinn gets hassled throughout the movie by the people she’s wronged. Gotham City’s crime lord Roman Sionis, better known as Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), happens to be one of them. Captured and threatened, Quinn uses her PhD in Psychology to convince Sionis to find something for him—an invaluable diamond—in return for her life. In doing so, Quinn tells the formation of the Birds of Prey.

Despite the name of the movie, a majority of the plot and screen-time circles around Harley Quinn, portrayed by Margot Robbie. In fact, the movie itself is narrated by her. Jokes and quick quips are hit and miss, and the fourth wall breaking dialogue, though rare as they may be, are jarring at best. The comparison to Marvel’s Deadpool is inevitable as that movie is also chock full of the same brand of humor as Birds of Prey. The only difference is that it doesn’t work that well here.

Part of the reason why it doesn’t work is the character itself. Don’t get me wrong, Margot does a great Harley Quinn, building on what we saw in Suicide Squad. Birds of Prey explores her character in much more depth. It shows Harley’s struggles with what it means to be an independent woman and whether or not she’s a “good” or “bad” person. However, the character itself isn’t relatable—Harley Quinn is inherently equal mix kooky and crazy, with a dash of chaos as well. It’s hard to find anything to latch onto.

On the topic of chaos, the pacing of the movie is, unfortunately, a bit of a mess. The first half of the movie is told through a plethora of flashbacks. This in and of itself isn’t a problem, but some of these scenes are drawn out and linger for a bit too long. Case in point: Halfway through Quinn blasting her way through a police precinct with a grenade launcher filled with glitter canisters, we cut to a twenty-minute flashback, retelling how she got there, all from the perspective of not one, not two, but three different characters. Yes, it fills in the backstory, but by the time we get back to the present—Quinn with the grenade launcher in hand—the flow of the scene is irreversibly dulled.

What isn’t dull is the acting. Of particular note is Ewan McGregor’s portrayal of Black Mask/ Roman Sionis. It was pretty obvious McGregor was having a grand old time playing a narcissistic and psychopathic crime lord-wannabe, effortlessly transitioning from a man with a conscience to one without in the blink of an eye. In one scene, Sionis has a family of three tied and hanged upside down by their ankles, slowly killed off one after the other by his underling Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). Sionis decides on a whim to spare the daughter after offing the mother and father. But that decision is short-lived—he sees a snot bubble emanating from the troubled and traumatized child’s face and goes, “ew gross, kill her too.”

It’s far from the best movie in the DC Extended Universe, nor is it the worst. Though that’s not saying much considering DC’s recent cinematic output these days. Birds of Prey is a decent comic book film in the DC universe with competent action scenes hampered by uneven pacing, unrelatable characters, and hit-or-miss comedy.

★ ★ out of 4

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is available to purchase on these digital platforms.

Photo Credit: CLAUDETTE BARIUS/WARNER BROS