Birds of Prey and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

I've taken a couple of weeks since finally watching Birds of Prey, to let it sit with me before I wrote about it. Also, that thing called life. My hot take immediately upon finishing the movie at the time was, "Hey, that was way better than I thought it would be." Followed by, "I think I liked that more than Wonder Woman". A few weeks later, I still feel that way. Let's dig into it.

At the very top, my biggest endorsement of this movie is that it is a lot of fun. When I saw the trailers, I thought Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was going to be super annoying. I definitely wanted no part of any of this. Sure she was fun in Suicide Squad, but I did not want an entire movie devoted to her. Turns out I was wrong. She was totally fine and actually enjoyable. The movie uses the unreliable narrative, where we jump back and forth in time to introduce some of the characters until the story all lines up halfway through. If you saw Deadpool, this was exactly the same way to start.

Speaking of Deadpool, over the years in the comics, Harley Quinn has become too much like a DC version of him. A character with beginnings a bad guy, but then makes a turn into a character that is one parts buffoonery and equal parts kind of good at their job. To the point you wonder, "How is this character so wacky and still being taken seriously?" I don't like what they've done with Harley in the comics, but in this movie they manage to reign in some of that manic. At least she is not breaking the fourth wall. 

I have to admit, I loved the spin on classic Bird of Prey mainstays like Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya. Cassandra Cain is nothing like her comic book counterpart, but I accepted her in the context of this story. Although, her name could have been anything else. Cassandra is an awesome character and not to make to fine a point of it, this is not her.

We also get some good Ewan McGregor. He is clearly having fun with his over the top villain and I am glad he is not a super villain, determined for world domination. He just wants to be Gotham's top crime lord. It's nice to have goals. Black Mask is an enough of an unknown character that you can do whatever you want here. Also, I'm glad they don't take the cheap route and throw in one of Batman's villains to try and lend "legitimacy" to the movie. I also liked that they pulled in Victor Zsasz, another deep cut of Batman lore.

I was impressed with the overall, colorful aesthetic of the movie and the set pieces used in some of the fight scenes in the finale. I thought they were imaginative and fun.

Finally, it may sound corny, but I liked the girl power that was on display in this movie. Whether you think it is too pandering or not, I thought there are little subtle touches here that make it worthwhile. Particularly the arc of Harley getting over the breakup from the Joker and how everyone reacts around her. I will be honest, my opinion of this is colored a little by the story behind the movie and how it got made. These characters are B characters at best, so seeing them be in their own movie that was fun and entertaining shows that DC can make a good movie every now and then.