Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey/ Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn – Movie Review

You know a movie is doing bad when the studio changes the name of the movie after its release. The movie started out as Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, but as the movie failed, WB thought that a name change to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey might help the movie. It didn't.

I really wanted to like this movie, I really did. There are not enough comic book female characters on the big screen to play Marvel vs. DC fans in my opinion. I loved the Wonder Woman movie, and even though I didn't like Suicide Squad I liked the character of Harley Quinn in that movie. But this movie didn't know what to do with that character or any other character. It just didn't work in my opinion. I feel like I suffered through the movie. But on the bright side, Harley Quinn has amazing outfits in this movie, so it has that going for it. And a few other things. But to be honest, no one wanted this movie, we wanted to see Gotham City Sirens, so this movie was disappointing from the start.

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey follows Harley Quinn (played wonderfully by Margot Robbie) who breaks up with the Joker. She goes through all of the bizarre stages of mourning including cutting off her own hair, eating junk and getting a pet hyena. Being the Joker's girlfriend has some perks, like protection. Now Harley is on her own and she finds out that she has a lot of enemies. Including the very dangerous
Roman Sionis/Black Mask (played by Ewan McGregor) and his boyfriend/personal assassin, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). Don't worry it is only hinted at that they are a couple. Now Harley has to appease Sionis by finding his stole diamond which was stolen by a kid named Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) and also save the kid. Luckily for Harley, Sionis has a few more enemies that become her friends along the way: Black Canary (played by Jurnee Smollett), Renee Montoya (played by Rosie Perez) and Huntress (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead). They all have terrible designs, even though they are all pretty cool characters.

The plot of the movie is none-linear. The movie starts off pretty cool and the moves backwards and then forward again. It doesn't actually work for this movie in my opinion. The plot is really thin, the characters other than Harley barley get any screen time. Also, it is boring that almost no one in this movie has powers. It's a DC superhero movie, I want powers. And more action. This movie barley has any action in it.

The movie does have a few good things going for it. The most redeeming quality is the girl bonding. Harley and Cassandra develop a really interesting and close relationship. Black Canary and Montoya develop a professional relationship. And in the end they all have a sisterhood against the world vibe. Aided by a pretty cool action scene in which they all fight together, but it's just one. Plus, there are a few good songs in the movie, most notably "Feeling Good". Plus, the women in the movie give some pretty great performances. It's not all bad.

I get it that Margot Robbie who produced this movie wanted to be the major star of the movie, but it was a bad call. She and director Cathy Yan made some unfortunate choices like not realizing the Harley is the best when she is with Joker or Poison Ivy. Or that it helps to have more than one really famous actress in the movie. They just failed to make an impression.

If you are scratching the bottom of your pandemic viewing, it is a watchable movie with some fun moments. But you might consider watching something else.

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