REVIEW: Birds of Prey Features Powerful Women Kicking Butt and Taking Names
Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is back in an all new movie, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and, this time, she ain’t no one’s side piece! After the events that unfolded in Warner Bros. Suicide Squad (no spoilers), our villainess is out on her own. Quinn has called it quits with the Joker, and is determined to make it in Gotham. When word gets out that Harley is solo and Joker-less, every goon in Gotham decides it’s the perfect time to exact their revenge on Harley.
One goon in particular, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor) aka Black Mask, wants to end Harley. Harley is scrappy and a survivor so she offers him a deal: she’ll use her skills to track down a diamond that Sionois believes holds the power to take over Gotham. The possessor of the diamond is Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), a young girl, who Harley must find. Harley runs into some other notable DC Comics characters including Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) in her quest to find Cain.
Robbie, once again, shines as Harley Quinn. This is Robbie’s movie and she clearly had great fun with this character. Harley’s action scenes look flawless, kudos to her stunt double! Robbie sinks into the role of Harley Quinn like one jumps on a bike, effortless. Her portrayal of the clown princess is wonderful balance of campy and crazy, which allows for the audience to empathize with her character. Smollett-Bell and Winstead were great additions; each actress added a more serious tone to the movie, which worked well paired with Robbie’s comical nature. The great thing about all the acting in this movie is no one took themselves too seriously. From McGregor’s over-the-top Sionis to Basco’s naïve Cain, there wasn’t a weak one in the bunch.
Fast paced and action-packed, Birds of Prey is the perfect continuation of Harley Quinn’s story. It also did a nice job introducing the new characters, especially Black Canary and Huntress into the DC Cinematic Universe. Writer Christina Hodson, and director Cathy Yan may have managed to bring to life the best Black Canary with their version. While too many details regarding Black Canary’s backstory aren’t revealed, they made sure to showcase her ability in hand to hand combat and her trademark stubbornness as in the comics. Everything about the character screamed Black Canary.
When it came to Huntress, Hodson and Yon didn’t detour from her original backstory, but found a way to entwine it into the main story without disrupting the flow. It was also nice they chose the backstory they did, rather than some of the other ones that surround her character, namely all the ones linking her to Batman.
Birds of Prey doesn’t feature the original three that make up the group in the comics, Oracle, Black Canary and Huntress, but it does create a fun new version with the addition of Harley. It could have been fun to see what Oracle would have brought to the table if they had kept the original three, yet this version is filled with badass women kicking butt and taking names.
Grade: B-