Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
First things first. This is better than Suicide Squad. Thank God for my own sake. I couldn’t deal with another migraine-inducing noise fest. Well, Birds of Prey (ahem, I mean Birds of Prey [and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn], now known simply as Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey) is still a tongue-in-cheek foul-mouthed blood bath, but it is far more interesting than the previous DC bomb. Aside from the occasional demand to be edgy, Birds of Prey is actually — dare I say it — enjoyable at times. When the titular Quinn fought in Suicide Squad, it felt like one extra piece of the bothersome puzzle. Here, Quinn is a badass, and the film actually takes pride in the fight choreography (much more than the CGI atrocities and indecipherable chaos of the previous film).
What helps are the three women in power here. Cathy Yan was quickly promoted to directing a blockbuster action flick after 2018’s Dead Pigs, and she has a firm idea of how to have fun and danger at the same time here. Christina Hodson clearly can add heart to a tainted franchise (see Bumblebee: the only worthwhile Transformers live action film ever), and does her best here. Then, there’s Margot Robbie, who helped produce this saviour of the character, and stars as a commanding, eccentric, goofy take of Quinn (which is treated much more nicely, and less misogynistic here than in Suicide Squad). However, time to stop bad mouthing the past, because not everything works here. The main issue which drags Birds of Prey down a lot is the awkward structure of Hodson’s screenplay. Robbie’s Quinn — the unreliable narrator — remembers key events well after the fact, and we’re left jumping backwards and forwards in a tale that didn’t need this much tangling. If we met each lead character in chronological order, their teaming up may have felt even more successful later on, especially since we will have cared about every player this entire time. When you’re only discovering some people by face (names get tossed around) in the final act? That’s a little sloppy.
All walks of life, banding together to kick some ass.
It is a shame, because Birds of Prey actually has a strong theme of separating ones self from their “master” (hence the “emancipation”). We hear about Quinn’s woes after being left behind bu Joker (or “Pudding”), and that’s a reoccurring motif here. Whether it’s from lovers, bosses, mob overlords, or just the male gaze in society, all of the lead women here have had to distance themselves from masculine oppression or the community’s wrath. The build up pays off incredibly well. It’s too bad that the path there was needlessly muddled, especially with how exciting much of the delivery is. I never thought i’d actually care about any film remotely attached to Suicide Squad, but Birds of Prey was actually decent, with the potential to have been even better. I’m not sure how many more trips with Harley Quinn I can take, but this ride wasn’t so bad after all.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.