Matthew Lucas started
his review by saying, “Birds of Prey, the sequel, spin-off, or whatever you'd
like to call it to 2016's Suicide Squad, marks one of the most impressive jumps
in quality from first film to second film that I can recall.” “Suicide Squad”
had grossed over $700,000,000 worldwide, which is one of the highest grossing
films that a lot of people didn’t really get into.
All praises, “Birds of
Prey (subtitled And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” looks to
have learned a lot of the flaws of the loud “Suicide Squad;” lowering the
stakes, modernizing the story, not casting Jared Leto’s really criticized
Joker, and making Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn the main focus. The film starts
with Harley getting thrown onto the street after breaking up with the Joker.
This starts a revenge process that puts Harley on the top of the list with so
many of Gotham criminals who’ve had problems with her for years, but couldn’t
go anywhere near her when she was dating the Joker. Now everyone from criminals
to cops now wants to track her down, with one crime boss mainly, the evil Roman
Sionis, played by Ewan McGregor, wanting to find her.
Followed by criminals
and cops, Harley now sees she has to team up with four other women – humiliated
detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), assassin Helena Bertinelli (Mary
Elizabeth Winstead), and Sionis’ frustrated driver Dinah Lance (Jurnee
Smollett-Bell), to protect a teen orphan (Ella Jay Basco) from Sionis’ goons.
Each one has their own fighting styles and their own problems with Sionis in
order to break his evil criminal business finally.
Lucas had noted, “Birds
of Prey more closely resembles more serious action films like John Wick and
Atomic Blonde than it does its predecessor, embracing its R-rating and tearing
into its bruising action scenes with relish, with the tongue-in-cheek humor of
the Deadpool films. Cathy Yan directs with a stylish verve that actually
recalls Tim Burton's Batman films, especially in the film's funhouse finale,
where the carnivalesque sets turn into a kind of Luis Buñuel-inspired nightmare.
It's great stuff, trimming the excesses of Suicide Squad, lowering the stakes,
and giving us more of its best elements - namely Robbie's Harley Quinn. Birds
of Prey replaces world-ending stakes and evil sorceresses of Suicide Squad with
a more localized crime drama, and it's all the better for it, giving the new
group a chance to congeal without working so hard to tie it into a grander
narrative.”
Actually, the film is
fun primarily because it does feel different from the rest of the DC films.
Other than a few references to Batman, the Joker, and the events of the
previous films, “Birds of Prey” mostly is a standalone. Lucas ended his review
by saying, “Robbie is the film's strongest asset but Yan (whose only other
credit is a Chinese film from last year called Dead Pigs that never got an
American release) displays a commanding visual eye and a knack for combining
comedy with serious, sometimes brutal, action. It's a gleefully over-the-top,
candy-colored comic book spectacle that finds a pleasing balance between
character and action that puts it a cut above its superhero peers.”
In actuality, I thought
this film was going to be more violent and more powering towards women than how
it turned out. Even though it wasn’t like that, I still had a fun time watching
this. To the film’s credit, I applaud it for not having a nude scene. Still, I
don’t see any harm if anyone wants to go see it as I think everyone will have a
fun time watching it. Make sure to stay after the credits to hear Harley on
audio almost reveal the identity of Batman.
Thank you for joining
in on today’s review. Stay tuned this Friday for the next installment of “Black
History Movie Month.”
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