**SPOILERS ahead for “Birds of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn”**
Birds of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (will be known as BOP or Birds of Prey going forward) reintroduces us to DC’s Harleen Quinzel better known as Harley Quinn. The film is entirely narrated by titular character and the storytelling stays true to her chaotic behavior. To clarify, the movie is all over the place at times utilizing flashbacks, the present time, and revisiting events, which can make the film a bit confusing. While some may find it a bit complicated, it is a great homage to the character and is refreshing to see this take on the movie.
Birds of Prey opens with Harley describing her breakup with the Joker and is told in animated form with the antagonist (as mentioned previously) narrating over it. This style works out as we don’t have to live through a scene with Jared Leto’s poor take on the Joker. The story is not overly drawn out and gives just enough information for newcomers to understand the history of Harley’s origin and her relationship with the Clown Prince of Darkness, or Mister J. as she affectionately calls him. At the close of the scene, I had to give a small smile and nod, as I was sure they were going to draw this out. Kudos to Cathy Yan (the director) for sparing us.
As the film and plot progress, Harley introduces each character with a title card similar to the way the “Suicide Squad” movie did in the opening credits. While “Suicide Squad” was a complete disaster, it was nice to see a nod to the film that caused this Birds of Prey spinoff. The title cards served as a quick way to introduce the other characters. The title card is on-screen and Harley narrates a quick back story of each of main protagonists and antagonists which include:
- Roman Sionis/Black Mask (Ewan McGregor)
- Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez)
- Helena Bertinelli/Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)
- Dinah Lance/Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell)
- Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Bosco)
- Victor Zsasz (Chriss Messina)
The main villain in the movie, Roman Sionis, and his right-hand man/assassin Victor Zsasz appear to more psychopathic than the title character. Sionis has a hobby of collecting people’s faces after they wrong him and Zsasz is enthralled to carry out dirty work for his employer. The main plot follows Sionis as he tries to get back the Bertinelli diamond that a young Cassandra Cain has stolen. Through some coaxing Harley talks Sionis into allowing her to help find the stone for him. Unbeknownst to our favorite anti-hero Sionis has also hired his night club singer, Dinah Lance, and his main man Zsasz find the diamond before she [Harley] does.
While the chase ensues, Harley has to give some flashbacks and tell parts of the story she forgot to mention earlier to clarify some things for the audience. One is instance is how Huntress is involved in the whole plot. This back and forth of storytelling happens a few times in the movie but is delightful. It shows that Harley herself is often confused, our of order, and scatterbrained. A drawback of this is that the movie will require a second rewatch in order to pick up on some little things that one might missed the first time.
Some of the little easter eggs that I picked up on my first watch were the mention of The Batman, the Captain Boomerang poster, Bruce the Hyena, Ace Chemicals, and Harley’s original costume. One small thing that that I was surprisingly delighted by, was the T.V. in Renee Montoya’s hotel room. It was playing an old episode of “I Love Lucy” where Lucille Ball appears to be dressed up as… wait for it… a Harlequin.
I could go on and on about the movie. In short, I enjoyed the film for what it was. It wasn’t the greatest superhero movie, but it was fun and entertaining. The action sequences really hit and the writing was done very well. The jokes, for the most part, were good but nothing gut-wrenching funny. The characters all seemed to fit, with Huntress being my favorite. The socially awkward take on Helena made for some great interactions and jokes. I also enjoyed the surprise of Cassandra Cain in the movie. I didn’t know she was going to be in it so seeing a future Batgirl made my day.
While I enjoyed Birds of Prey, there were some shortcomings. The first being that the group did not join forces until the final moments of the movie. It would have been great to see more action scenes with the character working together. The other big issue with the film is that it leaves it open to a sequel. While a sequel could be good, it is not needed. If Warner Bros. and DC decide to move forward, hopefully, we get the actual Birds of Prey on screen.
If you would like to hear more about my rantings of the Birds of Prey movie we will be talking more about the film in an upcoming podcast. Check back soon to our podcast section for that episode.
