Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

I'm not gonna spend much time on discussing Jared Leto's absence in this movie, but I find it super hilarious that this movie seemed to actively crop out Jared Leto, as if they not only didn't want him in this movie, they didn't even want to pay for his likeness. That is the funniest thing to happen in 2020 yet. 

A disclaimer up front, I'm going to call this movie Birds of Prey. The long title doesn't bother me as much as I think it bothered other people, it would just be long to even abbreviate and the extra title seems gratuitous like certain parts of this movie. 

Birds of Prey picks up where Suicide Squad left off... (sorta) with the character of Harley Quinn

(played by Margot Robbie) free from the max prison she was in and roaming Gotham. However, it is quickly explained that her and the Joker have broken up and she's on her own now.

But she quickly addresses the fact that the Joker was very much a shield for her and now that she's not with him anymore, some people see this as an opportunity to take some vengeance on her for some of the grievances they have against her. Most namely, a crime boss by the name of Roman Sionis AKA Black Mask (played by Ewan Mcgregor).

Birds of Prey follows Harley Quinn navigating this new world without the Joker and gaining some unlikely allies as she avoids falling prey to Black Mask's sadistic criminal plots. While it is called Harley Quinn in other countries, the movie is called Birds of Prey and Harley's unlikely allies are a team of women that eventually become known as the Birds of Prey. This includes a mysterious cross-bow wielding assassin named The Huntress (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an underappreciated cop named Renee Montoya (played by Rosie Perez), and a singer/driver named Black Canary (played by Jurnee Smollett-Belll).

The four team up for a mcguffin related romp surrounding a young orphan scamp (I feel like of old using the word scamp) by the name of Cassandra Cain (played by Ella Jay Basco) and Black Mask's play for power in Gotham.

And there is a lot to like about this movie.

Obviously, Margot Robbie continues to play the character of Harley Quinn very well. She clearly has a love for the character and I think Warner Brothers in letting her produce movies like this is allowing her to kind of go buck wild with it and I'm all for it. I think one of the more interesting elements of the movie was when she was just roaming around Gotham as an integrated part of the city. Gotham in this movie is not really that distinct from any other city like New York, but one thing that I think worked really well was that she wasn't the random clown girl freak as if nobody had ever seen her before, she felt like a piece of the world and we got to see kind of the day to day of what a wacky character like her would have and I didn't know I would enjoy that aspect of the film as much as I actually did. I don't even think that was something that was overly thought about in this film, but something DC hasn't really been able to do just by virtue of not having as many movies in their franchise as Marvel does, is make their characters feel like they actually live in the world they're in. This movie got pretty close to that and I enjoyed it.

Something worth mentioning is that they do try and make her a little bit of a Deadpool-like character and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Before going on, I should note that I am not the biggest Harley Quinn fan. I already mentioned that I didn't watch much of Batman: The Animated Series but the episodes I did watch never made Harley out to be a self aware character, breaking the fourth wall, and doing the Deadpool shtick.

I'm not saying its bad, it just felt like they were really trying to make Harley Quinn DC's Deadpool and I don't think it always landed because it never went as far as Deadpool would go. Harley is narrating a lot of the film the same way Deadpool does in his film, but its more commentary on whats going on, not really a lot of meta humor. To be clear, I don't want her be a character who knows she's a comic book character, but if you're going to make her Deadpool, go all the way with it but make it your own. Don't half ass it. 

The next best thing about this movie is clearly the villain.

Maybe its my bias of never having anything bad to say about Ewan McGregor ever, but outside of Margot Robbie, he seems to be the only person who knows the movie he's in from back to front. He knows he has to be a symbol of misogyny, and the foil to girl power and I'll get to that element of the film later. But he also knows that at the end of the day he's a Batman villain and he's gotta be that special kind of Batman villains despite Batman being nowhere near this movie.

And he's able to do both!

Despite any thoughts on the over messaging of the film which you can love or hate, doesn't matter. Ewan Mcgregor proves that you can both be a symbol of how shitty men can be, and be an entertaining villain that you love to hate. While a lot of this movie deals in either black or white, Black Mask, despite being a clear villain, deals in some really fascinating nuances that make his character both disgusting and fascinating in the way people are interested in serial killers.

Although I will say, it is becoming a stereotype in comic book movies/TV shows to cast the main male villain/foil to the female protagonist with a flamboyant beloved Scottish actor. They did it in Jessica Jones with David Tenant as Killgrave and now they're doing it with Ewan Mcgregor as Black Mask and its a weird trend that kind of really works. They even kind of did it in Captain Marvel but Jude Law is English and that movie isn't as good, coincidence? Maybe!

The rest of the cast is alright. Everyone has a moment and if you're going to do a girl power comic book movie, this isn't a bad cast to do it with.

The little girl in this movie is probably the weakest part of the film, but I won't dig too much into her as she's 13 and paired up with some pretty talented actresses.

Compared to Suicide Squad, this movie does two things better... sorta,. It spends more time developing characters in the team, especially the ones we're meeting for the first time, and it doesn't make us believe that this is a team that is built out of more than a common goal. Rosie Perez does not come out of this film thinking Harley Quinn is her sister from another mister whereas in Suicide Squad (and even the first Guardians of the Galaxy) the team came together so quickly and were ready to lay down their lives for each other in a matter of minutes. In this movie, there is still a level of mistrust, and it does feel like its more a team up out of convenience rather than starting a new family.

My problem with this team comes from the fact that the banter and writing between these four kind of sucks because its way too friendly once they finally get together. I get that this is girl power Deadpool and they're trying to promote a team of women that support one another rather than tear each other down. And to be clear, I'm not saying they should be super catty or get into mud fights, but once they become a team any tension that might have been between these characters is gone. Luckily, it doesn't fully happen until the third act, but it just becomes cheesy and I'm sorry, the minute Heart's Barracuda started playing while all the women were kicking ass, it felt very produced rather than a real story. It also didn't help that they're doing this on a stage that actually looked and was utilized the same a stage from a Joel Schumacher Batman movie would look and be used like.

There's a balance to be had when you're making a movie that is both a comic book movie with a unique narrative as well as a platform to promote themes related to women and women issues. Ideally, you're themes should flow with the narrative that they're poignant but not overt. And this goes for any kind of theme or social message in any movie.

I think one of the better aspects of this film is how it points out that Harley and the female super heroes susceptible to sexism. It addresses that reality head on in pretty overt ways without glorifying it. Again, it goes into that idea that this feels like a lived in world where Female Clown Mercenaries and superheroes exist.

But there were times in this movie where the messages of anti-sexism (which I should note that I agree with) were pretty overt and didn't strike that balance as well as I think it could have.

The last thing I'll mention is just some larger about the character, and where DC seems to be going without a huge long rant. I've thought about doing something like that for a while but we'll see if I ever get there.

Something I've thought about after this film and doing a little bit of reflection on Suicide Squad and what a weird year 2016 was for DC (and pretty much everything else if we're being honest). I've come to the realization that we will probably never see Harley Quinn as a bonafide villain in a DC film.

I get that part of the point of this movie is to show her growth into a character that isn't defined by the Joker, but I think one aspect of this portrayal of the character is that we never really got to see Margot Robbie in that Harley Quinn role. Its alluded to in this film and show... kind of in Suicide Squad, but in both films Harley Quinn is shown as a troubled anti-hero who ends up doing the right thing when the time comes.

With how splintered the DC cinematic universe is, its hard to think of an opportunity that so many variables need to come together to see some of these classic super hero moments come together on the big screen. And while I think this movie introduces some ideas of the character that are interesting, we now have an interpretation of Harley Quinn that for the time being is just an anti-hero trying to recreate the magic of Deadpool.

And now, how I imagine the conversation between Cathy Yan and Warner Brothers executives when this movie was pitched on the topic of Jared Leto being involved in this movie.

Yan: So I have this idea for a Margot Robbie Harley Quinn. I hope its okay but I had the idea that this movie would focus on Harley Quinn and not include the Joker.
Exec: Oh Cathy, yes we are totally okay with that idea.
Yan: Okay great, I mean the story is about how the Joker and Harley break up so if we needed to we do a seen with Jared Leto if you wanted to, I know how these movies sometimes need to be connected.
Exec: Oh no, we don't think that's necessary. No need to bother Jared for photography. Thanks though.
Yan: Are you sure? I mean it might be helpful to have archive footage from Suicide Squad to show their relationship prior to the break up.
Exec: (getting visibly annoyed) I suppose we could show some archive footage, but we'd really actually prefer not to see Jared's face... this is Harley's movie amirite?
Yan: (Very confused) I... I suppose... I mean what if we conveyed some of that background information via animated cartoons.
Exec: FINE! But if those cartoons look like Jared Leto we're shutting down production, I swear to god.
Yan: ... Do you not want to pay Jared Leto?
Exec: No we do not...

Overall, Birds of Prey was better than Suicide Squad...

The movie has a lot of good elements like Margot Robbie and Ewan Mcgregor. And despite the fact that DC is trying to make Harley Quinn their Deadpool, the movie feels like its trying to its own thing and not fall into the stereotypical DC superhero film which I am all for.

There are some issues I had with the social commentary of the film stick out from the mix of the story and feeling overt, but I would say its a fun installment in the DC cinematic universe. I can't say I completely recommend checking it out as soon as you can, but I think you won't feel your time was wasted if you see it.

But what did you think of Birds of Prey? Are you a Harley Quinn fan? What do you think of the direction Margot Robbie is taking the character? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!