From IMDb: “After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroes Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord.”
Editor’s note: The studio actually officially changed the title of the movie to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey after the movie’s not-good opening weekend box-office.
What I liked:
- Places female empowerment at the forefront, but not in a cliched or heavy-handed “message-y” way.
- Touches on toxic relationships but also never gets cliched or heavy-handed.
- Fun and inventive action sequences, with some of them being quite violent and gruesome.
- FINALLY, Gotham City returns to the streets of L.A.! Los Angeles has not been home to Gotham since the 60s Batman tv show. I see you, Santee Alley!
- “The Booby Trap” is the most fun and unique set I have seen in a looooong time.
- The soundtrack is full of energetic tunes that really add to the vibrancy of the movie. I haven’t listened to the full album yet, but the Doja Cat track is my favorite so far.
- Great cinematography. This movie has some strong compositions and the color palette is amazing.
- The script’s dialog (and narration) by Bumblebee’s writer Christina Hodson is quite witty, and had me laughing. Please note that this movie is not a comedy, I’m just a fan of quippy dialog.
- I’m not familiar with director Cathy Yan‘s work, but I thought she did a kick ass job blending feminism, heart, crime and super-heroics into one movie.
- Man, the posters for this movie were so unique. This one is my favorite.
- Really dug the modernization of the costumes. Hopefully we could see some action figures down the road.
- [SPOILER ALERT] (highlight the text to read) SO….Black Canary (the only super-powered person in the Birds of Prey team) shares a power with my favorite X-Man Banshee (and his daughter Siryn) called the “Sonic (or “Supersonic”) scream”. It’s one of my favorite powers AND I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE IT. When Canary finally gets to release her “Canary Cry” upon some goons IT MADE ME SO HAPPY seeing it on the big screen that I teared up. I’M NOT KIDDING. No one will feel the same way I do and that’s ok, but man it got me PUMPED.
What I didn’t like:
- The movie jumps around the timeline a lot in the beginning, and I was starting to get a little lost.
- [SPOILER ALERT] (highlight the text to read) This isn’t much of a “Birds of Prey” origin story, and really only borrows the title from a popular DC Comics all-female team. This is Harley’s movie, and because of that we don’t get to spend much time with the other “Birds”. They could’ve kept them in there to set up their own movie, but made the title of *this* movie “Harley Quinn’s Fantabulous Emancipation” or “the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn”. Either would’ve made more sense.
Editor’s notes: These next points have nothing to do with the actual quality of the movie:
- It sucks that it didn’t make good money opening weekend, and people are already considering it a bomb. (SAD FACE EMOJI). We probably won’t see a true Birds of Prey sequel featuring Black Canary, Huntress, Renee (and also maybe Oracle), which makes me more sad because those three actresses KILLED it.
- Hopefully it gains “cult classic” status. The movie kind of reminded me of Scott Pilgrim vs the World, a fantastic film that also unfortunately did not make the money that the studio had hoped but had a great shelf-life on home video.
Overall:
My favorite film within the “DCEU” so far. Original, wild, vibrant; And it definitely earns it’s R rating. A “Girl Gang” movie with swagger, humor and the best breakfast sandwich you will ever see. A total blast of a film.
Jose Zuazua is editor-in-chief of Quick Lunch Break Reviews. He has an associates degree in film production and has been published both online and in print for Los Angeles City College’s award-winning Collegian newspaper. He is also a news writer at DC Comics News. Jose is on Twitter and Instagram, and is also currently writing his first short novel.
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