Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn Review

How's that for a movie title? "Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn" is quite the fun title for a movie, in my opinion. Although if I type it too many times in this review, it'll take up half the review. So I'll just simply call it "Birds of Prey," even though that's not the most accurate title for this movie, but we'll get to that here in a bit. "Birds of Prey" is actually the first new 2020 release that I am reviewing, which is a bit crazy considering we're nearly halfway through the second month of the year. But, well, I've been busy with other stuff. Sundance took over my January movie viewing and I have no regrets there. Out of all the new January releases (not counting "Just Mercy" or "1917," which were 2019 releases that expanded in January -- both of which I did review), I'm curious about "The Gentlemen." I'll probably catch that eventually. None of the rest looked particularly interesting. And I know "Bad Boys for Life" exploded like crazy, but I've not seen any of those movies, so I don't know if I really have much say in that argument. So essentially I'm choosing to start of my 2020 movie experience with the latest in the ever so confusing DC timeline. But hey, screw the timeline. DC has. And that's the best decision that they've made as a company.

Because, yeah, "Birds of Prey" is all about Harley Quinn. The whole "Birds of Prey" thing is a bit of an afterthought that happens at the end of the movie. And speaking of timeline, since we can't make a Harley Quinn movie without at least mentioning the Joker, it might be a bit confusing for the casual moviegoer as to why we now have two Jokers in this DC world. No, Jared Leto's Joker from "Suicide Squad" doesn't actually show up in this movie, but he gets referenced by Harley Quinn in just about every scene in this movie. This happening four months after Todd Phillips' "Joker" was released in theaters and on the same exact weekend that Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for his portrayal of the title character in that movie. But no, Joaquin Phoenix's Joker was just a random side thing. That is until DC tries to convince Todd and Joaquin to do another one given that the movie made over $1 billion worldwide and got nominated for 11 Oscars, the most ever for a comic book film, ahead of both "Black Panther" and "The Dark Knight." But no, that's not the Joker that we're talking about. We're talking about the Joker from "Suicide Squad" that everyone hated. Because it's his Harley Quinn from said movie that this new movie is all about. That all make sense?

If you're still confused, just take a page from "The Flash" and imagine this as an alternate timeline. It's kind of a DC thing to do. And as I said, ignoring the confusing timeline is the best thing DC has done. After "The Avengers" completely caught fire and changed the movie industry forever, Warner Bros. was among the first of many to try to figure out how to replicate that, since it was them that owns DC. So instead of sticking to DC's roots as brand, they tried to copy Marvel by turning "Justice League" into the next "Avengers." But they didn't have the patience spend five movies building up to it, so after making the complete abomination that was "Man of Steel," they crammed five movies into one, called it "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," then immediately jumped straight to "Justice League." And they wonder why "Justice League" ended up being a thing that kinda just came and went, rather than being the huge event film that it deserved to be. So then they had to pause and figure things out. Lucky for them, "Wonder Woman" was also a thing that happened. Instead of that movie being a studio-mandated project made to expand the DCEU, that was a movie where they let Patty Jenkins simply make a Wonder Woman movie. And it was a massive success.

Now we fast forward here to "Birds of Prey" and we've had a long string of movies where DC have simply decided to make individual movies. In the last year or two, the success of "Wonder Woman" has led DC to make the likes of "Aquaman," "Shazam!" and "Joker," all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. While, sure, I'll defend the likes of "Suicide Squad" and claim that "Justice League" wasn't a complete disaster, I'll also make the claim that "Wonder Woman" was the beginning of a new era for DC and that the movies that have followed have breathed life into a franchise that was about ready to burst into flames. Yet still there's a large group of internet haters that cling onto the philosophy that "All DC movies are terrible pieces of crap" and won't even give movies like "Birds of Prey" a chance, especially since it's technically a spin-off of "Suicide Squad," a movie that is nearly universally panned. I have to practically beg people to see "Shazam!" Even though that was one of my favorite movies of last year, people still won't see it. So we're in a bit of an awkward spot where the general public hasn't yet been converted back to trusting DC. But that'll change here soon. In the meantime, "Birds of Prey" ended up suffering with a measly $33 million opening.

No, it's not all a lost cause given that their production budget was only about $80-100 million. But it does make this a bit of an uphill battle, especially in the realm of me convincing people that it's a movie worth seeing, which I definitely think it is. Anyways, less about the history of this movie and more about the movie itself, this is a movie where they decided to give Margot Robbie the keys to the car and do whatever the heck she wants. Because she's Harley freaking Quinn. And even though that's the line they used in the trailer, we all know that that wasn't the line she used in the movie? Did you know that this movie is a hard R? Yup. And it's rather glorious. But some people haven't known. And I have no idea how you get into a movie where you don't know the rating to. It reminds me of the parents who became furious when they took their kids to see "Deadpool," yet got mad at the movie for the content their kids were subjected to. But apparently that happens. If you didn't know "Birds of Prey" was going in that direction, now you do. No sexual content here, but lots of language and a ton of unhinged violence. A lot of people have been asking for more comic book movies like this. And thanks to "Deadpool" leading the way, we're now getting them.

Granted, I'm not one to advocate a movie getting a certain rating just for the heck of it. I simply prefer to have a good movie, whatever the rating is. But Harley Quinn is such a psychotic, crazy character that her getting a movie where she gets to go bananas is rather fitting and highly amusing. She's not strapped down to a family-friendly "Suicide Squad" style of movie. She gets to do whatever she wants. Like breaking people's legs, blowing up cars and buildings, and cursing up the wazoo when she feels like it. All of that is sticking true to the character of Harley Quinn rather than the movie trying to be purposely gratuitous just to elicit a reaction. So I'm in. A PG-13 straps her down. It's like Wolverine or Deadpool. Did you ever think it was weird that Wolverine has these huge, metal claws, yet no even bled when he stabbed them? Or were you one of the millions who thought it was complete blasphemy that the first time Deadpool showed up on screen, it was with a tied up mouth? These were character decisions made to try to water them down to a kid-friendly rating in order to make money. And I'm glad that we now live in a world where we can simply make the movie that fits the character. And since Marvel is never going to make a movie like this, I'm glad DC now can.

And that's why I really liked this movie. Not because of the letter on my ticket stub. But because they took one of the greatest DC characters in Harley Quinn and gave her a movie that truly fit her. Sure, they should've simply titled this movie "Harley Quinn" instead of titling the movie "Birds of Prey," then not show the name Harley Quinn until the last part of the giant subtitle. That might've confused too many people. And now apparently some theater chains have actually started advertising the movie as "Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey," which I think is a strange thing to start doing this late in the game. But whatever. That title kinda fits more than the real movie's title. Harley Quinn has moved on from Joker. She's tired of living in his shadow and thus she is ready to make her own mark on the world. And now that she's moved on, she's learned that she's made a lot of enemies along the way who are all now more than willing to go after her now that she's left the shadow of the Joker and No. 1 on that list, for now anyways, is Ewan McGregor's iteration of Black Mask. No, he's nothing like the comic book version of Black Mask, a habit this movie makes with most of its characters, but Ewan McGregor relished in the chance of being a villain and thus does an excellent job.

With a proper villain chasing her, and utter chaos at her fingertips, Margot Robbie really shines as I think the quintessential version of Harley Quinn. She's not someone who is simply trying to be Harley Quinn or is emulating something better. She is Harley Quinn. Much in the same way that Heath Ledger is the quintessential version of the Joker or Gal Gadot is the quintessential version of Wonder Woman. Margot Robbie was able to take a classic character, and with "Suicide Squad" as her audition, she has now become an iconic comic book presence. It'll be hard to see anyone else try to be this character since Margot Robbie is now so perfect. And that's the reason why I thoroughly enjoyed the movie from start to finish. The movie is completely bonkers and a ton of fun. And it's all because Margot Robbie is owning this role and is able to do so completely unrestrained. Her presence throughout and the fun that she was having was instrumental in helping me overlook some elements of the movie that were a bit lackluster. The first part I will mention real quick is that narratively this movie is a bit all over the place. Given that Harley Quinn is the one narrating this, that kinda makes sense since she is completely unstable, but it still makes for a bit of a jarring journey.

The real issue I had with this movie comes with the actual Birds of Prey stuff. Margot Robbie is absolutely the quintessential version of Harley Quinn. Jurnee Smollett-Bell is 100 percent NOT that for Black Canary. This is where my Arrow fandom kicks in. Even though I'm not yet caught up on the final season, I've still seen Katie Cassidy portray Laurel Lance for most of her 153 episodes that she's shown up. Even though the writers royally screwed up her character halfway through, Katie Cassidy still owned it as the character or the Earth 2 version of her that they called Black Siren in the later seasons. In the last half of the show, they brought in Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake, a slightly alternate version of Black Canary. And if we're getting really technical, my girl Caity Lotz has also played a version of this character in the show, even though they called her White Canary. So yeah, there's options as to how to portray this character. And I'm sure the comics that I'm not as familiar with has it even different, but Jurnee Smollet-Bell's version of Black Canary, who they decide to call Dinah Lance, is only similar in name alone. She's this punk street girl who does the dirty work of Black Mask. She eventually turns "good," but she looks and acts nothing like Black Canary.

Unfortunately, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the same story for The Huntress. Granted, in "Arrow," Helena Bertinelli, aka The Huntress, only showed up for four episodes across the first few seasons, but she made a huge impact as this intimidating, powerful presence. In "Birds of Prey," they give her an elaborate backstory that provides plenty of strong motivation, but they spend most of the movie making her this mysterious presence, but when she finally shows up and starts talking, she's an unconfident wimp who is extremely disappointing. She's kinda cool with her crossbow, but she was a huge missed opportunity. So when the main ladies supporting Harley Quinn really fall flat, I have a hard time buying the concept of the Birds of Prey. If they ever do a movie version of Green Arrow, I'm really hoping they simply recast Jurnee Smollet-Bell because I don't want this version of Black Canary anywhere near Oliver Queen. Black Canary is a glorious character who deserves to be done right on film. And The Huntress is such an awesome character who deserves her own spin-off film. But I don't think Mary Elizabeth Winstead getting her own Huntress movie would be the least bit interesting. As a DC fan, I'm really upset that they fumbled big time with these iconic characters. 

And that's not even getting into Cassandra Cain, who is one version of Batgirl in the comics, or Renee Montoya, who round up this Birds of Prey gang. I'd have zero interest in seeing any of them return to the DC universe, but I really hope we haven't seen the last of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. She deserves plenty more screenplay. And I have this underperformance at the box office doesn't cause the people at Warner Bros. to shy away from bringing her back in some capacity. There's all sorts of rumored projects that DC has been toying with, like a Harley Quinn and Joker spin-off or a Gotham City Sirens. I'd like to see some of them happen. At the very least, I'm hoping that James Gunn does a good job with her in his 2021 "Suicide Squad" sequel/reboot thing called "The Suicide Squad," because, yeah, I want to see lots more of her. Now on Facebook when I came out of the movie, I said that this is another home run for DC. OK, fine, maybe that was a slight overreaction to just getting out. This is not quite on the level of the "Joker," "Wonder Woman" or "Shazam!" But this was still a highly entertaining movie. And I hope that DC is still willing to take these experimental risks, even if it means lowering financial expectations, because I'm totally on board. My grade for "Birds of Prey" is an 8/10.