You ever hear the one about the cop, the songbird, the psycho and the mafia princess? “Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” is a twisted tale told by Harley herself, as only Harley can tell it. When Gotham’s most nefariously narcissistic villain, Roman Sionis, and his zealous right-hand, Zsasz, put a target on a young girl named Cass, the city is turned upside down looking for her. Harley, Huntress, Black Canary and Renee Montoya’s paths collide, and the unlikely foursome have no choice but to team up to take Roman down.
Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Ewan McGregor, Rosie Perez, and Ella Jay Basco
Cathy Yan
109 Minutes
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Characters
Each character in Birds of Prey was amazing. You had a mixture of personalities and everyone had a part to play. I think the standout is Margot Robbie and Ewan McGregor. Ewan's Black Mask was just campy enough to make him enjoyable.
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Reviewer's Curve
The major thing working against Birds of Prey was the trailers. Besides the oversharing of the trailers, everything else worked with the movie. The all-star cast, fresh paced action, and unique storytelling.
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Plot
The plot was erratic but that's the style of Harley Quinn so it worked. Birds of Prey suffers from weak villains even though they're charismatic.
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Pacing
The pacing really kept a consistent speed. There were barely any slow spots in the movie.The only nitpick would be shaving 7 to 8 minutes of the movie because of small bloating.
Black Mask was an amazing character until it came to him actually doing some action. He barely held up to the combo of Harley and Cassandra. The main villain of your movie could give your lead some trouble but that wasn’t evident at all. He was funny, charming and just a tad bit eccentric. If they could have made him more formidable that would have been great.
Huntress was surprisingly well played. She was kind of awkward and that worked for the character. I would say seeing her stand-alone movie would be exciting. They covered a decent amount of her backstory and she was basically the connecting piece between the Birds of Prey and the villains.
Hollywood needs to change! The overuse of trailers is becoming ridiculous. You have plenty of scenes showing up during the trailer. Another thing that wasn’t the best was the erratic storytelling. Harley’s narration was fine at times but I could see it becoming a bit much for a normal viewer.
Dwight's Hypothetical Corner
Let's say I change one thing. Maybe that one thing will make Birds of Prey better or more watchable.
- Black Mask deserved better! He was too weak of a final boss for the Birds of Prey and Harley. I think about the video games/ comics when thinking about Black Mask and he’s normally a force. A change to the story could be Black Mask giving a bit more trouble. Maybe even hurting one of them badly.
Like every other company, setting up a franchise is needed. Birds of Prey should have debut a newer villain so the fans would have something to look forward to especially for future movies. One villain they could have debut would be copperhead or even another member of the Huntress’ family. Either option could make for an interesting story.