A fun entertaining team up sees Margot Robbie really find her feet as Harley Quinn in one of the best DCEU movies yet.
This Review Contains spoiler for Birds Of Prey
Birds Of Prey had a lot to contend with, Suicide Squad bombed in 2016 and the DCEU in general just couldn't build up any steam and take the universe to the next level. Fast forward to 2020 and Birds Of Prey arrives produced by the Harley Quinn actress herself Margot Robbie, delivering a fun filled action comedy that is thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish.
After Suicide Squad Harley Quinn made it out as a shining light, Robbie's performance was a highlight and fully deserved a film of her own. The film itself feels very much like a Harley Quinn solo film but Robbie leads brilliantly with some fantastic one liners and fourth wall breaking (reminiscence of Deadpool). on the humour, the film doesn't take itself seriously and it's brilliant, you can see the cast are having the time of their life, Ewan McGregor especially who makes every scene his own in a great turn as Black mask Roman Sionis.
Now, on to the film itself, based a few years after Suicide Squad the film starts with an animated catch up narrated by Harley that details her past and what happened since Suicide Squad where we learn that Harley split up with the Joker. The Joker whilst not in the film does have a presence but the spotlight is purely Quinn's as she adapts to a world where she does not have Jokers immunity.
The first scene in villain Sionis' club is brilliant as Harley gets drunk and causes carnage (such as breaking Sionis' drivers legs) and Robbie's acting here is brilliant. Harley's reaction to her break up is equally as brilliant as she joins roller derby and adopts a pet hyena called Bruce (after Bruce Wayne). The tone of the film is brilliant as Quinn narrates the film in a great fourth wall breaking way, the films beginning also goes back in forth showing us the future and working back a couple of times.
As mentioned Roman Sionis is the main villain of the film, a mobster like character, wonderfully played by Ewan McGregor, who seems to be in control of Gotham's criminal underworld in the absence of The Joker. McGregor seems to have channelled the Joker in his portrayal of Sionis ( the character Black Mask from the Batman comics) his hobby of cutting peoples faces off is disturbing and the way McGregor plays him with a menacing but comedic tone is fantastic and even has you sympathising with the character at points. He's flanked by Victor Szaz (also from the Batman comics and was portrayed in Gotham) adds a much more menacing sadistic tone who acts as Sionis' right hand man.
Another great aspect of the film is some of the cinematography, after getting drunk at the club Harley decides to make a statement by driving an oil truck into her and Joker's special place (the plant where she became Harley Quinn) to announce her breakup with the Joker. The scene where the plant blows up with fireworks is awesome and really looks good (especially the shot where Harley walks away)
After establishing Harley we get the backstories as the other characters (Renee Montoya, The Huntress, Dinah Lance and Cassandra Cain) are introduced. As mentioned before the film jumps about from here, I do think that maybe the film is trying to tell too many stories but it does the job well especially with Margot Robbie's narration which works brilliantly to introduce us to the characters and still keep the comedic fun tone of the film. The timeline jumping does allow the film to run at it's own pace filling in gaps and showing multiple views of the same night (they use this especially well to show Black Canary's (Dinah Lance) fighting prowess and flesh out her character a little more (although the one thing I would say is the supporting characters could have been fleshed out more but I don't really think that was the point here).
After a threat on her life from Roman Sionis Harley sets out to retrieve a diamond that contains the details to the bank account of mega rich mob family the Bertinelli's for him that has been stolen (and swallowed) by teen thief Cassandra Cain, who is currently held by Gotham City Police. Unknown to Harley is that Roman has placed a $500,000 bounty on Cassandra. The scene where Harley Quinn raids the police station is pure joy, armed with firework grenades and what appears to be chewing gum guns Harley marches through the station taking out police and inmates alike, the fight scenes between the prisoners and Harley is truly great with Harley battering the guys (the fight scenes in this film are great in a completely different way to other superhero films) and eventually escapes with Cain.
Now one of the downsides of the film as I've mentioned is the lack of development of it's supporting characters, there's not much to say about the characters other than the introduction Harley gave us. Renee is a cop that constantly gets her work stolen and never gets the credit for the work she does in GCPD, Dinah Drake is a singer for Sionis who is working to take him down and can fight really well and The Huntress is Helena Bertninelli who turns out to be seeking revenge for her families death. It's not necessarily a bad thing in that every character has their time to shine and this films does pack a lot in to it's run time, the supporting character who has some what of an arc is Cassandra Cain who bonds with Harley as they lay low, they each come to care for each other and it's a nice touch.
The film begins the build to the climax of the film as Harley is sold out by Doc ( a minor character who knows everyone and lets Harley stay above his restaurant) and the apartment is bombed by criminals who want the reward Sionis has put on Cassandra, it's a sad scene as Harley's pet Bruce is presumed dead and is the first time Harley breaks down and you can see the pain she's going through. It's a great scene and fleshes out Harley's character, who has been very jokey throughout the film so it really hits home when we see her actually hurt and lost.
While this happens Renee and Dinah have started working together to try and take Sionis down, Dinah is a interesting character, displayed as a badass from the beginning and Roman's fondness her seems genuine, it's unknown why he cares for her so much but it's displayed throughout the film, the acting from Ewan McGregor is phenomenal when Sionis finds out Dinah betrayed him and the pain on his face really highlights his care for her, it would have been great to see more of that relationship and get more of a back story to both.
The conclusion to film brings us to an old amusement park which her and Joker seemed to have some kind of history at. Harley still freaking out betrays Cassandra by contacting Sionis and offering him the Diamond (and by extension Cassandra) in return for his protection. As Szaz and Dianh go to collect Cassandra on Sionis' orders Szaz realises Lance's betrayal and alerts Sionis. This brings us to the climax of the film as Sionis decides to don the black mask and lead an army to the amusement park and take out Lance himself. It's at this point throws all caution the win, before Sionis and his army arrive Renee arrives fights with Harley and gets kicked out a window, Szaz and Lance arrive tranq Harley turn on each other, Huntress arrives (more on her in a bit) kills Szsaz, as he was one of the men who killed her family, Renee returns (takes breath) and eventually they realise they need to work together and protect Cassandra who seems to be the person that unites the group. It's a lot to take in and throws a lot at the audience but just about works the humour shines here with Mary Elizabeth Winstead shining as Huntress at this point.
From here the film goes from strength to strength with a great final battle in the amusement park with some great affects and awesome choreography, all in all theres very little to talk about in the final battle as the team make their way through mercenaries but ultimately Sionis escapes with Cassandra. We then get something we never knew we needed Harley chases Sionis car on roller skates before in what can be only be described a fantastically mental. Finally Harley Quinn manages to track down Sionis and end himonce and for all by (and I kid you not) blows him up with the help of Cassandra Cain. It's a great climax to the film and the film ends with Harley taking Cassandra on as her "apprentice" as they sell the diamond, Renee, Helena and Dinah form the Birds of Prey with Helena finally claiming her fortune.
The one character I have not mentioned much is Helena Bertinelli (The Huntress), as with the others characters she has very little backstory other than wanting to kill the people who murdered her family (and she picks the, off throughout the movie). Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a great job and comes into her own in the last act with some truly great one liners, her rage issues jokes are hilarious and the scenes where she talks into the mirror trying to find the right way to announce her name is hilarious. It's a very different Huntress to the one we saw in the Arrowverse but suits the film down to the ground and hopefully, we will get more of this incarnation of the character in the future
Birds of Prey is an thoroughly enjoyable film, it's filled with fun, fantastic comedy and chaos, it's not perfect and there is better superhero films out there but one thing you will get with this film is 109 minutes of entertainment.
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