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

Cheaply grotesque, shallow, and childish all the way down, certainly so. Still, it's a wickedly cool washout that, through an unreliable narrator (let's face it – could it be otherwise?), makes it pretty blatantly clear that it simply wants to entertain and has no wider ambitions. Therefore, I find any discussion of the feminist message of this film slightly laughable, as Harley is primarily fighting for her own neck here and not for women's rights (which I'm sure some would have liked). As for Margot Robbie herself, she really was born for this role and represents one of the few DC casting hits. The choreography of the action scenes (that Chad Stahelski guy is simply undeniable) and the very imaginative use of the environment in the fight sequences add up to make Birds of Prey one of the more watchable pieces from the DC universe. If there’s any prominent hero from the DC stable whose fate I will be happy to follow in multiple sequels, it's Harley Quinn. (09.07.2020)

Just like Kick-Ass 2 tried to emulate the success of number one, Birds of Prey wants to emulate the success of Deadpool, and it is a similar flop. What I can praise is the style and Margot Robbie, who clearly enjoys playing Harley and the role of an unreliable narrator really agrees with her. Otherwise, it's pathetic. You can tell they have put a lot of work into choreography, but good ideas alternate with ridiculous ones almost reaching the level of parody (the fight at the end is not far from the ending of Hot Shots! Part Deux). The worst thing about this movie by far, however, is the cast, where none of the actresses fit into the team that was supposed to be the core of the movie. For example, Rosie Perez is synonymous with boredom. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as much as I liked her in Scott Pilgrim, is probably showing the worst performance of her career. And Ewan McGregor? Though an excellent actor, he should be praying that the next Star Wars movie with his Obi-Wan will succeed. Otherwise, he should really change agents, because everything he’s appeared in recently blew up like the Death Star, which is something to consider. But back to Birds of Prey. It's great that thanks to the girl power movement an unknown female director and screenwriter got a chance to shoot a blockbuster, but they managed to make a movie where the relationships between the girls in the team don't work, story twists don't work either, some of the dialogues are downright terrible and it’s all sloppily narrated. The result is a movie that may be a little better than the disastrous Justice League but grossed less than Green Lantern ten years ago! In short, not everyone has the comedic and storytelling talent of Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool, and not every comic book gets supervised by a genius the likes of Matthew Vaughn. (17.07.2020)