Birds of Prey - Movie Review

Before I start this review I got a little public reminder for all you readers: There is a reason we have rating systems for games, TV shows, movies, and all other forms of media. We need these ratings in order to set standards of what certain age groups and demographics are allowed to experience. So when you see a movie or a trailer that shows gruesome violence, swear words (especially F-bombs), drugs, unsettling imagery, and a crazy woman with clown makeup smashing a man's face in with a metal baseball bat, that should tell you not to bring your little eight-year old kids and infants to the movie. Yet there were several adults bringing their young kids and a few infants to see this film. So good job parents, congrats on traumatizing your children.

Now onto the review. Let's me first state that women can be amazing and some of my favorite characters are women. Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones, Princess Leia from Star Wars, and Yennifer from The Witcher to name a few. They are amazing because being a woman isn't in their top priorities and they speak with their actions. More importantly, things aren't easy for them, they struggle hard and we the audience can watch their journeys and feel their struggle on a personal level. Sadly, Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn from Birds of Prey isn't one of these types of characters.

Birds of Prey is (mostly) about Harley Quinn and a few other women trying to protect a girl from the villain Black Mask, played by Ewan McGregor. I did not watch too many trailers for this film because it wasn't really that interesting for me at first, but I thought I'd give it a whirl and I walked out of the theater not super happy about the film, but not angry about it either . The original Birds of Prey story from DC Comics is something I have no knowledge on, so I'm not judging the film based on the original source material. But with my lack of knowledge on the original story though I can definitely view this film not as a Birds of Prey movie, but a Harley Quinn movie.

Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was definitely the best part about this film. To me she felt a lot like a proper Harley Quinn, acting crazy and unhinged with a bit of child-like wonder mixed with bouts of rage-filled violence. In short, just like how she was in Suicide Squad. And to be honest having her without the Joker was something I was excited for because 1) I don't care if he was nicer in the DCU, the Joker is an incredibly abusive horrible partner, and 2) I like the idea of Harley Quinn developing beyond being obsessed over a man. Now at the start of the film she's having a hard time after he breaks up with her, but I personally was happy the film didn't drag that out too long and that it sank into her that she doesn't need him to run her life. Throughout the film we see Harley being more of herself, from buying a hyena as a pet to raiding a police station all by herself. Margot also had a wild energy to her performance which kept my attention on her while she was on screen.

As I previously said though this was more of a Harley Quinn movie than a Birds of Prey movie because the other members of the team don't get much screen-time. Worst yet is that we barely get to know any of them and that's a huge problem. We got one character who can sing and has super-powered screams (which we barely see (which is terrible)), a woman whose family got murdered and she wants revenge, a female cop who is obsessed with doing her job, and a pickpocket. That's really it, no real development after that.

My biggest problem with the film though is the writing. Before I dig up all those negative feelings I must applaud the film for not making the story about end of the world with a giant sky beam. It has gotten so old that it felt so great to bring this down onto a personal level. However this film also feels like feminists, but not the good feminists like Emma Watson, but one of those bad ones that plague the internet looking for attention. Why? Because there was only one "good" male character in this film that didn't just say one line of dialogue. Now before you say I hate women or anything like that let me say that you got balance out the men and the women. Women can't be all good or all bad and men can't be all good or all bad, there has to be a mixture.

Additionally we see men always getting ahead of women throughout the film. The cop woman doing a lot of work and her captain (who is a man) is getting ALL the credit, there was a date drug moment, and there was only one female trying to kill Harley or any of our main female leads (and that character dies ten seconds after we see them). Every other fight scene is a bunch of men against one or a couple women. Couldn't they have mixed a few women with the men to Harley and the other main characters? They definitely could have, but they didn't.

And then we have Ewan McGregor as the main villain, Black Mask. His performance in this movie reminds me of Jeremy Irons from Dungeons and Dragons, like he didn't really care and was just having fun with this role. I know because I saw him in Doctor Sleep and he was incredible. Here though... he is just not taking his role seriously. Now his character is pretty fucked up, cutting off peoples' faces for fun and talking about putting them in jars to pickle them, which at first I liked because that's pretty dark stuff. But slowly we see him getting those "bad men" characteristics like obsessing like a stalker over a woman, forcing a lady to strip down and dance for him when he thought she laughed at him, and a few other uncomfortable things I don't want to talk about. He also didn't really feel like a dangerous character to me. Like I'm happy he wasn't trying to be the god lord of all creation, but just wanted to run a bit of Gotham and get money, which isn't much of a motivation.

Writing this review out I'm coming to more of a realization that this movie could have been a lot better than what we got. Beyond what I've mentioned already there were some odd creative choices like an animated scene for the intro of the film, an unneeded dance number that could be entirely cut away with no effect on the film, and some very noticeable CGI moments that brought the movie down. If this film was to succeed it should have balanced out the main characters instead of having Harley take up most of the plot. Additionally you had to make characters feel for three-dimension, not just a few, or even one, character trait. Lastly, if this was going to be a Harley Quinn film then I want to see her outdo the Joker, show him that she can be top-dog in Gotham, like what the new animated Harley Quinn show is doing right now. Maybe once she does they can learn respect one another. That would be a real triumph for her in my opinion, better than trying to save some kid.

In the end Birds of Prey, or Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (depending on what theater you go to), was kind of disappointing. It wasn't total garbage like some people are saying because there was good action and fun humor, but I would not be interesting in seeing this film again or recommending it. If you want to really a woman be a woman and feel powerful and be awesome, go watch The Witcher on Netflix. It's incredible! And you might be hearing me talk about it in the near future~

Tentative score: 6/10

Definitive Score: 5.5/10

It is possible I'm being generous with this tentative score, but thinking it over is making me realize how poorly done this film was. This is why though I have tentative scores, to start me off with a base grade and deciding if it deserves a higher or lower score. Either ways, this film was kind of a meh experience. But I'm not going to hate it because, no matter what, I am a man who likes seeing women beat up people, whether they're male or female.