2/11/2020 - Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn - 4+/5-/10

Written, directed, starring and produced by women, which I loved. It deserves to be mentioned, but unfortunately I don’t think that translated to a stronger more feminist voice nor did it breach the barrier to quality that I hoped it would. I applaud the inclusive effort, but I didn’t like this film. 

Except for some meta jokes fun, most of it felt like a collection of trailers and music videos glued together to approximate a feature film. Fast paced, coked out, MDMA tinged Deadpool-lite. Guy Ritchie meets Zach Snyder, in a hodgepodge of over-indulgence and under-development. But, I guess, it has a mood and aesthetic ethos, though I didn’t appreciate it. 

I have decided that Robbie’s Quinn is more annoying than relatable. She is a glitter covered pill that I keep struggling to swallow down. Smollett-Bell is good. Perez does a decent job, despite her cliched character. Winstead’s version of Huntress was fun, if too lite to the point it kind of became cartooney. But if you are looking for cartooney, I present to you McGregor’s Black Mask. I hated this portrayal, along with his somehow-not-twisted-enough but still hackneyed lackey Szaz. What popped in my head while watching them was Prince John and Sir Hiss from Disney’s Robin Hood, except with more gruesome face peeling and leering rapey glances. Yeah, I didn’t like their whole shtick.

Some impressive stunt work (especially that terribly dangerous roller skate stuff) was on display here. Some of the fight choreography was also well implemented, especially with more stable camera work and less cuts than your average smash-em-up. Unfortunately it was often paired with some banal musical nonsense. On the damn nose, cover nonsense, taking the worst elements of Suicide Squad and screwing in further, despite having a few score elements that were solid.

I don’t know the rules of this universe, but you buy in eventually and that is fine. You quickly realize that anything can happen and will turn out perfect for our protagonists; which is fine. It just wasn’t that funny or that exciting. It wanted to be light but be dark, be fun while being R-rated gritty. The tone was a mess, which made for the film feeling chunky and lost in its way. I didn’t hate it, but I wanted it to be much better than it ended up being.

DCEU Film Ranking:

1. Wonder Woman - 6+/7-

2. Shazam - 5+/6-

3. Birds of Prey - 4+/5-

4. Aquaman - 4-

5. Man of Steel - 4

6. Justice League - 3+

8. Batman v Superman - 3-