“Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn” has lots of fireworks and colors, but is not big on substance. And that’s okay! I entirely expected this would be a cash-grabby, fun type of film with Margot reprising her role from the disastrous “Suicide Squad.” To me, she was the best performer in “SS,” and maintained the energy in this one!

I think it’s a bit economically challenging to produce an R-rated Harley Quinn-focused film with the over-abundance of superhero movies competing for the best “raunchy, violent, fun, action-adventure superhero” trophy; “Deadpool” wins for me, but that’s just one lover’s opinion.  I wonder if this film would have been more commercially successful if they tweaked the script towards a PG-13 rating–more accessible to the 13- to 17-year-old audience it should have been marketed to? I’d assume it was a difficult sell because Harley Quinn’s character is violent and deranged, so perhaps this wouldn’t be appropriate for some teens. But even with that though, this film didn’t push the R-rating enough for me. I was expecting more gore, blood, and violence.😬😬😬

Honestly, “Birds of Prey…” would’ve been one of my favorite movie as a pre-teen for like a month straight. Like, I can imagine I’d go home each day after school and watch this film “On Demand.” I’d memorize every line, regurgitate it into every conversation, and feel the weirdest sense of pride in knowing I knew every word of a mediocre film. (Mediocre, but fun!)

Positives: 

🎆 Costuming: was cool! I want to own almost every piece Harley wore, and not for Halloween, but for like a regular-schmegular-degular day. The textures were fitting, and the pops of neon balanced the low-lit, bluish-hued scenes set during the nighttime.

🎆 Makeup: 👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾

🎆 Acting: A round of applause for a great casts of SUPER COMPETENT actors! Shouts to all the womenfolk! Ali Wong is my boo! And Rosie Perez is a legend!

Neutral zone:

🎆 Soundtrack: “Barracuda“ was spot-on, but also totally predictable during the main fight scene. 😂😐😂😐

🎆 Pacing: quite chaotic, but then not… then flashbacks with flashforwards, then back to the present. Totes cool with the fourth wall-breaking and its use as a narrative voice/theme throughout the film. As I write this portion of the critique, I’m reminded that this screenplay is based off a COMIC!!—so I’m not too up or down about some of the noise. The Marilyn Monroe ode after Harley is punched in the face reminded me of some good ol’ fashioned Baz Luhrmann-styled directing, and I geeked—but then it ended after a few seconds.

Negs:

🎆 Screenplay: the actors out-acted the script. Ewan McGregor as “Roman Sionis” and Chris Messina as “Mr. Zsasz” are fantastic actors, but as villains, I was not moved by their torture or violence towards the main protagonist/anti-hero. Good try though.

🎆 Stunt Doubles: Yo! I swear there were at least two moments when I could fully tell there were stunt doubles in key scenes. LOL.

🎆 Conclusion: what is the overall end game here? Something about the conclusion felt incomplete like a sequel could be in the works. Honestly, they can hold the live action sequel—I’d watch a 22-episode season of the animation used in the introduction on a streaming service. That was the best part of the film for me! 🗣️🗣️🗣️ “AYO, NETFLIX! AYO, ANY STREAMING SERVICE REPLACING CABLE!”