‘Birds of Prey’ Review: Harley Quinn is Emancipated in Latest DC Entry

The latest DC film is the weakest installment since Justice League in 2017, but Birds of Prey has plenty of entertaining elements that lead to a film that succeeds more often than it fails.

Cathy Yan does an excellent job handling the directorial duties in Bird of Prey. The action scenes are strong throughout the film and the movie pops with colorful imagery that lends credence to the surreal events occurring on screen. Performances across the board are strong with the exception of Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya.

Unfortunately, the elements that work in this film succeed separately but fail to coalesce into a satisfying whole. If you’re expecting a team-up movie featuring a group of cool women, you do eventually see that towards the end of the film. There isn’t really a need for Dinah Lance aka Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) or Helena Bertinelli aka The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in this film.

Unfortunately, as an awesome female-led action film this pales in comparison to a team-up film that came out in November that deserves more recognition. Charlie’s Angels handled the comedic, action and balance of tone better than Birds of Prey. The only element in which the DC female team-up film holds an advantage is in the villain department.

Despite my issues with this particular film, I’m absolutely on board for a sequel featuring these actresses and characters. From the standpoint of creating a movie that entices you into wanting to see more, this movie certainly succeeds.

Let’s rolls into the successes and missed opportunities of the latest DC entry.

POV from Harley Quinn’s Perspective 

There were two main options for Yan, screenwriter Christina Hodson and Robbie (serves as executive producer as well as the female lead) when it comes to telling this story. Either frame this movie entirely from Harley Quinn’s perspective or make this an awesome female team-up movie centered around the team coming together to take down a powerful villain. However, Birds of Prey doesn’t go down either path and instead decides to mix these elements into one film, which gives this film as a whole a hollow feeling despite liking a lot of the elements in the film.

Half of the film is structured in a similar manner to Deadpool. Just like the Merc with a Mouth, Ms. Quinzel serves as the film’s unreliable narrator and does a great job of framing the film around Harley’s viewpoint. Yan even goes so far as to rewind certain scenes after the protagonist jumps ahead in narrating the story, only for Quinn to break the fourth wall and rewind the scene to show the details we missed. All of these elements are nonsensical and quite frankly outstanding. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t stay rooted in Quinn’s point of view, instead, the film starts showing the other characters and explaining details that Harley couldn’t possibly know, which is more in keeping with a team-up movie.

However, if you’re going to tell a strong team-up story, you really need to frame the perspective around the villains. While all of the other members of the Birds of Prey are really cool, the film shortchanges their backstories. Also, since Harley’s storyline is so mesmerizing, switching to the other Birds can be irritating from time to time and leaves you wanting to return to Harley.

I think the film should have just committed to telling the surreal big sister-little sister relationship between Harley and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) that forms out of Black Mask hunting each of the women down for different reasons. Since the Birds of Prey as a group don’t really come together until late in the 3rd act, there’s no real need for them in this film. Let Harley Quinn standout on her own and then introduce the other members in another film.

The method the filmmakers used in this movie doesn’t fully honor the awesome character of Harley Quinn and does a disservice to Dinah Lance as well as Helena Bertinelli.

The Rest of the Birds of Prey

Bell and Winstead are great as Black Canary and The Huntress. Despite the limited screentime, they’re able to make the most out of their roles.

Dinah Lance’s backstory regarding her Mother is referenced by Detective Montoya but doesn’t really provide any details as to how she acquired her superhuman ability (supersonic voice). Her connection to Harley is as an employee of Roman Sionis. Bell does provide the character some depth and is probably the most grounded of the teammates. Like Huntress and Montoya, she pretty much wants nothing to do with Harley Quinn, which is unfortunate when you’re trying to sell an effective team-up movie.

Helena Bertinelli’s backstory is told mostly through brief flashbacks that illustrate her tragic story effectively but is a distraction from Harley’s storyline. Winstead is given even less to do in the film than Bell, but she too makes the most of her time on screen. Her comedic timing is outstanding and she has a great running gag involving the name of her alter ego that resulted in consistent laughs. Like Black Canary, her vendetta is against Sionis, which again pulls the story off of Harley. She doesn’t even have a conversation with Harley or Dinah until the 3rd act of the film. The lack of connection to the main characters makes her presence in this film unnecessary.

Det. Renee Montoya is a stereotypical overzealous cop who feels she’s being passed up for a promotion as captain. She makes some really bad decisions that make you as a viewer question her skill as a detective. These poor decision making could be due to Harley’s warped frame of mind, but due to the films lack of clarity could also the reality of the situation. Perez is a gifted actress, but this character is annoying from the moment she starts breaking down evidence until the end of the film.

Cassandra Cain is the only person that has a connection with Harley, Dinah, Renee and villains. I won’t go into detail as to how, but her character is a drastic departure from the comics. Her dynamic with Harley is easily the strongest story element of the film. Focusing on this story element further and removing the other female antiheroes, would have lead to clearer throughline for the movie.

 The Villains

Outside of Robbie’s strong leading performance, the pairing of Ewan McGregor as Roman Sionas and Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz is the best aspect of the Birds of Prey.

McGregor devours the scenery with a ravenous fury that nobody else in this film can match. The performance is loud, colorful and demented is a way that this film deserves. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really go into his backstory and the connection to the Black Mask moniker as McGregor’s performance deserves.

McGregor’s performance was talked about a lot coming out of the early screenings. However, not enough credit is being extended to Messina and his understated take on Zsasz. There have been numerous incarnations on tv in Gotham as well as in the Arkham video game franchise in recent years and this take on the character is the best of them all.

In one of the only subtle elements in this film, there are hints to a romantic relationship between these two characters. I really enjoyed that the film chose to leave this aspect up to interpretation.

Final Thoughts on Birds of Prey

Making this film into a character study focused on Harley Quinn’s fight for territory and respect against Black Mask’s crew could have led to a superior film. The other option was to turn the narrative into a true team-up film that switches between the perspective of Canary, Huntress and Quinn. Each with different reasons for wanting to take Black Mask down or told from the perspective of Black Mask’s gang hunting down the Birds of Prey for different grievances.

Instead, the movie presented to the audience is a mix between two of the approaches, which results in a film with a lot of fantastic moving pieces, but never fully comes together to form a cohesive whole. Despite the storytelling issues, this film is too entertaining to miss.

Liked it? Take a second to support Chris Lee on Patreon!