Ewan McGregor plays a sleazy, self-obsessed crime lord who's like a glammed-up Sam Rockwell Chris Messina, cosplaying as Pat Smear, plays his henchman. Swirling around Harley's world are a cop (Rosie Perez), a pickpocket (Ella Jay Basco), a vigilante (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), and a crossbow-toting assassin hellbent on revenge (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
Why is she the most unstoppable fighter in Gotham? She just is. Harley kicks, punches and spin-kicks her opponents, who never pose much threat to her despite their size and weight advantages.
#Birds of prey full movie movie#
There's no grounding here, and not that a comic book movie needs to exist in reality, but there should be an effort to establish some sort of baseline of truth or connection with the audience.įight scenes - and there's no shortage of them - are all about the moves themselves and not who's delivering them, so they fail to register. The storytelling wants to be as unconventional as Harley, but the fractured way it unfolds makes a tale that is already difficult to connect with even more off-putting. She can't and viewers can't either from the madcap dullness of "Birds of Prey," which is reminiscent of 1995's "Tank Girl," another throw-everything-at-the-screen-and-see-what-sticks comic blunder.ĭirected by Cathy Yan from a screenplay by Christina Hodson ("Bumblebee"), "Birds of Prey" unfolds with a scrambled narrative where the pieces are all out of order, like a puzzle that was dropped on the floor and reassembled haphazardly. Either way, sandwiched between Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix's incarnations of the character, Leto's quickly faded from memory. She was paired opposite Jared Leto's Joker, a surface-level take on the iconic "Batman" villain that was either destroyed in the editing room or doomed from the start. "Birds of Prey" plucks Margot Robbie's spirited Harley Quinn from 2016's "Suicide Squad," a thoroughly bad comic book misfire in which Harley stood out as the only character with moxie. The problem is that unless handled correctly, crazy is rather unruly, and unruly is no way to build a world. But is that all she is?Īpparently so, and "Birds of Prey" - full title: "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" - wants to be as unpredictable and zany as its heroine. "It's groundbreaking, it's long overdue, and it's bound to inspire a generation of girls.That's the message that "Birds of Prey" hammers, and hammers, and hammers home so many times that by the 20-minute mark it becomes a dull, plodding thud in the front of your brain. "This is a first: a Hollywood superhero movie written and directed by women, featuring a multi-racial female cast, with no male sidekicks or love interests, and a theme about learning to live without a man," Nicholas Barber, writer for the BBC, wrote in his review. Of course, things don't go quite as planned and Harley becomes unexpected allies with Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) and pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). In an attempt to save herself, Harley volunteers to locate a diamond that was stolen from Sionis in exchange for sparing her life. "Because without the Joker around, I can." "I want to kill you," crime boss Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, played by Ewan McGregor, says in a prereleased clip from the film. Since the last time we saw Harley, she's broken up with longtime boyfriend Joker (played by Jared Leto in "Suicide Squad") whose protection had kept cops and fellow criminals at bay.
"Birds of Prey" centers around Harley, the breakout character from "Suicide Squad," played by Academy Award-nominated actress Margot Robbie. It has been bouncing between 87% and 92% since Wednesday, when the review embargo was lifted.
As more reviews come in, the rating for "Birds of Prey" may change slightly.
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