Birds of Prey movie review by Movie Review Mom

MOVIE TITLE: Birds Of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

The official title of the movie is “Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn”. That’s quite a mouthful and an awesome title.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: C-

IN A NUTSHELL:

This is kind of a warped female empowerment dark comedy action flick with some superhero elements by DC Comics. Margot Robbie is a fantastic and extremely versatile actress, so I was really looking forward to seeing her in this. She’s the perfect Harley Quinn. She was the one who pitched the idea to DC and Warner Brothers. She also plays the role of producer with her LuckyChap production company at the tune of $75 million. Word has it that the next one in the trilogy is to be Gotham City Sirens. Suicide Squad is being counted as the first of the Harley Quinn Triology. Others are calling this a Suicide Squad spin-off.

Most people would consider a female-led action movie to be a chick flick, which is why the studio wanted the movie to be rated R in order to attract a male audience. And rated R it most definitely is. It’s extremely violent but with pretty eye candy.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

This is NOT an appropriate movie for kids for many reasons.
Harley Quinn is a terrible role model for girls
Lots of profanity, crude language, and F-bombs, even in some of the songs.
TONS of heartless violence, blood, and brutality with no respect for human life
Skimpy clothes, crude t-shirt
Lots of alcohol (even by a kid), smoking, and drugs
A man rips a dress off of a woman.
A lot of bad, drunken behavior
This is the first superhero movie to have LGBT characters.
None of the characters have a moral compass (Well, except for maybe Rosie Perez’s character)

THEMES:

“Psychologically speaking, vengeance rarely brings the catharsis we think it will.” – Harley Quinn (Harley Quinn)
Female empowerment
Friendship
Identity
Independence
A strong theme is that men are bad. That’s NOT a good way to approach female empowerment. They should have learned a lesson or two from the success of Wonder Woman.

THINGS I LIKED:

Margot Robbie is so gorgeous and talented. I thought she was fantastic in Bombshell. I was impressed with Margot Robbie’s athletiscm in the movie I, Tonya and even caught a few of her same moves from that film. Her portrayal as Harley Quinn is entertaining, as she is unhinged in all of the right ways. She’s a killer psychopath, but at times she shows some heart, like when she uses her glitter ammo.
Ewan McGregor was really great as Black Mask. I’ve never seen him in a role like this before and have been a fan of his for many years. Unfortunately, we don’t know that much about his vicious character in this film. All we know is that he’s a horrible, terrible human being who gets what he deserves.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been popular with comic book fans ever since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. She was a great choice to be cast as Helena Bertinelli/The Huntress.
Interesting and warped version of the “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” scene.
Jurnee Smollett-Bell does her own singing in the movie.
The film is directed by Cathy Yan, the first Asian woman to direct a superhero movie. Next up, we’ll see another female director leading the BLACK WIDOW by Cate Shortland. Patty Jenkins was the first woman, showing her skills and perspective in WONDER WOMAN in 1984.
I’m not a comic book reader, but I’ve been told that there are soooo many Easter eggs in this movie for mega fans. A lot of references also come from the Batman animated series. Obviously, a lot of that was lost on me.
The movie itself is very colorful and energetic.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The beginning of the movie describes Harley Quinn as having earned a Ph.D. but she just didn’t seem very smart. Gee, do you think it was due to all that cocaine she used?
There are a LOT of flashbacks and exposition to explain things. Sometimes a scene will stop and jump to a 10-minute long explanation before continuing.
The costume design was…interesting and colorful.
The plot is just simple and silly. Everything that happens is more plot-driven that character-driven.
Not all of the humor lands, such as it is. The dialogue was sometimes snappy and, other times, cringe-worthy.
It takes way too long for Harley Quinn to team up with the other female characters. They feel somewhat inconsequential.
There are some really bad acting moments.
Some of the action scenes are just lame when the bad guys stand around, taking turns getting beat up.

FUNNY LINES:

“Behind every successful man is a bada$$ broad.” – Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie)
“What is that? A snot bubble? Oooh, gross.” – Roman Sionis/Black Mask (Ewan McGregor)

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